The file servers that implement a distributed file service can be stateless or Stateful. Stateless file servers do not store any session state. This means that every client request is treated independently, and not as a part of a new or existing session. Stateful servers, on the other hand, do store session state. They may, therefore, keep track of which clients have opened which files, current read and write pointers for files, which files have been locked by which clients, etc.

The main advantage of stateless servers is that they can easily recover from failure. Because there is no state that must be restored, a failed server can simply restart after a crash and immediately provide services to clients as though nothing happened. Furthermore, if clients crash the server is not stuck with abandoned opened or locked files. Another benefit is that the server implementation remains simple because it does not have to implement the state accounting associated with opening, closing, and locking of files.

The main advantage of Stateful servers, on the other hand, is that they can provide better performance for clients. Because clients do not have to provide full file information every time they perform an operation, the size of messages to and from the server can be significantly decreased. Likewise the server can make use of knowledge of access patterns to perform read-ahead and do other optimizations. Stateful servers can also offer clients extra services such as file locking, and remember read and write positions.

when you send a request to a stateful server, it may create some kind of connection object that tracks what information you request. When you send another request, that request operates on the state from the previous request. So you can send a request to "open" something. And then you can send a request to "close" it later. In-between the two requests, that thing is "open" on the server.

When you send a request to a stateless server, it does not create any objects that track information regarding your requests. If you "open" something on the server, the server retains no information at all that you have something open. A "close" operation would make no sense, since there would be nothing to close.

HTTP and NFS are stateless protocols. Each request stands on its own. Sometimes cookies are used to add some state to a stateless protocol. In HTTP (web pages), the server sends you a cookie and then the browser holds the state, only to send it back to the server on a subsequent request.

SMB is a stateful protocol. A client can open a file on the server, and the server may deny other clients access to that file until the client closes it.