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Lackey11
Contributor
Contributor

mounting storage problem with netapp

First I created a NFS stroage share on netapp and was able to add the storage to my esxi host using vCenter.

my problem now is when i view the datastore infor it list the campacity as N/A( or blank) and free space as 0.00B.

I can browse the datastore however when i try to upload a folder or file to it it gives me and I/O error.

am i doing something wrong here as I am pretty new to this.

Thank You

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GreatWhiteTec
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

You have to grant the host permission on the export of the datastore. If you are not familiar with the CLI, sue NetApp system Manager (very nice tool & FREE). GO to export and add the ip address you use to communicate with the toaster. For example if you have a vswitch for public traffice with IP of 10.100.0.0/24 and another switch (VMKernel) for your statorage traffic with IP of 10.106.0.0/24, then you want to add the 10.106.0.x to the export of that NFS volume.

You can also go to the etc$ cifs share and add the permissions that way on the exports file. If you open the exports file use (wordpad) and add the following to the NFS volume

/vol/VOLUME_NAME -sec=sys,rw,root=10.106.0.xx1:10.106.0.xx2

10.106.0.xx1 = host1

10.106.0.xx2=host2 and so forth

If you get stuck, let me know. I'll help you out.




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Lackey11
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the tip however on my netapp share I have read-write open to all systems at the moment to test.

I made some changes to my VMKernel ISCSI adapter and finally able to see my NFS volume however, when I browser the datastore and try to create a new folder I get an error msg.

Any reason?

Call "FileManager.MakeDirectory" for object "FileManager" on vCenter Server "vSphere.xxxx.bc.ca" failed.

Also, on vmware side. it does not display the capacity or the free space correctly. I have attached a file to display this.

why can i connect to it but it doesnt not display info correct?

Thanks in advance

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GreatWhiteTec
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

By default, the permissions are set to allow Read-Write to all systems BUT you still have to add the host for Allow Root-Access. Can you check this to make sure your host has ROOT access?

10854_10854.png

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A+, DCSE, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCTS, MCITP, MCDBA, NCDA, VCP4

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Lackey11
Contributor
Contributor

Ok, I've added root access for my host within the permissions location..

I rescan my storage VFMS and storage device in vmware however still the same.

Any steps after this?

Thanks

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GreatWhiteTec
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I replicated your issue. I added the NFS with no root access and added fine to vCenter but couldn't create a folder and got the same error you did. I then gave the host root access permission and then I was able to create the folder.

You may want to remove and re-add the datastore. Also make sure you use the IP of the VMKernel port used for storage.

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A+, DCSE, MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCTS, MCITP, MCDBA, NCDA, VCP4

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Lackey11
Contributor
Contributor

Here is the kicker. when i unmount the datastore and try to add it back i get this error msg.

Call "HostDatastoreSystem.CreateNasDatastore" for object "datastoreSystem-24" on vCenter Server "vSphere.xxx.bc.ca" failed.

Operation failed, diagnostics report: Cannot open volume: /vmfs/volumes/6957ca60-e5b64393

when you add the NFS vol should you be using the IP address or the host name for best practices? I tried both just to add now but both fail with the same error msg.

This happened to be before when i was trying to resolve this issue but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt with the same info.

everytime i would use this info

10.10.0.19 (netapp box)

/vol/vol2nfs ( for my nfs)

/vol/vol2nfs/Vms ( for my NFS vms)

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GreatWhiteTec
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

I think NetApp is good, but something doesn;t seem right on the host. Can you check the vmkernel log (/var/log/vmkernel) ?.

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GreatWhiteTec
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Check this out.

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Lackey11
Contributor
Contributor

Yes i did look at that site but at the moment i think i have to find a way to mount my datastore again without any problems..

reviewing the vmkernel logs however nothing

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Lackey11
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the help... did a little bit more searching and found this article which solved my problem.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100859...

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GreatWhiteTec
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Needle in the haystack. That's weird, the security on my filers is Unix by default (maybe I changed that).

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