Create an NFS 3 or NFS 4.1 Datastore from an existing file system on the FlashArray with the vSphere Plugin.
The vSphere Plugin allows authorized users to have the ability to create a new NFS Datastore while using an existing file system on the FlashArray that already has the correct export rules and then will mount the NFS Datastore with the provided parameters. This guide will cover each step to doing this after you have already registered a file enabled FlashArray with the vSphere Plugin.
If an NFS datastore of any version has already been created and connected to some hosts in the cluster but not all, the vSphere plugin creation workflow will not list this datastore in the wizard. Follow the Mount Additional Hosts to Existing NFS Datastore workflow to connect the datastore to the pertinent hosts.
NFSv3 Datastore Creation - Existing File System
From the hosts and clusters view in vCenter, right-click (1) on the cluster or host where the NFS datastore will be mounted, hover over (2) Everpure then left-click (3) Create Datastore.
Select (1) NFS then left-click (2) NEXT.
Select a (1) host or cluster as a compute resource to connect the NFS datastore to and left-click (2) NEXT.
Select the (1) FlashArray the NFS datastore will be connected to and left-click (2) NEXT.
Select (1) Use a file system that has already been configured for NFS, populate the (2) Datastore Name, select the existing FlashArray (3) file system then Left-click (4) NEXT.
Review the best practices, select the (1) number of TCP connection(s) and left-click (2) NEXT.
Select the (1) file VIF on the FlashArray to be used.
(1) VMKernel NIC binding can be enabled. This is a best practice because NFS traffic should only go down interfaces that are designed for this traffic- management interfaces are often much lower bandwidth than NICs installed for storage traffic and can cause significant performance degradation for NFS traffic.
If the hosts configured in vSphere are configured uniformly with a specific vmk port (vmk1 in this example), select (2) use the same vmknic for all hosts then (3) select the VMKernel interfacethat should be used on all hosts. Left-click (4) NEXT to complete this window.
Review the (1) details of what has been configured for correctness and left-click (2) FINISH.
NFSv4.1 Datastore Creation - Existing File System
From the hosts and clusters view in vCenter, right-click (1) on the cluster or host where the NFS datastore will be mounted, hover over (2) Everpure then left-click (3) Create Datastore.
Select (1) NFS then left-click (2) NEXT.
Select a (1) host or cluster as a compute resource to connect the NFS datastore to and left-click (2) NEXT.
Select the (1) FlashArray the NFS datastore will be connected to and left-click (2) NEXT.
Select (1) Use a file system that has already been configured for NFS, populate the (2) Datastore Name, select the existing FlashArray (3) file system then Left-click (4) NEXT.
Review the best practices, select the (1) number of TCP connection(s) and left-click (2) NEXT.
Some or all of the (1) file VIFs on the FlashArray can be selected.
(1) VMKernel NIC binding can be enabled. This is a best practice because NFS traffic should only go down interfaces that are designed for this traffic- management interfaces are often much lower bandwidth than NICs installed for storage traffic and can cause significant performance degradation for NFS traffic.
If the hosts configured in vSphere are configured uniformly with a specific vmk port (vmk1 in this example), select (2) use the same vmknic for all hosts then (3) select the VMKernel interfacethat should be used on all hosts. Left-click (4) NEXT to complete this window.
Review the (1) details of what has been configured for correctness and left-click (2) FINISH.
Mount Additional Hosts to Existing NFS Datastore
If an NFS datastore of any version has already been created and connected to some hosts in the cluster but not all, the vSphere plugin creation workflow will not list this datastore in the wizard. This section covers how to mount those additional hosts.
From the vCenter (1) datastore view, right click the (2) NFS datastore to mount additional hosts to and select (3) Mount Datastore to Additional Hosts...
Select (1) some or all hosts to mount the datastore to then click (2) NEXT.
Review the (1) changes to the connection of the datastore then click (2) FINISH.