Storage pool type: `cifs`

The CIFS backend extends the directory backend, so that no manual setup of a CIFS mount is needed. Such a storage can be added directly through the Proxmox VE API or the web UI, with all our backend advantages, like server heartbeat check or comfortable selection of exported shares.

## Configuration

The backend supports all common storage properties, except the shared flag, which is always set. Additionally, the following CIFS special properties are available:

server

  Server IP or DNS name. Required.

| To avoid DNS lookup delays, it is usually preferable to use an IP address instead of a DNS name - unless you have a very reliable DNS server, or list the server in the local `/etc/hosts` file.

share

  CIFS share to use (get available ones with `pvesm scan cifs <address>` or the web UI). Required.

username

  The username for the CIFS storage. Optional, defaults to ‘guest’.

password

  The user password. Optional. It will be saved in a file only readable by root (`/etc/pve/priv/storage/<STORAGE-ID>.pw`).

domain

  Sets the user domain (workgroup) for this storage. Optional.

smbversion

  SMB protocol Version. Optional, default is `3`. SMB1 is not supported due to security issues.

path

  The local mount point. Optional, defaults to `/mnt/pve/<STORAGE_ID>/`.

content-dirs

  Overrides for the default directory layout. Optional.

options

  Additional CIFS mount options (see `man mount.cifs`). Some options are set automatically and shouldn’t be set here. Proxmox VE will always set the option `soft`. Depending on the configuration, these options are set automatically: `username`, `credentials`, `guest`, `domain`, `vers`.

subdir

  The subdirectory of the share to mount. Optional, defaults to the root directory of the share.

Configuration Example (`/etc/pve/storage.cfg`)

    cifs: backup
            path /mnt/pve/backup
            server 10.0.0.11
            share VMData
            content backup
            options noserverino,echo_interval=30
            username anna
            smbversion 3
            subdir /data

## Storage Features

CIFS does not support snapshots on a storage level. But you may use `qcow2` backing files if you still want to have snapshots and cloning features available.

Table 1. Storage features for backend `cifs`
Content types | Image formats | Shared | Snapshots | Clones
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
`images rootdir vztmpl iso backup snippets` | `raw qcow2 vmdk` | yes | qcow2 | qcow2

## Examples

You can get a list of exported CIFS shares with:

    # pvesm scan cifs <server> [--username <username>] [--password]

Then you can add one of these shares as a storage to the whole Proxmox VE cluster with:

    # pvesm add cifs <storagename> --server <server> --share <share> [--username <username>] [--password]

## See Also

- Storage