You have a Windows 2019/2016, 2012, or 2008 server with plenty of storage space, and you would like to present that to an ESX/ESXi server as a datastore. You can configure a folder (or drive) as an NFS share and present it to VMware vSphere, so that it can be used as a datastore.
Note: For Server 2008 and vSphere 4/5 Scroll down.
Create NFS Shares on Windows Server 2019, 2016, and 2012
Essentially you need to add the ‘Server for NFS’ role, (Below “File and Storage Services“).
Create a folder to share, on its properties > NFS Sharing > Manage NFS Sharing.
Tick to share > Permissions.
You can add each host individually here, but I’m just changing the default rule to allow Read/Write to ALL MACHINES > Tick ‘Allow root access’ > OK.
VMWare vSphere 6 Connecting to Windows NFS Shares
Make Sure you have a VMKernel port on the same network as your NFS share.
DataStore View > Right click the ‘Cluster‘ > Storage > New Datastore > NFS > Next > NFS 3 > Next.
Give the datastore a name > Select the share name (prefix it with a forward slash, and remember they are case sensitive!) > Enter the IP or FQDN of the NFS server > Next > Next > Finish.
Create NFS Shares on Windows Server 2008
Gotchas
1. The system will not work if you do not have a vmkernel port, if you already have iSCSI or vmotion working then this will already be in place.
If not you will see an error like this,
Call “HostDatastoreSystem.CreateNasDatastore” for object “ha-datastoresystem” on ESX “{name or IP of ESX server}” failed.
2. Make sure TCP port 2049 is open between the NFS share and the ESX box. On an ESX 3.x servers you may need to run ” esxcfg-firewall -e nfsClient “.
Other Points
1. You CAN boot a windows VM from any NFS store (just because Windows cannot boot from NFS – does not mean a VM can’t).
After I had a datastore failure I needed to ‘unmount’ a datastore in my VMware 6.5 environment. But when I attempted to do so I got;
The “Remote Datastore” operation failed for the entity with the following error message.
The resource “Datastore-Name” is in use.
Solution
In use by what? Thanks for the assistance! Usually this happens because you have a VM with a VMDK in their datastore, or more likely, a VM has a CD mapped to an ISO that was in this datastore (which was my problem).
In “Datatstore View” > Select the offending Datastore > VMs > Eliminate them one by one.
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
If you have some NFS storage, and you want to use it as a Datastore in your VMware environment, this is the procedure to follow.
Pre-Requisites
I’m assuming you already have a network connection between your ESX servers and the NAS box, (i.e you have a VM Kernel NIC) on the same network. I’m also assuming you have the NFS setup correctly, in this example I’m using a Buffalo NAS box.
But you can also use a Windows NFS Share, see the follow article;
If you have a slow connection, and you are trying to replicate servers from one site to another you may struggle to do the initial replication. I’ve had an ongoing problem with a client who was trying to do this, we set it up, and the link was too slow. The client upgraded his internet connections at both sites, still the replication window would have been longer than 24 hours. In the end we chose to ‘seed’ the replication. Using this process we take a backup on the servers at the source location, then take the backup to the target location. Finally we setup the replication task and tell it to use the backup as a ‘seed’. Using this method is preferable because only the changes then get replicated over the slow link.
In the following scenario Im using Veeam 6.5 but the process is the same for Veeam 7. As a backup target Im going to host a backup repository on a Buffalo NAS Box (via iSCSI), that I can transport to the other site easily. I’ve also got a Veeam server at both locations, if you do not you may need to setup a temporary server at the source location to do the initial backup.
Because I’ve got a Veeam server at both locations I can utilise them BOTH as backup proxies, If you are only going to have a Veeam box at the target location, then I strongly suggest you setup a backup proxy on another server at the source site.
At this point I’ve added the iSCSI box as a backup repository (If you are unsure on how to do this, I do the same thing again to present the iSCSI box at the target site below.
1. Im not going to run through how to setup a simple backup job, Veeam is refreshingly easy to use.
2. So now I have the backup on my iSCSI device, I can turn it off and move the files to the target location.
Present the Backed Up files to the Veeam Server at the Target Location
3. Here I’m pointing my Veeam Server directly at the iSCSI server.
4. Now I can bring the new ‘drive’ online and make sure it gets a drive letter in Windows.
8. This Server > Populate > Select the iSCSI drive letter.
9. Browse to the folder that contains your backup data > Next.
10. I’ve already configured vPower NFS so I’ll just click Next.
11. Tick ‘Import existing backups automatically’, and ‘Import guest file system index’ > Next.
12. Finish.
How Do I Setup a Veeam ‘Seeded’ Replication Job?
13. Launch Veeam > Backup & Replication > Replication Job > Give the job a name > Tick ‘Low connection bandwidth (enable replica seeding). At this point I also want to tick the next two options so that if I need to failover the Virtual machines it will connect them to the correct VMware Port group on the target host. Also the IP addresses of the failed over machines will be changed to match the subnet of the target network > Next.
14. Add > Browse to the VM(s) you want to replicate and select them > Next.
15. Choose the host that you want to replicate the virtual machine to >Set the resource pool if you use them > Select the datastore where you will be hosting the replica files > Next.
16. Add > Locate the ‘Port Groups’ on the source and the target virtual networks. (Note: Here the port groups have the same name, they are NOT the same port group) > Next.
17. Add > Add in the IP address details from the source network and the network you will want to bring up the replicas on in the event of a failover > OK > Next.
18. Add in the source and destination proxies (make sure you have one at both ends!) > Select a local repository (this is just for the metadata not the actual replica) > Here I’m going to store seven restore points (handy because you can restore single files from a replica if you need to). DONT click Next.
19. Advanced > Traffic Tab > Set Optimize for to ‘WAN target’ > OK >Next.
20. Enable seeding and select your new repository > If you have ran the job successfully before you may have an existing replica mapping you can use, I do not > Next.
21. Enable application aware image processing (in case you ever want to restore a single file, or mail attachment, or SQL table for example) > Enter and administrative account and password > Next.
22. Set the schedule for the job > Create.
23. Finish, (if you want to start the job immediately tick the box, and it will run now, and then run again as scheduled).
24. Now when the job runs it scans the ‘seed’ first, creates the replica, and finally replicates the difference.
25. You will notice whenever the replication tasks run in future, it only replicates the differences. For example, here on a subsequent run, it only took twenty six and a half minutes to do the job.
Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links
