Linux 5.7 Will Let You Setup A Swap File Over A Network With SMB3/Samba

A last minute feature coming into the Linux 5.7 kernel on its last day of the merge window is experimental support for allowing a remote swap setup over a network using SMB3.

Certainly not a common use-case and one that poses security challenges as well as performance and reliability concerns, but Linux 5.7 will have experimental support for a swap file over the network via a SMB3 setup. There has been this capability already with a network block device among other possible setups for a remote swap file while now the SMB3/CIFS kernel code is allowing it as an experimental feature.

Swapping via a network SMB3 mount can be used for cases where there is no local block device but having booted via SMB3 or other remote/network boot technologies. There are also cases where a local block device may not be secure or other reasons for wanting a remote swap setup via SMB3.

This swap SMB3 capability was merged today ahead of the Linux 5.7-rc1 release expected in a few hours.