# Does OSX support SMB2?



## Rudical (Feb 14, 2010)

I'm trying to set up a gigabit network and it seems like the Macs aren't able to transfer files as fast as Windows7. Here's what the set up is:
- Ubuntu server (x64) with a RocketRaid card sporting 8 1TB drives in RAID 1+0, gigabit NIC, and running samba.
- 4 Mac Pro (2 8-Cores and 2 G5s) with OS 10.5
- Lonovo intel quad-core (just a standard desktop computer) with gigabit NIC.
- And a 48 port gigabit switch.

So the problem is, to transfer a 1GB file from the Lonovo to the Ubuntu server, it takes 12 seconds. But to transfer the same file form the Macs to the server it takes around 40 seconds. All I can find out about why this might be the case is that Windows 7 and Vista use SMB2 and I know when I set up the mount on the Mac I just used smb://. My question is does OSX support smb2 and if so, how do I connect using it. If not, is there an alternative? Seems kind of ridiculous that there is that much of a speed difference. 

I've tested the wires, and according to ifconfig the Macs are connected gigabit (and its confirmed by the switch).


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Feb 14, 2010)

SMB is notoriously slow and/or flakey under OS X.  It is decidedly a Windows-centric protocol, and best supported by Windows itself (and, as you've no doubt seen, Linux).

My recommendation would be to choose a different protocol.  NFS works well.

To answer your question, no, I do not think that Mac OS X supports SMB2 yet.


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## nixgeek (Feb 15, 2010)

What about sshfs?  FUSE in Linux supports it as does MacFUSE if I'm not mistaken.  There's also Netatalk for Linux if you want to communicate via AFP.  Also NFS as EDCC mentioned.


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## Rudical (Feb 16, 2010)

I just tried out NFS today and it was actually slower than SMB. A 1GB took 45 seconds with NFS to copy, compared to the 40 seconds with SMB. That's an average time copying a file from the Macs to the server. 

I also thought that the bottle neck might be due to the harddrive, so I downloaded the MakeRAMDisk utility and copied the 1 GB file from the RAM drive to the server, and it improved to 31 seconds on both SMB and NFS, which makes me think that somethings going on with the interface cards or just OSX. Has anyone had OSX connect with speeds over 600Mb/s to a linux box with SMB with the standard nic's that come with the Mac?

I'll give Netatalk and FUSE a try and see how they do.


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