ESXi host fails to mount NFS datastore with Cannot open volume error
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ESXi host fails to mount NFS datastore with Cannot open volume error

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Article ID: 433826

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Updated On:

Products

VMware vCenter Server

Issue/Introduction

VMware vCenter Server and ESXi hosts are unable to mount an NFS datastore via the vSphere WebUI.

Attempting to mount the datastore in vCenter or the ESXi web client fails with the following error: "Failed to mount NFS datastore <datastre-name> - operation failed, diagnostics report: Cannot open volume: <volume-name>.

Creating the datastore via the host command line (esxcli storage nfs add) completes without errors, but the datastore remains inaccessible. Running esxcli storage nfs list or df -h returns the following error: Error getting data for filesystem on <volume-name>

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi (All Versions)

Cause

The NFS server export policy has root squashing enabled, which downgrades the ESXi host root account connection to an unprivileged user, preventing filesystem access.

Resolution

  1. Contact the storage administrator or vendor to review the NFS export configuration for the affected volume.

  2. Modify the NFS export policy to grant root access (commonly referred to as no_root_squash or Superuser access) specifically for the IP addresses of the ESXi hosts.

  3. Once the storage array configuration is updated, retry the datastore mount operation via the vCenter WebUI.

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