topic Re: Unable to mount Windows 2008 NFS Datastore in VMware vSphere in VI: VMware ESXi™ 3.5 Discussions

Unable to mount Windows 2008 NFS Datastore in VMware vSphere

IcePolo — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:55:21 GMT

Hi Guys,

I have a W2k8 Ent. 64bit SP1 which I have configured as NFS storage for my vmware vsphere. If I try to add datastore on vcenter (ver 5.0.0) i'ts always giving me this error message:

Call "HostDatastoreSystem.CreateNasDatastore" for object "datastoreSystem-12" on vCenter Server "vCenter.dtsigroup.com" failed.
Operation failed, diagnostics report: Cannot open volume: /vmfs/volumes/1387b74c-4940eeac

Here's what i've checked so far:

Verified that Windows 2008 firewall is already disabled
VMKernel Port exist
Verified that from the ESXi host, under Configuration -> Security Profile -> Firewall -> NFS Client is allowed
Screenshot for other config are attached for reference

I'm not sure what else i'm missing here. Hope someone can help me to configure this thing as I've struggling for weeks now. Any help is highly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Re: Unable to mount Windows 2008 NFS Datastore in VMware vSphere

gattmar — Mon, 28 Oct 2013 11:41:25 GMT

This is most likely to be something to do with the firewall (Security Profile). Although you have verified that NFS Client is allowed, I have experienced a situation whereby I had to explicitly enter the IP address of the NFS storage into the filewall configuration for NFS to successfully add the NFS storage. I was unable to mount the NFS storage whilst the Firewall Settings for NFS were set to "Allow connections from any IP address". Give this a go and se if it works for you too.

Re: Unable to mount Windows 2008 NFS Datastore in VMware vSphere

ruby12 — Sun, 10 Nov 2013 17:28:23 GMT

Welcome to the communities.

Three thing need to be check one is services, ports are open on firewall and and network settings .

There is no limit to courage.

Re: Unable to mount Windows 2008 NFS Datastore in VMware vSphere

coppershep — Sun, 15 Dec 2013 00:45:27 GMT

I had the same issue, I needed to change the UID and GUI from the -2 to 0.

I also change the NFS service for transport protocol of TCP only, not UDP and TCP.

After those two changes allowed it work for me.

Re: Unable to mount Windows 2008 NFS Datastore in VMware vSphere

HariRajan — Sat, 13 Sep 2014 04:36:41 GMT

If the error is The mount request was denied by the NFS server. Check that the export exists and that the client is permitted to mount it. An unknown error has occurred.

Pls go through below blog for the NFS configuration on windows . No need to to do the as of now as this is only for security , you can skip this part in below blog --> "Change the default group of ALL MACHINES to No Access. This ensures that only the hosts we specify can access the NFS share."

Use Windows 2008 R2 as an NFS Server for vSphere | Boerlowie&#039;s Blog

simple step , if think that you have fulfilled all the mandatory steps mentioned in many of the blogs and KB article which you have refereed.

Try : in ESXI add storage GUI Option

server : IP address only

folder :C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Share

Issue below command with your share name in windows host ,

C:\Users\Administrator>nfsshare share

Alias = Share

Path = C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Share

Supported security flavors are SYS

Encoding = ansi

UNMAPPED UNIX USER access allowed

ANONYMOUS access disallowed

Anonymous UID = -2

Anonymous GID = -2

HOST ACCESS :

ALL MACHINES read-write Root Access Allowed ansi

I hope below troubleshooting will also help if you have some different issue

Enable SSH on ESXI and putty log in to targeted ESXI and ping using vmkernel . I believe each esxi having vmkernel configured.

vmkping nfsserverip (vmkping command only support from esxi shell , it is not a part of vMA as of now .)

if it is pinging to destination Windows NFS IP . you have done . you can try the FQDN ping also here .

Thanks & Regards in Plenteous .
Hari Rajan

Re: Unable to mount Windows 2008 NFS Datastore in VMware vSphere

HariRajan — Sun, 23 Nov 2014 05:51:12 GMT

HI ,

I also see that the share location in NFS is case sensitive and the path name should be same as the output of nfsshare.

if you give c:\users\administrator\dektop\share\ - it won't work ,

C:\Users\Administrator>nfsshare share

Alias = Share

Path = C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\Share

Re: Unable to mount Windows 2008 NFS Datastore in VMware vSphere

xsalmanalix — Sat, 27 Dec 2014 15:23:42 GMT

To resolve the issue you need to check Allow unmapped user Unix access (by UID/GID) as shown below in the picture.

Re: Unable to mount Windows 2008 NFS Datastore in VMware vSphere

nrlparasher — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 12:57:29 GMT

Give Security Permission to Anonymous Logon User with Full Control on Same Folder.

Re: Unable to mount Windows 2008 NFS Datastore in VMware vSphere

edgarcb — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 23:31:14 GMT

this answer should be marked as good, this definitely solved my problem, and I had tried almost anything. thanks!

Re: Unable to mount Windows 2008 NFS Datastore in VMware vSphere

PCTechStream — Tue, 13 Dec 2016 04:14:12 GMT

"check Allow unmapped user Unix access (by UID/GID) as shown below in the picture." Worked for me! Thanks.....