Edit: Do you use this?
Originally posted August 27, 2019 on AIXchange
Server Message Block (SMB) 2.1 support is now available for AIX 7.2.
On Twitter, IBM’s Petra Bührer noted the availability of Server Message Block (SMB) 2.1 support for AIX 7.2. She followed that up by tweeting several IBM Knowledge Center links that explain how to use SMB.
On the SMB client filesystem:
The SMB server is a server that runs Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2016 server operating system. In each of these server operating system types, a directory can be exported as a share. This share can then be mounted on an AIX logical partition by using the SMB client file system. By using the SMB client file system, you can access the shares on SMB servers as local file systems on the AIX logical partition. You can use the SMB client file system to create, delete, read, and write files and directories on the SMB server and also to modify the access duration to these files and directories. However, you cannot change the owner or access permission of these files and directories.
These docs cover the mount command, the smbcd daemon, the smbcstat command, the smbctune.conf file, and the smbctune command.
This is welcome news for those working in an environment with UNIX and Windows servers. Typically separate IT groups are managing these servers, so getting this working requires some coordination. But having the option to share files between these systems can be beneficial.