VMs on NFS datstore become orphaned during external network issues

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

VMs which reside on NFS backed datastores are reported orphaned in the vSphere Client and are not accessible.

/var/log/vmkernel.log reports:
WARNING: NFS: 2581: Failed to get attributes (No connection)

Lost connection to server ########### mount point /########, mounted as ########-########-####-############ ("###########")

Pings from ESXi to the NFS server fail:

ping <iP>
PING <IP>(<IP>): 56 data bytes

--- <IP> ping statistics ---
3 packets transmitted, 0 packets received, 100% packet loss

 

 

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 7.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 8.x

Cause

ESXi has lost connection to the NFS server due to network connectivity issues. 

Resolution

Resolve the network connectivity issues. 

Additional Information

See Connectivity to the NFS server is lost