Mounting NFS Shares on ESX 4.0

The easiert way to do this is to use ssh (Putty).

Run all commands in these steps from the ESX/ESXi command line with root access.

Ensure that you can ping and vmkping the NFS server address.

Ensure that any firewalls between the ESX host and NFS Server do not block the connection.

Ensure the access on the NFS server is set to Anonymous user, Root Access (norootsquash), and Read/Write.

Try to restore the mount with this command:

# esxcfg-nas -r

Check to see if the datastore has mounted after trying to restore it with:

# esxcfg-nas -l

If it is not mounted, try remounting it using this command:

# esxcfg-nas -a <datastore name> -o <nfs server hostname/ip> -s <mount point>

Alternatively try to add the datastore again using the vSphere client:

For security reasons RPC protocol filtering is enabled and the connection is refused. Open firewall ports on the network for RPC protocol and check the physical switch for any RPC protocol filtering.

On ESX hosts only (Does not apply to ESXi hosts):

Check ESX firewall open ports with this command:

# esxcfg-firewall -q 

Note: Check the output for NFSClient. If it is not listed, proceed to step 9.

Open the NFS client firewall ports 111 and 2049 on UDP and TCP protocol either on vCenter Server or on ESX with the command:

# esxcfg-firewall –enableService nfsClient

Alternatively, modify the security policy in vSphere Client. Click Configuration > Security Profile > Properties, select NFS Client and click OK.

Note : Ensure that the ports 111 and 2049 are also open on the NFS server.

Known Issues:

Unable to connect to NAS volume NFS4exports: Unable to mount, no VMkernel TCP stack found

Solution:

 Note: Do not set up NFS datastores through the vSphere Client on the ESX Server system. Unlike VMFS datastores, NFS datastores created through the vSphere Client are not recognized by Lab Manager. Such datastores conflict with the creation of NFS datastores through the Lab Manager Web console.

NFS Server

  • Ensure the NFS server supports NFSv3 over TCP
  • The NFS server must be accessible in read-write mode by all Managed Server (ESX) systems
  • The NFS server must allow read-write access for the root system account
  • The NFS export must be set for either no_root_squash, or chmod 1777
  • Ensure NFS daemons are running on the server (“rpcinfo -p localhost” or “service nfs status” )

VMKernel must be able to mount share

  • Check the VMkernel IP address:
    • Using the vSphere Client, select the ESX server
    • Select the Configuration tab
    • Click Networking
    • View the Networking diagram for the VMkernel (or click Properties, and click VMkernel in the Ports tab. If VMkernel is not listed, you must add it)
  • Ensure this IP is allowed to mount the NFS share by inspecting the export list

This issue may also occur if EtherChannel is configured and an incorrect NIC teaming policy is used.


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