Mount failure notification on NFS server during vCenter file-based backup

Products

• VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

• When performing a vCenter Server file-based configuration backup to an NFS storage server, the storage system generates an alarm similar to the following:
  
Mount request from <vCenter_IP/FQDN> for <backup_path> failed with error: STATUS_NOT_FOUND


• Despite this notification on the NFS storage server, the vCenter backup task completes successfully.
• The /var/log/vmware/applmgmt/backup.log shows that the initial mount attempt with the full timestamp-based path fails, and the subsequent mount of the parent directory succeeds:
  
  [YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] [YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-########] [MainProcess:PID-#######] [MountedFSStorageIOLib::mount:MountedFSStorageIOLib.py:231] INFO: Failed to mount the nfs share <NFS_Server_IP/FQDN>:/<parent_directory>/S_<vCenter_build_number>_<backup_timestamp>_/ at /storage/remote/backup/nfs/<NFS_Server_IP/FQDN>/C8iVk4aG/mTVYlCSQ. Err- rc: 32, out=, err=mount.nfs: mounting <NFS_Server_IP/FQDN>:/<parent_directory>/S_<vCenter_build_number>_<backup_timestamp>_/ failed, reason given by server: No such file or directory
[YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS] [YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS-########] [MainProcess:PID-#######] [MountedFSStorageIOLib::mount:MountedFSStorageIOLib.py:227] INFO: Successfully mounted the nfs share <NFS_Server_IP/FQDN>:/<parent_directory>/ at /storage/remote/backup/nfs/<NFS_Server_IP/FQDN>/C8iVk4aG/mTVYlCSQ

Environment

VMware vCenter Server 8.x

Cause

This behavior is expected by design.

During the vCenter file-based backup process to an NFS destination, vCenter initially attempts to mount the complete backup path, including the version and timestamp-based subdirectory (for example: S_8.0.3.00600_YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS_). At this time, the timestamp subdirectory does not yet exist on the NFS server. As a result, the NFS server returns a “No such file or directory” response, and the mount request fails.This initial failure is expected.

After the failed attempt, vCenter performs a fallback operation by mounting the higher-level parent directory within the NFS share. Once the parent directory is successfully mounted, vCenter automatically creates the required timestamp-based subdirectory and proceeds with the backup operation.

Resolution

The storage server notification indicating mount failure can be safely ignored when:

• The vCenter backup task completes successfully
• The backup files are correctly generated in the NFS destination