Knowledge Base
Troubleshooting the failed process of adding a data store from a Windows Services NFS device
Symptoms
- The process of adding the NFS datastores times out
- Unable to add NFS datastores
- Adding NFS datastores fails
nfs-connectivity add-nfs-datastore
Purpose
This article identifies steps for resolving issues with mounting an NFS share from a server using Windows Services for UNIX.
Warning: Windows Services for UNIX is not a supported storage solution for use with ESX, and the information in this article is provided as-is. For a full list of supported storage solutions, refer to our Hardware Compatibility List. VMware provides support only for the devices that are listed in the Hardware Compatibiltiy List. If you are having a technical issue with 3rd party hardware or software and it is not found on this list, see our 3rd Party Hardware and Software support policy.
Resolution
Note: The link links in this article were correct as of August 10, 2011. If you find a link is broken, provide feedback and a VMware employee will update the link.
To correctly set up the Windows Service for UNIX:
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Install Windows Services for UNIX (WSFU).
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Copy the ESX host password and group files to Windows.
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Configure WSFU for accepting ESX host connections.
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Share the Windows folder for NFS compatibility.
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Configure the ESX host to mount the Windows NFS Share as Datastore.
Install Windows Services for UNIX (WSFU)
To install WSFU:
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Download WSFU from the Microsoft Download Center.
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Install WSFU by extracting and running the setup.exe.
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Select the Custom Installation.
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Choose the following Components to install:
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Expand NFS, click Server for NFS, and choose Will be installed on local hard drive.
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Expand Authentication tools for NFS, click User Name Mapping, and choose Will be installed on local hard drive.
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- Open the services control panel applet and change the service User Name Mapping to startup automatically and start the service.
Copy the ESX host password and group files to Windows
Copy /etc/passwd and /etc/group to C:\SFU (or the location where WSFU is installed).
You can get WinSCP from http://winscp.net/eng/download.php#download2.
Configure WSFU to accept ESX host connections
To configure WSFU to accept ESX host connections:
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Click Start > Programs > Windows Services for UNIX > Services for UNIX Administration.
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Click user name mappings.
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Click Configuration.
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Click Password and Group Files.
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From the browse dialog box for both the password and group fields, browse for the password and group files that you copied.
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Click Apply.
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Go to maps.
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Click Show Maps.
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List windows users and list Unix users.
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Select a local administrator user on the left that can be mapped to the root account and the root user on the right.
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Click Apply.
Share the Windows folder for NFS
To share the Windows folder for NFS:
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Right-click the local folder you want to share via NFS.
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Click NFS Sharing.
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Type in the name for the share. For example, NFS-VMFS01.
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Remove allow anonymous access.
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Click Permissions.
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Change the type of access to Read+Write and select Allow root Access.
Configure the ESX host to mount the Windows NFS Share as VMFS
To configure the ESX host to mount the Windows NFS Share as VMFS:
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Verify that the ESX host firewall permits NFS traffic.
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Verify the configuration of the network port groups. For more information, see the Server Configuration Guide.
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Verify connectivity to the NFS server. For more information, see Troubleshooting connectivity issues to an NFS data store (1003967).
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Add the NFS storage. For more information, see the Server Configuration Guide.
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