Objective 3.3: Configure NFS Datastores

Network File System (NFS) datastores are a possibility for storing the same kinds of files that a VMFS datastore can. Today’s NFS appliances and network-attached storage (NAS) devices can perform on par with iSCSI and close to FC SANs.

NFS has an easy setup procedure, as you will see, and it has the advantage of not being tied to the VMkernel from a management standpoint. The underlying file system is managed by the appliance and therefore can be whatever the vendor wishes to use, even proprietary.

There are four subobjectives in this section:

• Identifying the NFS hardware components
• Explaining ESX exclusivity for NFS mounts
• Configuring ESX/ESXi network connectivity to the NAS device
• Creating an NFS datastore