With the VMware Host Client, you can create a Network File System (NFS) datastore to store virtual disks and to use as a central repository for ISO images, virtual machines, and so on.

An NFS client built into ESXi uses the Network File System (NFS) protocol over TCP/IP to access a designated NFS volume that is located on a NAS server. vSphere supports versions 3 and 4.1 of the NFS protocol.

The ESXi host can mount an NFS volume and use it for its storage needs.

Typically, the NFS volume or directory is created by a storage administrator and is exported from the NFS server. You do not need to format the NFS volume with a local file system, such as VMFS. Instead, you mount the volume directly on the ESXi hosts and use it to store and boot virtual machines in the same way that you use the VMFS datastores.

In addition to storing virtual disks on NFS datastores, you can use NFS as a central repository for ISO images, virtual machine templates, and so on. If you use the datastore for the ISO images, you can connect the CD-ROM device of the virtual machine to an ISO file on the datastore. You then can install a guest operating system from the ISO file.

When you use NFS storage, follow the specific guidelines related to NFS server configuration, networking, NFS datastores, and so on.

Mount an NFS Datastore in the VMware Host Client

Use the New datastore wizard to mount a Network File System (NFS) datastore in the VMware Host Client.

Prerequisites

Because NFS requires network connectivity to access data on remote servers, before configuring NFS, you must first configure VMkernel networking.

Procedure

  1. Click Storage in the VMware Host Client inventory and click Datastores.
  2. Click New datastore.
    The New datastore wizard opens.
  3. On the Select creation type page, click Mount NFS datastore and click Next.
  4. On the Provide NFS mount details page, provide the details for the NFS you mount.

    Example of information that users should enter when providing NFS mount details

    1. Enter a name for the NFS datastore.
    2. Enter the NFS server name.
      For the server name, you can enter an IP address, a DNS name, or an NFS UUID.
      Note: When you mount the same NFS volume on different hosts, make sure that the server and folder names are identical across the hosts. If the names do not match, the hosts detect the same NFS volume as two different datastores. This might result in a failure of features such as vMotion. An example of such discrepancy is if you enter filer as the server name on one host and filer.domain.com on the other.
    3. Specify the NFS share.
    4. Specify the NFS version.
    5. Click Next.
  5. On the Ready to complete page, review the configuration settings for the NFS datastore and click Finish.