NFS 4.1 Datastores using Custom NFS TCP/IP Stack become inaccessible after upgrading to ESXi 8.0.2

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

Datastores that were using Custom NFS TCP/IP Stack with NFS 4.1 to isolate traffic to a specific Virtual NIC (vmk) for use with applications such as OpenStack become inaccessible after upgrade to ESXi 8.0.2.

Environment

vSphere ESXi 8.0.x

Cause

This is expected as Custom TCP/IP stack for NFS is unavailable from 8.0.

Resolution

With ESXi 8.0, vmkportbind feature was introduced. We may utilize this to bind the NFS traffic to specific NIC.

Procedure

1. To specify VMkernel adapters while mounting a new NFS 4.1 volume on the ESXi host, use the following command:
   [root@:~] esxcli storage nfs41 add
   

   Example: [root@:~]esxcli storage nfs41 add -I ###.###.###.###:vmk0 -I ###.###.###.###:vmk1 -s /store1 -v store1

2. To set the VMkernel adapters on an existing NFS 4.1 datastore, use the following command:
   [root@:~] esxcli storage nfs41 param set
   

   Example: [root@:~] esxcli storage nfs41 param set -I ###.###.###.###:vmk2 -v store1

3. (Optional) Verify whether the specified VMkernel adapters are set:
   [root@:~] esxcli storage nfs41 list
   

   The output should be similar to the following:
   Volume Name Host(s) Share Vmknics Accessible Mounted Connections Read-Only Security isPE Hardware Acceleration
----------- ------------- ------- ------- ---------- ------- ----------- --------- -------- ----- ---------------------
store1 ###.###.###.###,###.###.###.### /store1 vmk2,vmk1 true true 1 false AUTH_SYS false Not Supportedesxcli storage nfs41 list

    

More information on how to set number of connections and how to use vmkportbind for NFS 3 is available in the Configuring the NFS Datastore guide.

Important Note:

vmkportbinding feature is available for NFS 3 on ESXi 8.0.1 and later.

vmkportbinding feature is available for NFS 4.1 on ESXi 8.0.3 and later.

Hence, to leverage vmkportbinding feature for NFS 4.1, ESXi must be upgraded to a ESXi 8.0.3 and later.