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klaus1013
Contributor
Contributor

Connection Denied to NFS Share on a FreeNAS Host

I'm trying to mount an NFS share from my VMWare ESX 3.01 box, but it keeps failing. I've done a lot of searching on this forum and on FreeNAS's and while I've found a number of people with similar problems I haven't found a solution.

When I try and mount the share I get the following error in VMWare:

Error during the configuration of the host: NFSError: Unable to Mount filesystem: The mount request was denied by the NFS server. Check that the export exists and that the client is permitted to mount it.

In the Log on FreeNAS I get the following entry:

mountd[1342]: mount request denied from 10.11.11.106 for /mnt/DISK1/vmware/sirona1/d

My NFS share is set up with the path as above and I've tried the network set to 10.11.11.0/24 and 10.11.11.106/32. The disk that is shared also has FreeNAS on it, so it is formatted with UFS.

I'm posting here to check that my VMWare config is correct, I think it is as the FreeNAS box is registering the connection attempt in the logs. My VMkernal is set to 10.11.11.106 and the VMkernal gateway is set to blank, I also had it set to 10.11.11.105. I didn't think the gateway really mattered though as long as the two boxes are on the same network. I'm wondering if the problem is network based as my network is split into segments with a mask of 255.255.255.192.

TIA for any help.

Nick

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13 Replies
weinstein5
Immortal
Immortal

One thing the ESX Host must have full root access to the NFS share - setting the no_root_squash parameter -

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klaus1013
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Thanks for the quick reply weinstein5. I've just set the option on the FreeNAS box to 'Map all users to root', unfortunately I still get the same error.

Nick

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adolopo
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

There's no firewalling going on between the HOST and FreeNAS? I've notcied that sometimes the (dynamic port assignments) by Portmapper can get a little screwy when a FW is present.

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klaus1013
Contributor
Contributor

Hi adolopo, no the two boxes are just on an open LAN.

Nick

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weinstein5
Immortal
Immortal

you are correct gateway does not matter as long as your NAS/NFS device and the vmkernel port are on the same network segemnt - see if you can ping from your vmkernel port using the vmkping from the CLI - the synatax is vmkping <ipaddress_NAS_device>

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klaus1013
Contributor
Contributor

Hmm, I get some strange responses:

# vmkping 10.11.11.105

syscall version mismatch (compiled: 0x7616c4e3, kernel: 0x50f63116)

# vmkping

vmkping

args:

-D vmkernel TCP stack debug mode

-c set packet count

-i set interval

-s set send size

-v verbose

NOTE: In vmkernel TCP debug mode, vmkping traverses

VSI and pings various configured addresses.

# vmkping -D

syscall version mismatch (compiled: 0x7616c4e3, kernel: 0x50f63116)

#

Nick

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

See this thread, I put a doc on there to help another user. http://communities.vmware.com/message/927419#927419

Not fancy, but it goes through the whole config on the FreeNAS side.

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
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klaus1013
Contributor
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Thanks kjb007, I saw your doc while I was searching the forums earlier today. I went through it then and everything seemed to be okay on the FreeNAS config side.

Nick

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kjb007
Immortal
Immortal

Have you seen any errors in your vmkernel logs? I would enable the nfs client on the service console firewall, and try to manually mount the export to see if that works.

I would also make sure I had the network and mask correct. The /24 mask should work, but may cause problems, vs the /32 mask is limiting.

You will also need to make sure your routing is correct, which is where th vmkping comes in, but that is causing a problem, so it's difficult to verify your connectivity without trial and error.

-KjB

vExpert/VCP/VCAP vmwise.com / @vmwise -KjB
klaus1013
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks again KjB, could you confirm the syntax to try it from the command line?

Nick

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klaus1013
Contributor
Contributor

I've discovered that the problem with vmkping is down to a bug, requiring a patch. Seeing as this would require some downtime, I've decided to make the move to 3.5. Thanks for the reponses, I'll use the info here once I get to 3.5 and re-post if I still can't get it to work.

Nick

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klaus1013
Contributor
Contributor

I've now discovered that the problem was I hadn't checked the option to 'Share all sub directories' on the FreeNAS box. Once I checked that the NFS share mounted immediately.

Thanks again for everyone's help.

Nick

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jakedatreble
Contributor
Contributor

In my case, I had selected the "Read Only" option for the share in FreeNAS server. Unchecked it and was able to mount the folder. 

See attachment. 

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