Network and Storage Protocols

Cifs share name in lower caps

ELVISCHENG
5,896 Views

A newbie here. I have searched and came up with nothing about this issue. Is it possible to have Cifs share name in upper case?

5 REPLIES 5

scottgelb
5,896 Views

For CIFS it doesn't matter upper or lower case.  If you create a share called "TEST", it will show all uppercase in cifs shares, and you can't create another share called "test" in lowercase since it is duplicate.  For cifs the netbios name and share name are not case sensitive and can be addressed either way... even as "TeSt".  The confusing part can be ONTAP will display in the case you created but doesn't affect access by case for the cifs share.

ELVISCHENG
5,896 Views

The CIFS share name is in lower case when i browse it in a windows machine. For example, i created a CIFS share "TEST" . In windows machine "test" is being displayed instead. Is this normal? Thanks.

scottgelb
5,896 Views

That is normal..you can enter any case or mix case and it will work to TEST.

framaagch
5,896 Views

I'll try to takeover this Thread

@ Scott: It's clear that the case won't have any "functional" conseqeuences.

But currently, I'll try to migrate an old Directory Structure to a NetApp and struggling with the problem, that I'm unaware to create an all-uppercase-share. It's only a cosmetical issue, but having to explain why a Storage Systems costing that much money is not able to host a share in all uppercase is a bit...well, displeasing.

I do have noticed, that creating a share with mixed lower/uppercase will work as expected, so:

- AA is shown as aa

- Aa is shown as Aa

any ideas?

F_Joern
5,896 Views

Hi,

I create my cifs shares without caring about upper/lower case,

because we use DFS for presenting the shares to our users.

I recommend DFS because it makes life much easier.

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