7.7. CIFS Backend

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 WebUI, with all our backend advantages, like server heartbeat check or comfortable selection of exported shares.

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

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

cifs: backup
        path /mnt/pve/backup
        server 10.0.0.11
        share VMData
        content backup
        username anna
        smbversion 3

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.

You can get a list of exported CIFS shares with:

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

Then you could add this share as a storage to the whole Proxmox VE cluster with:

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