CONTAP-807586: SMB Path Component Cache Expiry Time Configured at the SVM Is Not Honored
Issue
In multiple ONTAP versions, the path component cache entry expiration time configured for an SMB file server may not be honored. The value can be set successfully with
For SMB workloads that depend on the path component cache — such as random-access workloads traversing a very large number of directories (for example, tens of thousands of first-level subdirectories) — the early removal of cache entries reduces cache effectiveness. This can result in additional metadata processing, heavier read/write cache activity, uneven load across the constituents of a FlexGroup volume, and lower SMB performance than expected.
The behavior occurs even when the object storage (S3) service is not configured on the SVM, so customers who have not enabled that service are still affected.
vserver cifs options modify (for example, increased from the 300-second default up to the maximum of 1 hour), and vserver cifs options show reports the configured value, but cache entries are still removed after the default 300 seconds.For SMB workloads that depend on the path component cache — such as random-access workloads traversing a very large number of directories (for example, tens of thousands of first-level subdirectories) — the early removal of cache entries reduces cache effectiveness. This can result in additional metadata processing, heavier read/write cache activity, uneven load across the constituents of a FlexGroup volume, and lower SMB performance than expected.
The behavior occurs even when the object storage (S3) service is not configured on the SVM, so customers who have not enabled that service are still affected.