VMkernel port binding for the NFS 3 datastore allows you to bind an NFS volume to a specific VMkernel adapter to connect to an NFS server. With NFS 3 datastores, you can isolate NFS traffic to a specific VMkernel adapter. To route the traffic to this adapter, connect the datastore to the adapter.

Note: Without binding, if the VMkernel adapter that ESXi uses for NFS traffic fails, the network infrastructure redirects the traffic to an alternative route. As a result, the NFS traffic might unintentionally flow through a random VMkernel adapter.

Prerequisites

  • Set up NFS storage environment.
  • Create and configure a VMkernel adapter on default TCP/IP stack.

Procedure

  1. Bind an NFS 3 datastore to a VMkernel adapter.
    1. In the vSphere Client navigator, browse to a host, a cluster, or a data center.
    2. From the right-click menu, select Storage > New Datastore.
    3. Select NFS as the datastore type, and select NFS 3.
    4. Enter the datastore parameters. For more information, see Create an NFS Datastore.
    5. Select Bind to vmknic.
    6. If you are creating the datastore at the data center or cluster level, select hosts that mount the datastore.
    7. For the datastore at the data center or cluster level, select one of the following options.
      • Select Vmknics on all hosts. With this option, selectable VMkernel adapters are available across all hosts where you mount your datastore.
      • Select Vmknic per host. With this option, you can specify a VMkernel adapter per host.
        Note: You can perform only one selection at a time.
    8. Review the configuration options you made and click Finish.
  2. Review the hosts connected to the NFS 3 datastore.
    1. In the vSphere Client, select the NFS 3 datastore with VMkernel adapter binding.
    2. Click the Configure tab, and click Connectivity with Hosts.
    You can view all the hosts connected to the NFS 3 datastore. The Vmknic Binding column shows the VMkernel adapters connected to the datastore The illustration shows all the VMkernel adapters connected to the NFS 3 datastore with VMkernel binding.
    Note: If you delete the VMkernel adapter associated with the NFS 3 datastore, the datastore becomes inaccessible triggering a warning. The warning displays the text in the Events screen similar to the following.

    vmknic vmkX removed, NFSv3 datastore datastore_name configured with the vmknic will be inaccessible.