NFS Volume Max Out Error Message in vSphere 5.5

A few days ago, I tried mounting a NFS volume I created to my ESXi hosts and I get the following annoying error message:

Failed to mount to server xxx.xxx.xxxx.xxx mount point /mnt/nfs-share/subdir/subdir. NFS has reached the maximum number of supported volumes.

Gosh it is annoying! So I decide to share the solution on this quick post here. It is very simple and undisruptive ( no reboot to any of the ESXi host require) That is alwas good right?

From the vSphere Client:

1. Select the ESXi host you want to mount the NFS volume
2. Under the Configuration Tab, select Software Advanced Settings
3. Select NFS, look for NFS.MaxVolumes You will notice the default value is 8

4. Change the value to a number between the Min and Max Range, I normally select the Max

                 5. Click OK and that's it no reboot require or anything. Repeat all this steps to the rest of your hosts.

If you are a vSphere Web Client admin, here are the step I followed:

1. Go to Host and Cluster
2. Select the host I need to mount the NFS volume
3. Under Manage Tab, Settings, Select Advanced System Settings

4. Search for the NFS.MaxVolumes on the Filter field at the top right hand side or just simple scroll down until you find it

5. Click on the Edit Pencil at the left hand side

6. Enter the Value require, I personally enter the Max allowed:

7. Click OK and you are done.

NetApp SnapMirror Between 8.2 and 8.3 Gotcha!

Last week I attempt to create a snapmirror job between two NetApp running on different version and it was quite challenge to setup I decide to share them with everyone since they are quite difficult to troubleshoot them. Here are the two gotcha that you have to be aware and how to tackle them.


1. Unable to use GUI System Manager: The only way you are able to fully manage the Snapmirror will be via the CLI. The only action you will be to manage from the GUI are update, quiescence and abort, that's about it. The advantage, it get you more time on the CLI if you are like me that love the System Manager alot!

2. Language issue: Another gotcha I encounter was different language between SVMs. 8.3 does use different programing language than 8.2 which every volume will be set with the programming language set at the SVM level. So in order to make this work, I change the SVM programming language on my 8.3 to match the 8.2 SVM. So have you can do that? Here are the commands:

First, needs to show the vserver or vservers language:
GEEK::> vserver show -fields language
vserver  language
-------- --------
GEEKCIFS C
GEEKDR   en_US
GEEKESX  en_US
GEEKHyperV
         en_US
GEEKNAS  en_US
GEEKSAN  en
GEEKDemo  en_US
blatz    C
peacemaker
         C
9 entries were displayed.

You can see in the above example, some of them are C and some en_US.  

To modify the destination vserver language, use the following command:  

vserver modify -vserver <vservername> -language C

Note: You can’t change the language of an already created volume, so you’ll likely have to recreate the destination volume once you’ve changed the language (the volume inherits the SVM language).

I always recommend to run snapmirror on same ONTAP version for numerous reason such support, data consistency, performance and many other reason so try alway to keep your NetApp Enviroment up to date as much as possible. Hope this gotchas helps.