Faster SMB Browsing with Mac OS X 10.13 or later

IN THIS ARTICLE 

Outlines how to improve loading times when browsing network folders over SMB protocol in Mac OS X High Sierra 10.13 or later

REQUIREMENTS

• Cluster running Qumulo Core
• Mac OS X 10.13 or later
• SMB 2.1 protocol

IMPORTANT! In Qumulo Core 2.12.2 and above, drastic enhancements were made for how Mac OS X Finder displays and manages your data. Once you are on version 2.12.2, there is no longer a need to run the command included in this article to resolve the known issue of slower performance over SMB. Upgrade your cluster to Qumulo Core 2.12.2 (or higher) to experience the improved performance (10x faster) and new support offerings (Finder Tags, no hidden “dot bar” files) for accessing your data via Finder with Qumulo.  

DETAILS

Before the release of Mac OS X 10.13 High Sierra, Apple gathered the metadata first and then compared it against the .DS_ Store file prior to displaying any network folder's contents. This behavior resulted in loading delays for large directories when recursive lookups were created for all objects and then compared against the .DS_ Store file.

With the release of High Sierra, Apple introduced enhancements to significantly speed up browsing times on network folders over SMB protocol. Users can now prevent Mac OS X from comparing directories against the .DS_Store file, which introduced latencies based on the number of files within the directory, and enable Finder to only use basic information to display the folder's contents in alphanumeric order. 

Follow the steps below to configure:

• Open a terminal window on your Mac
• Run the following command

defaults write com.apple.desktopservices DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool TRUE

• Log out for changes to take effect

Browsing network folders over SMB protocol in Mac OS X 10.13 or later should now be near instantaneous when mounted to your Qumulo cluster.

RESOLUTION 

You should now be able to successfully improve loading times when browsing network folders over SMB protocol in Mac OS X High Sierra 10.13 or later

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Apple Support: Adjust SMB browsing behavior in macOS High Sierra 10.13 and later

Mac OS X Spotlight Search and Qumulo

QQ CLI: SMB Shares

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