ESXi 6.7 hangs in boot NFS server not avilabile

[avsion]

Hi,

I run FreeNAS as a VM on ESXi and use NFS shares/datastore on FN for other VMs, when i reboot the ESXi it hangs for 2 minutes on nfs4client as the FN is not boot yet. log showing cannot connect to NFS server. i confirm that when i delete the datastore and reboot the issue is gone. is there any workaround this issue?

Thank you

[continuum]

Obviously ESXi must first connect all configured datastores before it can consider to autostart VMs.

If you use a configuration like you do you can not autistart VMs before the FreeNAS is up

You can also not use autostart for the nfs-support as it is expected to fail.

So forget about doing unattended reboots - or look for a way to create a custom start script which first loads the FreeNAS VM, then waits a few minutes and then restarts the nfs-support.

By the way - I know that some folks use FreeNAS as a VM but those folks must be true warriors.

For me that approach is way to scary  - I have seen some of those cases when doing recoveries.... - not a nice view at all.

Hope that you use eager zeroed thick for the FreeNAS vmdks ....

[avsion]

Thank you for your reply, i will leave it as is its i thought maybe there is a simple solution. oops..i was using thin provisioning i have convert it now to eager zeroed, thanks for the advice.  regarding AIO ESXi/FN i agree its not for everyone and if you do it it should be done properly!! see iX System recommendation https://www.ixsystems.com/blog/yes-you-can-virtualize-freenas/ . i have been using AIO for two years now and never had any issues it feels as its working on bare metal. other i know from the iX system community been using this setup for many years, it seem ok and the number are growing. i do have an old bare metal FN server i use for backup only but i don't use it so much i'm planing to get a proper hardware for that task only or will build one for ESXi to separate the two. the advantages you get from this setup is in all aspects and enjoying both worlds. yes freenas has the option for virtualisation but i didn't have good experience with it as i do with vmware. i use this setup for many application such as dns server, UniFi controller in docker, SMB Share for our work, media server and running many test VMs, its been a fun journey since i made the move.  see below my system speacs

Hypervisor: ESXi 6.7 U2

SAN: FreeNAS-11.2 U5

Case: SuperMicro SC846 rev J 24 Bay (inc 10x 2.5“ HDD Tray in 4th Generation 3.5” HOT SWAP TRAY)

Motherboard: SuperMicro X10SRi-F

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2683 V3 MHz 2 GHz LGA 2011

Cooler: Noctua NH-U9DX i4

HD Fan: 3x Noctua 120mm NF-F12 industrialPPC IP52 PWM Fan (Max 3000RPM)

Exhaust Fan: 2x Noctua 80mm NF-R8 Redux Edition 1800RPM PWM

PSU: 2x PSW - 920P-SQ

RAM: Crucial 2x 16GB DDR4 ECC 2400MHz + Crucial 2x 32GB DDR4 ECC 2400MHz total 96GB

HBA Pool: LSI SAS 9305-i24 (Flashed to LSI 9305-i24 P16 IT)

HBA Datastore: LSI SAS 9300-i8 (Flashed to LSI 9300-i8 P16 IR)

Pool: 8x HGST Deskstar 4TB

ESXi Boot device: Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD

SLOG/L2ARC/Swap: Intel® Optane™ SSD 900P series 280GB NVMe PCIe

Datastores: 2x Samsung 860 PRO 256GB SSD , 2x Samsung 860 EVO 250GB SSD, Intel SSD 540 120GB

Thank you