NFS 4.1 Datastore fails to remount after ESXi Host reboot on ESXi 8.x
search cancel

NFS 4.1 Datastore fails to remount after ESXi Host reboot on ESXi 8.x

book

Article ID: 416172

calendar_today

Updated On:

Products

VMware vSphere ESXi VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

  • After each ESXi host reboot, one or more (NFS 4.1) datastores disappear or are no longer visible in vCenter Server.
  • From the ESXi Host Client, the affected NFS datastore displays a capacity of 0 bytes





  • When the same datastore is mounted using NFS v3, it remains connected and persists across reboots.

Environment

  • VMware ESXi 8.x

Cause

  • This issue occurs because the network interface (vmnic) associated with the NFS server  is not fully initialized at the time the ESXi host attempts to mount the NFS datastore during boot.The delay in network availability causes the mount request to fail. As a result, the NFS 4.1 mount attempt times out and fails. Since NFS v3 includes a retry mechanism during boot, the datastore successfully mounts after subsequent retries. NFS v4.1 does not currently support an automatic retry mechanism, leading to the datastore remaining unmounted after reboot.

  • You can validate by checking the boot.log on the ESXi host for socket disconnected and  NFS41_FSMount failed: Timeout messages: 

[from /var/run/log/boot.log on ESXi host] 
 
2025-10-23T17:28:49.550Z cpu1:2097642)LVM: 17764: One or more LVM devices have been discovered.
2025-10-23T17:29:02.240Z cpu18:2098472)WARNING: SunRPC: 4847: fail all pending calls for client 0x43114b2014f0 IP 1#.##.3#.##6#.#(socket disconnected)
2025-10-23T17:29:17.237Z cpu2:2097749)WARNING: NFS41: NFS41FSWaitForCluster:4227: Failed to wait for the cluster to be located: Timeout
2025-10-23T17:29:17.237Z cpu2:2097749)WARNING: NFS41: NFS41_FSMount:5398: NFS41FSDoMount failed: Timeout   >>>>>>Timeout
2025-10-23T17:29:17.237Z cpu2:2097749)StorageApdHandler: 1051: Freeing APD handle ######[]
2025-10-23T17:29:17.237Z cpu2:2097749)StorageApdHandler: 1135: APD Handle freed!
ESC[7m2025-10-23T17:29:17.237Z cpu2:2097749)WARNING: NFS41: NFS41_VSIMountSet:511: NFS41_FSMount failed: Timeout
2025-10-23T17:29:17.237Z cpu8:2098283)NFS41: NFS41_ConnectionRemove:1307: Connection: 0x43###db0 [0] addr: tcp 10.##1.##.##.#
2025-10-23T17:29:17.248Z cpu2:2097749)StorageApdHandler: 965: APD Handle  Created with lock[StorageApd-0x431884808000]
2025-10-23T17:29:17.248Z cpu2:2097749)NFS41: NFS41FSLocateCluster:4334: nConnect fs->numConns 1
2025-10-23T17:29:17.248Z cpu2:2097749)NFS41: NFS41MultiPathPrepareConnections:916: Address tcp 10.##.##.##.#.#. Required conns 1 updateConns 0
2025-10-23T17:29:17.248Z cpu2:2097749)NFS41: NFS41MultiPathPrepareConnections:951: New connections required 1 updateConns 0 createNewConn 0
2025-10-23T17:29:17.250Z cpu8:2098283)NFS41: NFS41IssueExid:1899: Issuing EXCHANGE_ID on Connection tcp:10.##.##.1##.## with 16881 US delay
2025-10-23T17:29:17.272Z cpu8:2098283)NFS41: NFS41ProcessExidResult:2397: clientid 407f868ca00081 roles 0x10000
2025-10-23T17:29:17.273Z cpu44:2098285)NFS41: NFS41ProcessSessionUp:2508: Cluster 0x43188480a410[0] clidValid:0 clusterAPDState:0 received clientID 407f868ca00081
2025-10-23T17:29:17.285Z cpu9:2097749)NFS41: NFS41FSCompleteMount:4437: Lease time: 30
2025-10-23T17:29:17.285Z cpu9:2097749)NFS41: NFS41FSCompleteMount:4441: Max file name: 255
ESC[7m2025-10-23T17:29:17.285Z cpu9:2097749)WARNING: NFS41: NFS41FSCompleteMount:4444: The max file name size (255) of file system is larger than that of FSS (128)ESC[0m
2025-10-23T17:29:17.487Z cpu37:2097740)ALERT: Jumpstart plugin restore-nfs-volumes activation failed    >>>>>> Jumpstart failed

Resolution

  • Please work with your network team to validate to resolve any underlying network issues affecting the vmnic associated with the NFS traffic.

  • To further diagnose latency or connectivity problems, packet captures may need to be collected from the network switch. This is required because ESXi cannot initiate packet capture during the boot process.

  • If the physical NICs are operating at 1 Gbps, consider upgrading to 10 Gbps to improve stability and reduce network delays during ESXi boot.

  • The NFS 4.1 Client in ESX 9.0 was updated to include the retry mechanism, as well, so upgrading to that version will workaround the issue. The underlying network issue should still be investigated. 
 
 
Powered by Wolken Software