Nfs Manager 4.3 Build 170412 Dl For Mac

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Release 5.1 (Build 201118)

Nfs free download - DiskShare Windows NFS Server, nfsAxe Windows NFS Client and NFS Server, NFS, and many more programs. The most popular versions of NFS Manager for Mac are 3.7, 3.6 and 3.5. From the developer: NFS Manager is a graphical user interface to control all built-in NFS features of Mac OS X. It can manage a whole network of Mac OS X computers to setup a distributed NFS file. By using Red Hat Virtualization in a self-hosted configuration, this reference architecture provides a complete high-availability environment with three physical hosts. In a production environment, it is recommended as a best practice to separate the Red Hat Virtualization cluster running OpenShift Container Platform from the cluster running the management engine. Steps to reproduce Create a VM using virt-install with Ubuntu16.04 ISO using libvirt (Dont use Oracle VM Box). Command used: sudo virt-install -n Ubuntu16Test -r 1024 -vcpus=2 -disk size=50 -c ubuntu-16.04.2-server-amd64.iso -acceler. Auto-Build a Kernel Module with DKMS Now let me show how to configure DKMS to re-build a kernel module for a new kernel automatically. In a nutshell, you need to create a DKMS configuration for the kernel module, and install the module with DKMS.

  • Added support for future versions of macOS.
  • Added new user guidance for cases where a remote NFS server check cannot run successfully because the client Mac prefers IPv6 instead of IPv4 to contact the server.
  • The user guidance for cases where Apple’s NFS server rejects a share for privacy reasons has been redesigned.

Release 5.0 (Build 201021)

Added full support for macOS 11.0 Big Sur.

Release 4.92 (Build 200827)

  • Because Apple appears to have given up the development of macOS 10.15, all workarounds for issues with its NFS features have been finalized in NFS Manager. macOS Catalina is now considered fully supported by NFS Manager, although the use of this OS version is not recommended. The graphical interface of NFS Manager and its reference manual make users aware of possible defects in the operating system.
  • Added further support for future operating system versions.
  • Added tip in the reference manual about recommended NFS options when connecting to typical Linux servers or NAS devices.
  • Fixed a problem where an incorrect nfsd security policy warning could be shown for macOS Catalina when the table of exports was already open while the application was started.

Release 4.91 (Build 200820)

  • Preliminary support for future operating system was modified to react on forthcoming changes.
  • Parts of the user interface for product activation and registration management have been redesigned.

Release 4.9 (Build 200701)

  • Added preliminary support for future operating systems.
  • The application now accepts that its icon can be replaced by the Finder. This will no longer raise a security warning.

Release 4.8 (Build 191112)

This is a maintenance update which fixes a problem on computers with a specific upgrade history where the privacy settings may not have been shown correctly, because macOS did not grant the application permission to determine the true privacy configuration. Only specific systems running macOS Catalina had been affected.

Release 4.76 (Build 191108)

  • This version adds support for unexpected changes in macOS 10.15.1 Catalina.
  • The warnings about critical issues with macOS Catalina have been tightened.
  • The privacy warnings when sharing external disks with macOS Catalina now automatically disappear after the related approvals have been established.
  • The application now suggests a possible workaround for the current limitations of the Catalina kernel when trying to share multiple folders per volume.
  • This versions fixes a problem where volumes in HFS+ format could not be selected when defining NFS shares via volume UUIDs instead of Unix paths.

Release 4.75 (Build 191004)

This version adds support for expected changes in future versions of macOS.

Release 4.74 (Build 190806)

This is a maintenance release which only affects users of macOS Sierra and users testing beta releases of future operating system versions.

  • Added a workaround for a defect of macOS Sierra which could cause the application to quit while integrating the privileged component.
  • Added several temporary changes for future versions of macOS.

Release 4.73 (Build 190626)

Added preliminary support for future versions of macOS.

Release 4.72 (Build 190218)

This is a maintenance update which adds a workaround for a defect in macOS Mojave which can hang the operating system for 7 minutes if an application asks the operating system for the complete list of group accounts in a configuration with a network directory service. All user and group panels show only cached accounts now. The complete list of accounts can be retrieved on demand by clicking an extra button in the panels.

Release 4.71 (Build 190124)

This is a maintenance update which fixes an issue with specific combinations of operating system versions and server configurations where a modification of NFS share settings might not have taken effect until the next restart of the computer.

Release 4.7 (Build 181107)

  • Added new feature to display the internal status and the complete set of options effective for an active NFS mount.
  • Added small modifications to user guidance necessary for full compatibility with macOS 10.14.1 and later.
  • The distribution package supports new security features of macOS Gatekeeper.
  • Enhanced reliability when retrieving the set of share definitions from a remote NFS server in IPv4/IPv6 dual stack networks.
  • This version tries to avoid hangs during application startup in cases where the local DNS server returns outdated information about the set of addresses used by the local computer.

Release 4.6 (Build 180912)

  • This version adds full support for macOS 10.14 Mojave.
  • Fixes a problem with the English user interface where a duplicate “to” was displayed in dialogs that ask for privileged operations.

Release 4.51 (Build 180731)

Added further preliminary support for future versions of macOS. Users of macOS Sierra or macOS High Sierra don’t need this update.

Release 4.5 (Build 180702)

  • Added preliminary support for future versions of macOS.
  • Support for OS X El Capitan has been removed.
  • The buffer size and read-ahead parameters for NFS client communication now offer larger sizes, reflecting operating system development in the last years.
  • Several images have been added to the documentation.
  • Fixed a problem where the application always indicated an operating system issue after all NFS share entries have been removed.

Because Apple does not fix several critical defects and design flaws in the macOS user interface for the authorization of privileged operations, NFS Manager switches to a redesigned security architecture. As in classic versions of Mac OS X, it is now necessary to launch the application in the login session of an administrative user account (which is the default setup for Macs) if privileged operations should be used. Fast User Switching can be used to operate the application while using other user accounts.

Nfs Manager 4.3 Build 170412 Dl For Mac Catalina

  • Added new feature to allow administrative users to authorize privileged operations via Touch ID.
  • Added new feature to remove outdated versions of security components of previous generations of NFS Manager.
  • Added new technology to avoid a defect of macOS where the application lost keyboard focus when a password needed to be entered for a privileged operation if multi-tier privilege separation was in use.
  • Added new technology to avoid a defect of macOS where the user interface is no longer localized correctly when a password needs to be entered for a privileged operation if multi-tier privilege separation is used.
  • Added new technology to avoid a design flaw of macOS where no appropriate application icon can be shown when a password needs to be entered for a privileged operation if multi-tier privilege separation is used.
  • Added new technology to avoid a defect of macOS where the layout of authentication panels was incorrect, leading to clipped messages in user dialogs to authorize privileged operations.
  • Added new technology to avoid a defect of macOS where the operating system asks for permission to add a helper application when it actually removes a helper application.
  • Features to customize the authorization policy for privileged operations via the security database of the operating system had to be removed.

Release 4.41 (Build 180412)

Added new user interface to the product activation feature in order to be compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (EU Regulation 2016/679).

Release 4.4 (Build 170918)

  • Adds full support for macOS 10.13 High Sierra.
  • Adds a new mount setting enforcing the use of Extended Attributes and named forks over NFSv4 which is necessary due to a change in the default policy of macOS 10.13. (Available for High Sierra only.)
  • Adds a new client setting to override the default domain name when mapping account identities from an NFSv4 server. (Available for High Sierra only.)
  • Added an assistance mode for product registration.
  • Many small changes in the user interface.

Release 4.31 (Build 170609)

NFS Manager has been unlocked to allow beta-testing with pre-release versions of macOS 10.13 High Sierra.

Release 4.3 (Build 170412)

  • Added support for Macintosh computers with Touch Bar.
  • Added new option to prefer the numeric display of client addresses for NFS server user statistics.
  • Added new option to prefer the numeric display of user IDs for NFS server user statistics.
  • Added new controls for NFSv4 mount options to define the permitted encryption types for Kerberos sessions. (Only available with macOS Sierra.)
  • The application has been made robust against problems with third-party file systems that don’t provide a “from” specifier for active mounts.
  • Corrected an issue where the address column in NFS server user statistics could remain empty for clients where DNS reverse lookup failed.
  • Corrected a problem where exported CSV documentation files might not have reported the complete set of fields for automount entries and automounter options.

Release 4.21 (Build 160711)

With specific network configurations, one of the environment checks performed by NFS Manager could result in an unusually long delay before opening the first control window of the application. Version 4.21 addresses this issue and is only needed by users who experienced this problem with release 4.2.

Release 4.2 (Build 160706)

  • Added preliminary support for macOS 10.12 Sierra.
  • Added a workaround for cases where lists of NFS shares presented by the user interface could remain empty for servers with multiple IP addresses due to poor API support of the operating system.
  • Many small changes to the user interface.
  • Most links to external information sources in the user interface and online help are now using encrypted HTTPS communication.
  • Fixed a problem where the first document window could show “(null)” as the computer name and suppress display of automounts from the local directory node if the first active network interface was connected to a network segment where neither Bonjour nor other DNS services were enabled.
  • Fixed a problem with the product activation feature for orders that used specific Asian characters with combining marks did not work as expected.

Release 4.1 (Build 160524)

Build
  • Added new feature to quickly access recent servers in the panel for static mounts.
  • Added preference setting to enable automatic notification for software updates of the application.
  • Added new registration features for licensing with immediate gratification and volume licensing.
  • The DNS environment check during the first launch of the application has been removed because most users with network configuration problems don’t have the background knowledge to understand the error description.
  • A modified version of the DNS confidence check can now be accessed via the configuration menu.
  • The interface for the selection of mount points has been optimized for unexperienced users.
  • Web communication during software update checks is now fully compliant with Apple’s new App Transport Security guidelines.
  • The overview table reflecting the actual NFS shares hosted on the local machine no longer uses OS X’s main host name to determine current status, but the preferred name of the primary network interface. This avoids unexpected delays on systems with multi-homed configuration or fake /etc/host entries.

Release 4.0 (Build 150928)

  • Added support for OS X 10.11 El Capitan. This is now the minimum OS version to run release 4 of NFS Manager.
  • The application was revised completely to use the latest Apple technologies.
  • The user interface was carefully modernized, keeping the overall style of previous versions.
  • Importing configuration files of NFS Manager 2 (Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and previous versions) is no longer supported.

Release 3.91 (Build 150720)

  • This version re-adds former support for 32-bit processors with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
  • Fixes a problem where loading NFS server configuration settings from an archived file could result in wrong port settings for the main nfsd server or for mount requests if a binary (non-XML) file format was used.
  • Fixes a problem where removing all contents of a numeric option field in the user interface could result in partial failure of the currently running operation.
  • Fixes a timing problem where applying changes to NFS shares could result in an incorrect warning message that the OS might not have accepted the change.

Release 3.9 (Build 141218)

Due to changes in European legislation on value added tax, the application had to be re-released with modified pricing information. Support for 32-bit processors was removed. Current customers don’t need to update, customers using the application with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on a 32-bit computer must not use this update.

Release 3.9 (Build 131007)

This version adds full support for OS X Mavericks. In particular, the following new mount and automount options can be defined when using OS X 10.9 or later:

Nfs Manager 4.3 Build 170412 Dl For Mac Osx

  • Kerberos connection options can be set individually for specific mount or automount entries, overriding the default configuration. The Kerberos realm, the principal and the service principal can be specified.
  • The automounter can be configured to ensure that 'set user ID' privileges should always be ignored, no matter what individual options or default settings regarding this feature have been established for NFS client connections.

Release 3.8 (Build 130726)

  • Added client setting for OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion to change the policy when optimizing NFS automount operation for mobile or desktop systems.
  • Added server setting for OS X 10.8 to match the sender transport protocol of the lock service with the protocol of the NFS service.
  • Added NFS share setting for OS X 10.8 to enforce file name mangling to 255 bytes maximum length when using NFSv3.
  • The reference manual has been revised completely and uses a new design.

Release 3.71 (Build 130211)

  • This version contains an updated version of the reference manual and minor changes in the English translation of the user interface.
  • Added a workaround for a compatibility problem between the OS X automounter and OS X directory services which could cause the read-only option for automount entries to be silently ignored.

Release 3.7 (Build 120711)

  • This version adds support for the operating system OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. As usual, there are critical issues when using the first immature versions of the OS. Please read the Release Notes of NFS Manager before planning to use this operating system.
  • Added support for one-click registration.
  • Added full support for current operating system features like Resume and high-resolution displays.
  • By user request, the reference manual now contains additional tips for sharing files for media players.
  • The column to display the mount point path was reinstated in the table of automount entries. Users of previous application versions may have to readjust position and width of the new column.
  • The tables to display automount and share configuration now have an additional status display showing the number of entries.
  • User errors in the definition of share entries are now handled more gracefully when shared folders have been renamed or deleted.
  • In addition to storing all NFS configuration aspects to archive files, the application now supports exporting all data to neutral files in CSV format (comma-separated values). The exported files can be used for documentation purposes in database, spreadsheet, or other applications.
  • A new DNS check was implemented to detect typical configuration errors in the domain name setup of the local network which could prevent NFS components of the operating system not to work correctly.
  • Corrects a problem where automount options of the NFS client to create an automatic mount point could change unexpectantly after archiving and reloading configuraton settings.

IMPORTANT: Due to changes imposed by Apple’s “Gatekeeper” feature, the security component of the application works slightly different. If you are using two or more of our following system utilities, you should update them all in parallel in order to avoid mutual conflicts: NFS Manager, Sync Checker, TinkerTool System Release 2. For detailed information, please see the chapter Release Notes in the reference manual.

Release 3.6 (Build 110709)

  • This version adds support for the operating system Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Please read the Release Notes. Higher level components of the first releases of Mac OS X Lion might not be mature enough yet to use NFS features of the lower system levels under all circumstances. Data loss can occur.
  • Support for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard has been removed. Mac OS X 10.6 is now the minimum requirement to use the application.
  • All components of the application now support full 64 bit operation.
  • The user interfaces to log in to directory services have been modified to match the design of current Mac OS X versions.
  • The internal architecture to communicate with Apple Open Directory Services has been redesigned in order to use the latest Mac OS X technologies.
  • When using Lion, the following new features of the operating system can be accessed via NFS Manager:
    • Support for NFS version 4 (client only).
    • Support for NFS over IPv6 (client only).
    • Configuration of callback features for NFSv4 operation.
    • Specific selection of TCP or UDP protocols for the different NFS sub-services.
    • Opportunistic fetching of attributes via ACCESS calls.
    • Disabling quota operations for specific mounts.
    • Disabling extended attributes and fork features for NFSv4 access.
    • Enabling Access Control Lists (“ACL permissions”) for NFSv4 access.
    • Replacing POSIX permissions by ACL permissions during NFSv4 access.
    • Using Unicode Normalization Form C for the encoding of names during NFS communication.

Release 3.5 (Build 101109)

  • Added a new option for NFS mounts on Snow Leopard to enforce display of the mounts in the Finder. This can be used as a workaround for the undocumented policy of Apple’s automounter to always hide NFS automounts in Mac OS X 10.6.
  • The user interface and the reference manual now better differentiate between NFS browsing policies in the original NFS implementation by SUN, and NFS browsing as implemented by Apple.
  • The program now saves the previous NFS share definition to a backup file when repairing the NFS server setup by cleaning the configuration.
  • This version updates the security component to perform privileged configuration tasks.
  • Corrected a problem where an active “deadtimeout” mount option did not become visible when displaying the current automount setup.
  • Corrected a problem where blanks at certain positions in the NFS configuration file could cause NFS Manager to ignore specific or all NFS settings of the local computer.

Release 3.4 (Build 100730)

  • Added new Find panel to search for automount, mount, or share entries.
  • Added new menu item to enforce a re-read of NFS configuration data from the operating system or remote directory nodes.
  • The automount table has been redesigned to use two separate columns for servers and share paths.
  • It is now possible to sort automount entries by server or by share path.
  • The tables to inspect active shares offered by NFS servers can now be resized relative to each other.
  • Corrected a problem where automount entries could not be saved onto an Open Directory node when they didn’t specify any mount options.
  • Corrected a user interface problem where warning messages regarding incorrect NFS share definitions could appear at the wrong location.
  • Corrected a problem where a misleading warning message about a possible version conflict was recorded in the administrator’s system log.

Release 3.31 (Build 100316)

This version enhances compatibility with upcoming versions of Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Release 3.3 (Build 091030)

  • This version completes full support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.
  • Added option pane to control settings of the network automounter of Mac Mac OS X.
  • Added mount option to hide an NFS mount in the Finder.
  • Added mount option to automatically disconnect a server after it has been reported unresponsive for a specific time period.
  • Added mount option to suppress user interface messages that an NFS server is unresponsive if the server is reporting jukebox errors.
  • Added server configuration option to advertize NFS shares in the local Bonjour domain only.
  • Added server configuration option to define the hash table size for the list of NFS shares.
  • Added NFS status server configuration option to reject requests for simulated crashes.
  • Added feature to detect and repair a broken NFS server configuration if the server has been setup incorrectly with third-party tools or by manual intervention.
  • The security architecture has been modified to fulfill the latest security guidelines for Mac OS X Leopard and Snow Leopard.
  • The graphical user interface has been enhanced.

Release 3.2 (Build 090825)

  • Added preliminary support for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Full support will be added when Apple releases specific documents currently withheld.
  • Corrected a problem where short IPv4 addresses were sometimes misinterpreted in input fields if they had the meaning of a network address.

Release 3.1 (Build 080422)

  • Because Mac OS X 10.5.3 is fixing most of the problems of the Leopard NFS server implementation, some workarounds in the software could be deactivated.
  • Input sheets receiving textual input have been optimized to complete all edit operations before the sheet is closed.
  • A problem has been corrected where automount entries with numeric options might not have been re-read correctly by the application after those options had been set to non-default values.

Release 3.0 (Build 080226)

The application was redeveloped completely for Mac OS X 10.5 because Leopard uses a different NFS implementation. All aspects of the application have changed.

Notes on previous releases of NFS Manager dating back further are no longer part of this page. If you need this information, please download NFS Manager 2.94a.

Best Practices running VMware with NFS

There are several ways to store your Virtual Machines that run on your VMware Cloud Backend storage. You can store them locally on internal storage or on direct attached storage (DAS). Another way is to tie your ESXi servers to a central backend storage network, with protocols like FC and iSCSI (Block) or through NFS (File). Network Attached Storage (NFS) is a solid, mature, high available, high performing foundation for virtualization environments.

I have helped several customers’ last couple of years to make sure that their virtualized environment is stable and high performing. Often when there are (performance) problems people tend to focus on a specific part of the infrastructure like, network or storage. Always look at it as a complete chain from the user using an application to the location where the data and/or application is stored.

This blog post will give an overview of deployment considerations and best practices for running with Network Attached Storage in your VMware environment. Hoping it gives some guidance and solves some often seen issues with customers. You can also have a high performing, stable NFS storage foundation for your VMware virtualized environment!

Highlights

  • Make sure your VMware environment is updated and runs on patch 5 or newer if you have ESXi 5.5 and on Update 1a if you run with ESXi 6.0
  • Run with portfast network ports on the network switches if you have STP enabled.
  • Also check your network settings on the ESXi side, the switches used in between and of course on the storage side.
  • If you use NFS version 3 and NFS version 4.1, do not mix them on the same volumes/data shares.
  • Also in a mixed VMware environment it is best to run NFS version 3 all over.
  • Separate the backend storage NFS network from any client traffic.
  • Check your current design so that all paths used are redundant, so high availability is covered to your clients.
  • Within your naming convention just use ASCII characters for your NFS network topology to prevent unpredictable failures.
  • Always refer to your storage-array vendor’s best practices for guidelines, to run optimal with NFS in your environment.
  • Check and adjust the default security, because NFS version 3 is unsecure by default.
  • Configure the advanced setting for NFS.MaxVolumes, Net.TcpipHeapSize and Net.TcpipHeapMax.

Why use NFS?

VMware has supported IP-based storage for almost a decade now. NFS storage was introduced as a storage resource that can be shared across a cluster of VMware ESXi hosts. NFS was adopted rapidly last decade because of the combination of cost, performance, availability and ease of manageability. VMware also made sure that the capabilities of VMware ESXi on NFS are similar to those of ESXi on block-based storage. A big pro is that you can use multiple storage platforms and protocols tied to a VMware environment, if needed.

Compared to iSCSI and FC, NFS is relative easy to design, configure and manage. When configured correctly it offers strong performance and stability. Deployment of ESXi with IP based storage is common and widely seen in the field.

What is NFS?

Network File System (NFS) is a distributed file system protocol originally developed by Sun Microsystems in 1984, allowing an user on a client computer to access files over a network much like local storage is accessed. NFS, like many other protocols, builds on the Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call (ONC RPC) system. The Network File System is an open standard defined in RFCs, allowing anyone to implement the protocol. Source: wiki.

NFS Version used?

An NFS client built into ESXi uses the Network File System (NFS) protocol over TCP/IP to access a designated NFS volume that is located on NFS storage. The ESXi host can mount the volume and use it for its storage needs. Up until version 6.0 VMware only supported NFS version 3. To ensure interoperability with all versions it is recommended that you reduce the maximum Client and Server version. With the release of vSphere 6, VMware now also supports NFS 4.1.

NFS Protocols and vSphere Solutions

NFS Version Upgrades

vSphere does not support automatic datastore conversions from NFS version 3 to NFS 4.1. If you want to upgrade your NFS 3 datastore, the following options are available:

· You can create a new NFS 4.1 datastore, and then use Storage vMotion to migrate virtual machines from the old datastore to the new one.

· Use conversion methods provided by your NFS storage server. For more information, contact your storage vendor.

· Unmount from one version and then mount as the other.

Which version of VMware are you running?

Running ESXi 5.5 below Patch 5? Than you are running on a build number lower than 2718055 and it is time to upgrade now!

We have seen several virtual environments that ran below patch 5 and had strange and unpredictable behavior from time to time. Like disconnects (offline, greyed out) which could lead to an all paths down (APD) event (for 45 minutes) or even permanent device loss (PDL) or management interfaces which freeze for several minutes or getting stuck majorly. After updating those infrastructures to newer builds you could restart an ESXi server and datastores where almost instantly back online and visible. Also managing storage in vCenter server becomes more fluid than before. And a rescan completes about 3 to 4 times faster.

Buildnumbers

All Paths Down (APD)

There are several critical fixes in the ESXi builds for VMware ESX 5.5 that could interfere with a correct HA storage cluster failover within 180 seconds on failover.

PDL and APD and PSA

An ESXi host might show as disconnected in vCenter Server when the hostd process is not responding. This issue might occur when there is a Permanent Device Loss (PDL) and the underlying file system fails to notify pending All Paths Down (APD) events to the Pluggable Storage Architecture (PSA) layer.

Network

Separate the backend storage NFS network from any client traffic. This can be done using VLANs, network segmentation, or dedicated switches. This will allow for maximum performance and prevent unwanted access to your storage environment.

High Availability

To achieve high availability, the LAN on which the NFS traffic will run needs to be designed with availability, downtime-avoidance, isolation, and no single-point of failure (SPOF) in mind. Often when HA is configured, STP is also configured in the network topology.

Spanning Tree Protocol

Another cause we found that triggered or added to major downtime in an APD event is that the current physical port settings on the network switches were active with STP and were not configured as Edge port or PortFast port. The second recommendation relates to the use of switch ports when Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is used in an environment. STP ensures that there are no network loops in a bridged network. This is accomplished by disabling network links and ensuring that there is only a single active path between any two network nodes. If there are loops, it will have a severe performance impact on your network with unnecessary forwarding of packets, eventually leading to a saturated network.

A switch port can exist in various states under STP while the algorithms determine if there are any loops in the network. For example, switch port states can be blocked, listening or forward. Transitioning between the various states can take some time and this can impact applications that are network dependent.

This means that the switch ports will immediately change their forwarding state to active, to enable the port to send and receive data. Refer to your storage-array best practices for advice on this setting, to determine if it is appropriate for your storage array. In addition to using this setting on switch ports, it is also the recommended setting for the ESXi servers in the same environment.

Nfs manager 4.3 build 170412 dl for mac download

ESXi 5.5 fails to restore NFS mounts automatically after a reboot (KB 2078204)

Symptoms

· Rebooting an ESXi 5.5 host reports the NFS datastore that it uses as disconnected.

· The NFS datastore is grayed out in the vSphere Client.

This issue occurs if the spanning tree protocol setting on the physical network switch port(s) is not set to portfast. If the ESXi host has network connectivity issues during boot time, the NFS mount process may time out during the spanning tree protocol convergence. This is a known issue with ESXi 5.5/6.0. To work around this issue, set the spanning protocol to PortFast for all physical switch ports used by ESXi hosts.

Cisco

Previously called PortFast is now called an Edge port. So if you use Nexus switches make sure those ports connected to the ESXi servers and to the Storage array are configured correctly.

Edge ports, which are connected to hosts, can be either an access port or a trunk port. The edge port interface immediately transitions to the forwarding state, without moving through the blocking or learning states. (This immediate transition was previously configured as the Cisco-proprietary feature PortFast.) Read more.

Nfs manager 4.3 build 170412 dl for mac os

Arista

PortFast is also used by Arista in a STP setup in their EOS system. Port-specific spanning-tree configuration comes from the switch where the port physically resides. This includes spanning-tree portfast. Read more.

Dell Networking

The Dell Networking PowerConnect switches also can be adjusted to be using PortFast on STP ports. Read more.

VMware NFS Storage Guidelines and Requirements

Make sure that the NFS storage/server exports a particular share as either NFS 3 or NFS 4.1, but does not provide both protocol versions for the same share. This policy needs to be enforced by the storage/server because ESXi does not prevent mounting the same share through different NFS versions. Ensure that the NFS volume is exported using NFS over TCP.

To use NFS 4.1, upgrade your vSphere environment to version 6.x. You cannot mount an NFS 4.1 datastore to hosts that do not support version 4.1. However NFS 3 and NFS 4.1 datastores can coexist on the same host.

You cannot use different NFS versions to mount the same datastore. NFS 3 and NFS 4.1 clients do not use the same locking protocol. As a result, accessing the same virtual disks from two incompatible clients might result in incorrect behavior and cause data corruption.

A VMkernel port group is required for NFS storage. You can create a new VMkernel port group for IP storage on an already existing virtual switch (vSwitch) or on a new vSwitch when it is configured. The vSwitch can be a vSphere Standard Switch (VSS) or a vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS). NFS 3 and non-Kerberos NFS 4.1 support IPv4 and IPv6.

When you mount the same NFS 3 volume on different hosts, make sure that the server and folder names are identical across the hosts. If the names do not match, the hosts see the same NFS version 3 volume as two different datastores. This error might result in a failure of features like vMotion. An example of such discrepancy is entering NX-NS-01 as the server name on one host and NX-NS-01.VMGURU.COM on the other. When using NFS 4.1 you will not run into this problem.

Nfs Manager 4.3 Build 170412 Dl For Mac Download

Always use ASCII characters to name datastores and virtual machines or unpredictable failures might occur. If you use multiple ports for NFS traffic, make sure that you correctly configure your virtual switches and physical switches. For information, see the vSphere Networking documentation.

Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)

Use LACP for port aggregation and redundancy. This provides better overall network performance and link redundancy. LACP enables you to combine multiple physical interfaces into a single logical interface. Now it is debatable whether this can improve throughput or performance because we are still limited to a single connection with NFS version 3, but it does enable protection against path failures. You will have several NFS workers when you run with multiple ESXi hosts, so they get balanced over the links. Many NFS-array vendors support this feature at the storage controller port level. Most storage vendors will support some form of link aggregation, although not all configurations might conform to the generally accepted IEEE 802.3ad standard. The best option would be to check with your storage vendor. One of the features of LACP is its ability to respond to events on the network and detect which ports should be part of the logical interface.

Security

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vSphere implementation of NFS supports NFS version 3 in TCP. Storage traffic is transmitted in an unencrypted format across the LAN. Therefore, it is considered best practice to use NFS storage on trusted networks only and to isolate the traffic on separate physical switches or to leverage a private VLAN. All NAS-array vendors agree that it is good practice to isolate NFS traffic for security reasons. This would mean isolating the NFS traffic on its own separate physical switches or leveraging a dedicated VLAN (IEEE 802.1Q)

Mount and R/W security

Many NFS servers/arrays have some built-in security, which enables them to control the IP addresses that can mount its NFS exports. It is considered a best practice to use this feature to determine which ESXi hosts can mount and have read/write access to the volumes that are being exported. This prevents unapproved hosts from mounting the NFS datastores.

Datastore Settings

The default setting for the maximum number of mount points/datastore (NFS.MaxVolumes ) an ESX server can concurrently mount is 8. The current version of ESXi 6.0 can hold 256 if adjusted. If you increase max NFS mounts above the default setting of 8, make sure to also increase Net.TcpipHeapSize as well. If 256 mount points are used, increase Tcpip.Heapsize to 32MB and Net.TcpipHeapMax to 512 for ESXi 5.5.

To edit advanced configuration options, select the ESXi/ESX host in the Inventory Panel, then navigate to Configuration > Software > Advanced Settings to launch the Settings window.

Set these values:

Under NFS, Select NFS.MaxVolumes: Limits the number of NFS datastores which can be mounted by the vSphere ESXi/ESX host concurrently. The default value is 8, and can be increased to a maximum specific to the version of ESXi/ESX:

  • ESXi/ESX 3.x: Set NFS.MaxVolumes to 32
  • ESXi/ESX 4.x: Set NFS.MaxVolumes to 64
  • ESXi 5.0/5.1/5.5: Set NFS.MaxVolumes to 256
  • ESXi 6.0: Set NFS.MaxVolumes to 256

Under Net, Select Net.TcpipHeapSize: The amount of heap memory, measured in megabytes, which is allocated for managing VMkernel TCP/IP network connectivity. When increasing the number of NFS datastores, increase the default amount of heap memory as well:

  • ESXi/ESX 3.x: Set Net.TcpipHeapSize to 30
  • ESXi/ESX 4.x: Set Net.TcpipHeapSize to 32
  • ESXi 5.0/5.1/5.5: Set Net.TcpipHeapSize to 32
  • ESXi 6.0: Set Net.TcpipHeapSize to 32
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Under Net, Select Net.TcpipHeapMax: The maximum amount of heap memory, measured in megabytes, which can be allocated for managing VMkernel TCP/IP network connectivity. When increasing the number of NFS datastores, increase the maximum amount of heap memory as well, up to the maximum specific to the version of ESXi/ESX host:

  • ESXi/ESX 3.x : Set Net.TcpipHeapMax to 120
  • ESXi/ESX 4.x: Set Net.TcpipHeapMax to 128
  • ESXi 5.0/5.1: Set Net.TcpipHeapMax to 128
  • ESXi 5.5: Set Net.TcpipHeapMax to 512
  • ESXi 6.0: Set Net.TcpipHeapMax to 1536

These settings enable the maximum number of NFS mounts for vSphere ESXi/ESX. Changing Net.TcpipHeapSize and/or Net.TcpipHeapMax requires a host reboot for the changes to take effect.

Conclusion

Running VMware with NFS connected storage is a great and easy to manage way to store and manage your VMs in a virtual environment. NFS is way easier to setup than for instance iSCSI or FC. I think Ethernet networks are a great, fast and cost efficient way to connect your VMware environment to your storage arrays. Looking at Ethernet networks becoming faster and faster were 10Gbps is (almost) standard in the datacenter, 40GbE being rolled out and 100GbE around the corner.

Your Turn

What are your experiences with VMware in combination with NFS storage? Did you run into trouble like APD and/or PDL events, non-responsive datastores? Have you updated your environment yet? What storage and network are you using and did you tune it in any way? Please share your experience in the comment section below! Also if you have specific settings for network vendors or storage vendors please share in the comments so I can add them to the list!

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