NFS datastores are disconnected on an ESXi host due to duplicate IP address

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• NFS datastores are disconnected on one ESXI host.
  
  
• The issue persists after ESXI host reboot
  
  
• /var/log/vmkernel.log has entries similar to:
  
  vmkernel: cpu40:2097797)NFS: 3500: NFS mount failed for <nfs ip>:/<nfs share> volume <datastore>. Status: Unable to connect to NFS server.

vmkernel: cpu10:2098343)NFS: 2861: Retrying mount request for <datastore> Server: <nfs ip> (<nfs ip>) Volume: <nfs share>
  
  

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi (all versions)

Cause

This will occur if the IP for the vmkernel port used for NFS traffic, has also been assigned elsewhere in the environment.



This can be confirmed by the following log entry in /var/log/vobd.log:

vobd[2097813]  [netCorrelator] 61767395582us: [esx.problem.net.vmknic.ip.duplicate] Duplicate IP address detected for <vmkernel port IP> on interface vmk#, current owner being <MAC address>.

Note that the logging indicates the MAC address of the device to which IP has applied.

Resolution

Resolve the IP conflict. 

Additional Information

For more information on troubleshooting duplicate IP detected, see Duplicate IP address detected.