NFS datastores are not visible on the ESXi host.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

The NFS datastores are not visible on the ESXi host.

When the user tries to list the NFS datastore on the concerned ESXi host using the command "esxcli storage nfs list" they get the following warning.

 "Unable to complete Sysinfo operation.  Please see the VMkernel log file for more details.: Vmkernel module necessary for this vsi call not loaded". 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x

Cause

The issue is caused by nfsclient modules failing to load to the ESXi host. Because the nfsclient failed to load, the VMkernel does not receive the vsi calls required to fulfill the command "esxcli storage nfs list" update, and hence the user receives the following warning when they try to run the command to list the NFS datastores.

 "Unable to complete Sysinfo operation.  Please see the VMkernel log file for more details.: Vmkernel module necessary for this vsi call not loaded". 

Resolution

Manually load the nfsclient module and verify it is properly loaded to the ESXi host.

• The user can run the following command to check if the nfsclient is loaded or not. If the command doesn't yield any output, then the nfsclient module is not loaded to the ESXi host.
  • vmkload_mod -l | grep nfsclient


• The user can then manually load the nfsclient module by running the following command.
  • esxcli system module load --module nfsclient
    
    
• Run the "vmkload_mod -l | grep nfsclient" command again, and the user will see the nfsclient loaded on the ESXi host.
  
  
• At this point, the NFS datastore should start showing up on the ESXi host. If not, then the user can rescan the storage to get access back.