Introduction
Sharing data with other users on your network has been a feature of computer operating systems from the very earliest days of networking. This chapter looks at Windows Server 2022 features that enable you to share files and folders and use the data that you've shared.
Microsoft's LAN Manager was the company's first network offering. It enabled client computers to create, manage, and share files securely. LAN Manager's protocol to provide this client/server functionality was an early version of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.
SMB is a file-level storage protocol running over TCP/IP. With the SMB protocol, you can share files and folders securely and reliably. To increase reliability for SMB servers, you can install a cluster and cluster the file server role. A simple cluster solution is an active-passive solution – you have one cluster member sitting by if the other member fails. This solution works great as long as the underlying...