Adding an NFS volume to a Windows Vm

[savoy6]

Team,

I am trying to research how to add an NetApp NFS volume to a VM. I think that I would create the volume \ datastore in FilerView, add the IP of the Vm to the voulme permissions, then add the harddrive in the edit settings of the VM? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Miguel

[DSTAVERT]

That would be a better question for the Netapp forum. If you have CIFS on the Netapp filer you would better off using that.

[EdWilts]

There are multiple issues involved here and you solve them depends on what you're really trying to accomplish.

First, are you trying to share the data with existing Unix/Linux systems that have it NFS-mounted?  If so, you really, really need to talk to the storage guys because you're crossing security domains - CIFS and NFS are very, very different.   You will have a challenge mapping Windows userids to NFS UID/GID pairs.

If you're not sharing with any Unix/Linux systems, get the filer to present CIFS at all possible.  NFS and CIFS are licensed separately on a filer but if you the license, it's a LOT simpler.

If you can't present CIFS and it's just for your guest, you have to ask yourself how badly you want to talk NFS.  Windows doesn't include an NFS client so you'll need to purchase one.  And you will still need to figure out the uid/gid mappings.

Your last option that I'm aware of is to create a datastore on an NFS export and present a vmdk from that to your guest.  You then have normal NTFS security on it and it won't confuse your Windows community.

[DavidTanh]

Or you can attach NFS directly to Windows, using MS SFU. What version of Windows is your VM?

[EdWilts]

DavidTanh wrote:

Or you can attach NFS directly to Windows, using MS SFU. What version of Windows is your VM?

The last time I checked, MS SFU included an NFS server but did not include an NFS client.  When did that change?

[DavidTanh]

As far as I am aware, all versions of SFU/SUA include the NFS client.

Vista and Windows 7 Enterprise do not include the NFS server.

With at least some versions it is not possible to install both the NFS client and all the NFS server functions at the same time.

Most NFS implementations do not have full file and record locking support, have limited security options, and some don't support Shadow Copy: None that I have ever used have offered full equivalence to a Windows Server file system, but perfectly adequate for static file storage on a private network, such as a VM boot disk.