I'm trying to create a NFS DataStore on my ReadyNAS NV+ with ESX 3.5
I'm using RAIDiator 4.01c1-p2 and have created an NFS Share (VMStore) with default access of Read/Write with Root Privilege-enable hosts of the ESX Server (10.10.10.181)
On the ESX Server I've created a VMKernal port (10.10.10.181) on the Service Console virtual switch (0)
Using the IC - I navigate to the ESX Server - Configuration - Storage - Add Storage - Network File System - ip address 10.10.10.150 (ReadyNAS NV+), Folder /VMStore, DataStore NFSStore
I receive the error: Error during the configuration of the host: NFS Error : Unable to Mount filesystem : Unable to connect to NFS server
From the ESX console I can ping the ReadyNAS NV+ successfully.
Any ideas what I need to do in order to mount the share as an NFS datastore ?
Do you have another machine (real, not VMWare) that you can use to try and mount that NFS share?
That belies a misunderstanding of what he's talking about. ESX hosts (2.5, 3.0, or 3.5) are RHEL4 builds. The "service console" is the actual Linux installation inside which the ESX vmkernel runs as a kernel module. Of course, Vmware has a good deal of custom code going on, especially as it relates to shared repositories for VM hosts.
I wonder if the OP has tried to manually use "mount" from the service console, versus configuring the volume as a datastore within VirtualCenter. I have tested the root option from Mac OS X, Solaris, and Fedora (at home) and it seems to do exactly what one would expect.
The basic mount command from the service console should behave exactly as any other RHEL installation, so I'm very curious whether you find it works that way but not as a datastore. If it is just the latter that is an issue, then this would be the result of some incompatibility between ESX (not the service console itself) and ReadyNAS.
No - we only run Windows. I don't have a UNIX/LINUX box to try and map the drive.
When I fill out the Root privilege-enabled hosts with the VMWare ip address - does that give full control to the share ?
Probably not in the way you're thinking of it. The "root" option on an NFS export enables the "root" user (usu 0) from an NFS client mounting this export to execute the usual root activities (changing UID/GID of files, etc). This is as close as you get to "full control" on an NFS mount. 😉
Any ideas what I need to do in order to mount the share as an NFS datastore ?
It could just be an NFS compatibility issue between ReadyNAS and ESX (see my earlier post). Have you checked your vmkernel log file to see if it says anything about the NFS mount when it tries to hook up? You may wind up having to report this issue to VMware in order to learn more about what is happening and determine a workaround/fix. VMware has a custom device driver they use for NFS as a datastore, which enables shared use across all ESX servers in a cluster.
That belies a misunderstanding of what he's talking about. ESX hosts (2.5, 3.0, or 3.5) are RHEL4 builds. The "service console" is the actual Linux installation inside which the ESX vmkernel runs as a kernel module. Of course, Vmware has a good deal of custom code going on, especially as it relates to shared repositories for VM hosts.
It's good to see someone else here has ESX experience. I certainly have none. 😄
Here is some additional information - I've opened the NFS Client on the ESX firewall
I've edited the \etc\exports with /VMStore 10.10.10.0/24(rw,no_root_squash,sync)
from the ESX Console I type exportfs -r
then mount -t nfs 10.10.10.9:/VMStore /mntpoint it replies with mount: RPC: Timed out
Any ideas ?
Well, I'm not sure you have to fool with the firewall in order to configure NFS. I found references to two overviews of the process (both for NAS, one for Netapp) and they seem to suggest that the important factors are:
You must have the NFS device on the same subnet as the VMKernel interface on each ESX host
You must give rw and root perms on the NFS export
You may have to force the NFS version, but that's usu done on the client side so I think such references had to do with Linux-based mounts and not those done via the vmkernel.
NFS is a gray area for me with ESX because we mostly use Fibrechannel. I might, though, suggest you take a peek at the VMware Communities, which is a kickass customer forum.
Hahah this if funny because I thought I was the only crazy guy running ESX with the NV+ as my storage... OK Guys, here's the scoop with this error or it least my experience the last time this happened with me... nfsd was running but not rpcd on my ReadyNAS NV+ (RAIDiator 4.01c1-p1 [1.00a041]), even though my share that I setup was NFS. When I tried to mount this filesystem on my FreeBSD box, I would get an rpc time out error also. There isn't a way to gracefully restart a sub-system like NFS on the ReadyNAS because it usually just works. Would be nice if there was a process that monitored services and if one dies it tries to restart X times if it doesn't then log an error in the log that you can read under Health, Logs. I simple restart of my ReadyNAS via the web interface resolved the problem. On the ESX server, login via the console, become root so that all the esxcfg* commands are in your path and you can execute, then type: "esxcfg-nas -l" which will list all NFS storage containers you setup via the VIC. IE: [root@flyingZ root]# esxcfg-nas -l Falcor is /artax from 10.0.0.31 mounted
If the filesystem is failing to mount, you'll see "unmounted" instead of "mounted". You can type: "esxcfg-nas -r" to attempt a restore of the NFS volume/container but remember ESX 3.x* will continually retry mounting automatically so you should never really have to run this.
Anyway, bottom line is I installed the SSH component on my ReadyNAS NV+ and 'ps' for rpc and nfsd, only nfsd was there, after a gracefull reboot of the ReadyNAS+ both processes were there running:) and my ESX automatically remounted all is good.
I'm having the same problem and I'm a newbie at this VM stuff and I don't know a thing about Linux.
Gecko,
I would love for you to do a step by step instructions on how someone with NO experience can accomplish this. Snapshots of the screen would be even better. More and more people are going to use VMware and would like to use their ReadyNas as a storage. Maybe after a step by step instructions, we can tell the forum admins to pin it at the top of the forum.
"I would love for you to do a step by step instructions on how someone with NO experience can accomplish this."
I just bought a new server (HP proliant GL310G5 Xeon QC@2.13 Ghz ~8 GB) to run ESXi as well in combi with a nv+ as storage, here's a step by step which worked for me:
First, make sure you have NFS enabled:
Next create a share which will act as your NFS share: (i'm using the folder "esx-data")
Check the share permissions:
Now we created a point for the ESX server to mount to, time to dive into ESX! 😎 Start the "add storage" wizard
This problem happened to me from what appeared to be out-of-the-blue. One addition to sponder's post, be sure Jumbo Frames is disabled.
My ReadyNas NV+ was running fine for months, then all of the sudden an error occurred breaking the NFS mount. I think it's because I enabled Jumbo Frames (months ago), but never rebooted the device. We had some heavy rain and th power might have gone out, causing a reboot.
I just changed the hostname of the ESXi server, and got a different ip from the DHCP server, since then the mounting fails. (unable to connect to NFS server) I checked and configured new IP address for the permissions, and i'm pretty sure NFS is up and running: saikonas:/etc# ps -A |grep rpc 1008 ? 00:00:00 rpc.rquotad 1016 ? 00:00:00 rpc.statd 1028 ? 00:00:00 rpciod/0 1029 ? 00:00:04 rpc.mountd saikonas:/etc# ps -A |grep nfsd 1020 ? 00:00:00 nfsd4 1021 ? 00:00:00 nfsd 1022 ? 00:00:00 nfsd 1023 ? 00:00:00 nfsd 1024 ? 00:00:00 nfsd 1025 ? 00:00:00 nfsd
According to Frontview everything should be good. Also, i can vmkping the nas with no problems. Rebooted both the server as the NV+, no luck
Any suggestions for further troubleshooting would be great!
I have 2 ESX 3.5 machines and nic1 having an ip in the same subnet 10.10.1.x all netmasks are 255.255.255.0.
So server 1 is DIRECTLY linked to 10.10.1.100 ethernet on the readynas over gigabit (Linked fine)
Server 2 is DIRECTLY linked to 10.10.1.101
Server 2 has problems and wont link almost like the network don't exist although they are setup exactly the same.
So my question is, Why cant they both talk to the same /VMShare mount or am I doing this wrong/setup wrong. I figured i would do it like this so there is full GE available for NFS traffic on each host machine.
"So my question is, Why cant they both talk to the same /VMShare mount or am I doing this wrong/setup wrong" Good news, there's no reason this wouldn't work, but mind you: ESX is a bit trickier than a simple windows machine to setup, especially the networking part. You should be very familiar with TCP/IP and networking in general before attempting to setup a ESX machine. google is your friend!! :wink:
not sure i'm following you though, can you first clear things up a bit?
"So server 1 is DIRECTLY linked to 10.10.1.100 ethernet on the readynas over gigabit (Linked fine)" uhh? :? ... "ReadyNAS Network 1: 10.10.1.100 Network 2: 10.10.1.101" Your nv+ only has one NIC, what do you mean by network 2? ... 1. i presume you have cable running from your switch to the NAS? is this correct? 2. i presume you have connected both the ESXi servers to this switch as well? 3. can you give us the followin info: device - IP - subnet - hostname -------------------------------------------------- - NAS: - 10.10.1.? - /24(=255.255.255.0) - NASBOX01 - ESXi 1 - 10.10.1.? - /24 ESXserver01 - ESXi 2 - 10.10.1.? - /24 ESXserver02
Make sure that the nas has a correct IP setup. Once you can connect to the NAS from a simple windows machine, setup the NFS folder as in the screenshots i made. Next step is to provide both ESX machines with a unique(!!!) IP address. Once you can VMKping your NAS from both ESX machine's you're good to go, and setup the NFS mount points on those servers.
Sorry for my lack of explaining things the correct way was up late 😉 This is not NV it's actually 1100 series with 2 gigabit nics sorry if I'm even in the wrong section, again it was late/early am for me.
device - IP - subnet - hostname -------------------------------------------------- - NAS: - 10.10.1.100 - /24(=255.255.255.0) - NASBOX1 - NIC 1 - NAS: - 10.10.1.101 - /24(=255.255.255.0) - NASBOX1 - NIC 2
ah, i see now you have 2 nics on your device. .mmm kay, shouldn't be a problem. Also, from reading your post, am i correct assuming you have no switch but have a line directly from NAS to ESX server? I do advice though, go out and buy yourself a nice consumer switch. Doesn't have to be expensive, and makes life a lot easier. (you can then connect both esx servers to the same IP address, instead of dedicating each port to a server. > then you can make your dual nics work as one (don't know if this is supported though, see forums..) as well: i don't know if you can share 1 mount point over 2 IP addresses (ie: 1 nic.) maybe someone can confirm this?)
anyway, im kind of wondering what you are (planning to) doing with the ESX servers? May i ask how many NICs they have? read up on networking in ESX, and make sure your management network can access the IP on the NAS. test using VMKping (and not ping)
To make sure we're on the same page, i made you a quick sketch:
In the sketch, i'm only connecting your vmware kernell (ie: management network/service console) to the nas, this however, is only the first step in configuring your esx-network! Once you have that setup, make sure your virtual machine's and other network devices (laptops printers etc) are on a different network!
My goal was to optimize port 1 and port 2 on the NAS so each HOST has the ability to transfer seemless. I will purchase a switch and setup it up the right way and let you know how this goes. thank you. What ill do is point 1 host to 1 ip and the other host to the second ip hopefully it will work as needed.
What ill do is point 1 host to 1 ip and the other host to the second ip
Just give the NAS one IP.. just one will do fine! Connect both esx servers to the switch you're NAS is also connected to, make one NFS mount point, and connect both ESX servers to that mountpoint using that one ip address from the nas. no need to over-complicate things by adding two routes from an to your ESX storage.
I have a quick question for you readyNAS folks that also work with esx.
I have am trying to connect a esx 4 machine to a user share on my readyNAS box. I have created a seperate share on my NAS and can connect to the esx host fine, but when I try to connect to my user's share I get an error. It reads: Error during the configuration of the host: NFS Error: 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.(I would attach the image but dont' know how). I figure that since you can't really put any credentials into esx for adding the nfs storage; that is the problem. Is there a way around adding NFS storage to ESX with credentials like for my user's share or is there a way in readyNAS to grant ESX access to user shares that normally need credentials.
