topic QNAP NFS in VMware vSphere™ Discussions

QNAP NFS

finsfree — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 17:10:32 GMT

I have created a test environment with vSphere 6.5. I am actually using physical devices (host & storage).

Right now I am working on adding datastores to the esxi 6.5. host. I am using a QNAP TS-251A (low end...like I said only for testing) for storage. I did get the ISCSI blocks to work just fine, but my employer uses NFS shares. I want to imitate my work environment.

My question is will my device (QNAP TS-251A) work with NFS shares on the esxi host? If not, what would be the lowest end QNAP that will do the job.

Please I don't want to use FreeNAS because I actually use the QNAP for other things. I know all you FREE guys will suggest FreeNAS so just throwing that out there.

Re: QNAP NFS

daphnissov — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 17:13:28 GMT

Yes, that model supports NFS. There's an older article that shows how to use that model in a vSphere environment here.

Re: QNAP NFS

finsfree — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 17:39:07 GMT

Yeah, I saw this but didn't know if it would work because he was using a different version of esxi (5.5). Wasn't sure if VMWare fixed this in version 6.5.

I'll give it a shot.

Also, what would be the cheapest way to go for a NAS device that does NFS share more easily with esxi 6.5?

Re: QNAP NFS

daphnissov — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 17:43:38 GMT

Yeah, I saw this but didn't know if it would work because he was using a different version of esxi (5.5). Wasn't sure if VMWare fixed this in version 6.5.

It doesn't matter, it's universal. There's no special setup required between ESXi 5.5 and 6.5. The steps in the article to use the VAAI plug-in you can skip if this is only for testing. You don't require VAAI integration to get NFS to "work".

Also, what would be the cheapest way to go for a NAS device that does NFS share more easily with esxi 6.5?

See above. I don't think this should be a concern. The QNAP device you have does NFS perfectly fine. If you just wanted to buy something different that's newer and maybe more capable, that's another story.

Re: QNAP NFS

finsfree — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 19:00:48 GMT

Holy Sh@t it worked!!!

I did a simple reboot of the QNAP.

The only thing I was missing was to uncheck "Enable write cache (EXT4 delay allocation)" under >Hardware >ControlPanel in the QNAP. Everything else I had correct even the path.

Thank you sir! Big help!