Connect ESXi to a unix NFS for shared storage

[apurbabala]

Can anybody help on the above subject matter pelease. Below i have mentioned the detail of my workout in Vmware

• i have two physical host installed ESXi 4.0

• Testing all the features like DRS, FT, HA etc. in evaluation license.

• plan to have purchase the EE VMware solutions

• also have installed vCenter server installed in another pcs

• configured DC into that vcenter server

• then i have added that two physical hosts into a cluster ( which is enabling both HA and DRS)

• now i need to test the DRS and FT

• so i have installed win XP into a vm which is under host-1 and wanted to migrate that vm from host 1 to host2

• but the problem is at the "select destination stage" of migration from host-1 to host-2 it's giving some compatibility error while i check host-2

( Error: "Unable to access the virtual machine configuration: Unable to access file HDD2 " HDD2 is the storage of host1). I also attached a screen shoot FYI pls.

• so for this i may need to install an nfs in another unix machine for share storage.

• So now, can any body help me that how do i map this NFS storage (configured in a unix machine) to ESXi4.0 for testing the DRS then i will be greatefull to you.

Regards// Apurba

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[DSTAVERT]

Do you already have the unix server set up? Which distribution?

Basics.

ESX(i) only supports NFS v3 over TCP/IP

Make sure the NFS server allows root read write access.

The NFS share / export must be set chmod 1777 or no_root_squash

Changes to the exports file will require a restart of the NFS daemons

Your /etc/exports file should look something like /esxi_share 192.168.1.0/24(rw,sync,no_root_squash).

[apurbabala]

Thanks for your reply.....I alredy have a linux distribution installed ( Centos 5.3) in seperate physical machine. I will configure NFS there .. it would be better for me if you kindly write me in detail what i have to in linx box and what i have to do in ESXi and from where

Link the below:

- configuration steps and changes in Linux Box for NFS:

????

- Configuation steps and changes in ESXi ( Host 1 or Host 2):

?????

thanks and regards // apurba

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[Rumple]

I would suggest that maybe openfiler is a much better option for you if you have limited experience with linux and setting up nfs...

[apurbabala]

i can configure NFS in a linux machine.. please write me the steps in detail. i will be greatfull to you<!Session data>

[lowburb]

1 Log in to the vSphere Client and select the host from the Inventory panel.

2 Click the Configuration tab and click Storage in the Hardware panel.

3 Click Datastores and click Add Storage.

4 Select Network File System as the storage type and click Next.

5 Enter the server name, the mount point folder name, and the datastore name.

NOTE When you mount the same NFS volume on different hosts, make sure that the server and folder

names are identical across the hosts. If the names do not match exactly, for example, if you enter share as

the folder name on one host and /share on the other, the hosts see the same NFS volume as two different

datastores. This might result in a failure of such features as vMotion.

6 (Optional) Select Mount NFS read only if the volume is exported as read only by the NFS server.

7 Click Next.

8 In the Network File System Summary page, review the configuration options and click Finish.

Network storage starts on page 91

[apurbabala]

thanks a lot ... if i use Openfiler what i have to do then in both side ( openfile and vCenter )<!Session data>

[DSTAVERT]

To use NFS on a LINUX system you must create an export or file share. For our purposes here we will assume you have a large storage drive or array mounted on /storage and that the storage directory is chmod 1777

Edit the /etc/exports file and add

/storage *(rw,no_root_squash)

Restart the NFS service

service nfs restart

This would be a most basic exports file. You can replace the * with a subnet address or specific addresses. I would do a little reading to understand more about NFS.

On your ESXi hosts use the Configuration tab / Storage to Add storage. Use the name or IP of the NFS server. The share would be /storage and the name would be nfs_storage or whatever you wanted to call it.