Understanding the messages: Connectivity to NFS Server Lost and Connectivity to NFS Server Restored

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information about the messages:

• Connectivity to NFS Server Lost
• Connectivity to NFS Server Restored

Environment

VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vCenter Server 5.0.x
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware vCenter Server 4.1.x
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware vCenter Server 5.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware vCenter Server 4.0.x

Resolution

Connectivity to NFS Server Lost

An event indicates that the ESXi/ESX host has lost connectivity to the NFS server. For example, if an NFS volume nfs-share is mounted from host nfs-server:/share, the following message displays in the ESXi/ESX logs (located at /var/log/vmkernel on ESX and /var/log/messages on ESXi) if connectivity to the NFS server is lost:

Lost connection to server nfs-server mount point /share, mounted as 1264e433-5854ee53-0000-000000000000 ("nfs-share")

As a result, the NFS volume (and virtual machines residing in the affected volume) are unavailable to the ESXi/ESX host.

This event is normally received in an environment where NFS was already working and for some reason the NFS connectivity was lost.
The first troubleshooting step is to verify that the NFS server is up and running without issues. Check if other hosts using the same NFS mount are experiencing the same problem and check NFS server status and share points.

If the issue points to a loss of connectivity between the NFS server and the ESXi/ESX host, see Troubleshooting connectivity issues to an NFS datastore on ESX / ESXi hosts (1003967).

Connectivity to NFS Server Restored

If an NFS volume nfs-share is mounted from the host nfs-server:/share, the following message displays in the ESX logs (located in /var/log/vmkernel on ESX and /var/log/messages on ESXi) when connectivity to the NFS server is restored:

Restored connection to server nfs-server mount point /share, mounted as 1264e433-5854ee53-0000-000000000000 ("nfs-share")

This event informs you that the ESXi/ESX host has recovered from the loss of connectivity to the reported NFS server. No actions are required.