vMotion cannot be performed on the NFS datastore.

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• • vMotion fails with an error -
             "Unable to access virtual disk from host.The host may be disconnected from the datastore or lack sufficient privileges"
  • From vCenter UI, NFS datastore shows as not connected.
  • NFS datastore mounting fails with an error -
          "Mount failed: Unable to complete Sysinfo operation. Please see VMkernel log file for more details. The NFS server denied the mount request"

From ESXi, var/run/log/vmkernel.log - The log indicate "NFS server denied the mount request"

T06:05:38.165Z Wa(180) vmkwarning: cpu70:2098513)WARNING: NFS: 209: Got error 2 from mount call
T06:05:38.165Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu3:2099290 opID=df73c4b3)StorageApdHandler: 1051: Freeing APD handle 0x43144dd69390 [#####-#####]
T06:05:38.165Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu3:2099290 opID=df73c4b3)StorageApdHandler: 1135: APD Handle freed!
T06:05:38.165Z In(182) vmkernel: cpu3:2099290 opID=df73c4b3)NFS: 3499: NFS mount failed for ###.###.###.#:vol_####-####_####. Status: The mount request was denied by the NFS server. Check that the export exists and that the client is permitted.

Environment

VMware ESXi 7.x
VMware ESXi 8.x

Cause

The failure of vMotion occurred because the NFS server denied the request, due to:
Permission issues
Network connectivity problems between ESXi and NFS server.
Misconfiguration on the datastore.

Resolution

Verify NFS Server Configuration:
        Confirm that the NFS export path exists on the NFS server.
        Ensure that the ESXi host has been granted appropriate permissions on the NFS server.

Validate Network Connectivity:
        Confirm that the ESXi can communicate with the NFS server.
        Use the following commands to check connectivity:
             # vmkping <NFS_Server_IP>  
         # nc -zv <NFS_Server_IP> 2049 

Check Firewall Rules and Export Settings:
        Verify that there are no firewall rules blocking the connection between the ESXi host and the NFS server.

If the above checks do not resolve the issue, engage the storage team to review and correct the access settings on the NFS server.