I am not going to rehash Duncan’s content, but suffice to say, a combination of the target NAS (by IP, FQDN, or short name) and a complete NFS export path are used to create the UUID of an NFS datastore.\u00a0\u00a0 As Duncan linked in his article, there is another good explanation by the NetApp folks here: NFS Datastore UUIDs:\u00a0 How They Work, and What Changed In vSphere 5<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Looking back at my Isilon One Datastore or Many<\/strong> <\/a>post, there are a couple ways to mount NFS presented datastores from an Isilon cluster if vSphere 5 is used.\u00a0 Previous versions of vSphere are limited to a single datastore per IP address and path.<\/p>\n Using vSphere 5, one of the recommended methods is to use a SmartConnect Zone name in conjunction with a given NFS export path.<\/p>\n In my lab, I have 3 Isilon nodes running OneFS 7.0, along with 3 ESXi hosts running vSphere 5.1.\u00a0 The details of the configuration is:<\/p>\n A quick note about the mount point I am using…\u00a0 By default an Isilon cluster provides the \/ifs NFS export.\u00a0 I typically create folders underneath the \/ifs path, and export them individually.\u00a0 I’m not 100% certain on VMware’s support policy on mounting subdirectories from an export, but I’ve reached out to Cormac Hogan for some clarification. Update:<\/strong> After speaking w\/Cormac, VMware’s stance is support is provided by the NAS vendor. Isilon supports mounting subdirectories under the \/ifs mount point.\u00a0 Personally, I have typically created multiple mount points giving me additional flexibility.<\/p>\n One of the biggest issues when mounting NFS datastores (as Duncan mentioned in his post), is ensuring the name (IP\/FQDN) and Path (NFS Export) are named the same across all hosts.\u00a0 **Wake up call for those using the old vSphere Client- It is easier from the Web Client.**<\/strong><\/p>\n If I mount the SmartConnect Zone Name (mavericks.vlab.jasemccarty.com<\/strong>) and my NFS mount (\/ifs\/nfs\/nfsds1<\/strong>) it would look something like this:<\/p>\n Begin by adding the datastore to the cluster (Named HA here)<\/p>\n Give the datastore a name (mavericks-ds1) in this case. Select NFS as the type of datastore Provide the SmartConnect Zone name as the Server, and the NFS Export as the Folder Select all hosts in the cluster to ensure they all have the datastore mounted Finish Now only a single NFS mounted datastore (with the above path) is mounted Looking further, each host sees an identical mount point<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n
\n
![\"nfs-00\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nfs-00.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"nfs01\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nfs01.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"nfs02\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nfs02.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"nfs03\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nfs03.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"nfs04\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nfs04.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n(this will ensure they see the same name)![\"nfs05\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nfs05.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"nfs06\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nfs06.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"nfs07\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nfs07.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"nfs07a\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nfs07a.png\")
<\/a> This can also be confirmed from the ESXi console on each host.![\"nfs09\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nfs091.png\")
<\/a>This would lead one to believe that all hosts were talking to a single node.\u00a0 But are they?<\/p>\n
![\"nfs08\"](\"http:\/\/www.jasemccarty.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/nfs08.png\")
<\/a>