VMware ESXi 4.0: Create Virtual Machine Error Caused by NSF File on Western Digital MyBook WE
Such an awkward title, I know. It's just hard to encapsulate the following error message into a blog post title:
Create virtual machine 172.16.1.129 Error caused by file /vmfs/volumes/0-cb8d2a5-20-f15722/win-2k8.vmdk
Basically, I'm taking ghetto to the next level by using my Dell Optiplex 745 workstation as an ESXi 4.0 server, and using a Western Digital MyBook World Edition as an NFS server which will store the VM images. The MyBook is actually very cool; it's a quiet, visually appealing mirrored 1TB NAS. After manually enabling the NFS server, I was able to mount the shares in VMware but was unable to write to it. Attempting to create a VM would error out with the following in the messages log:
Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.384 5AA03B90 verbose 'ha-host'] ModeMgr::Begin: op = normal, current = normal, count = 0 Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.385 5AA03B90 info 'ha-eventmgr'] Event 18 : Creating win2k8 on host whateves.lan in ha-datacenter Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.385 5AA03B90 verbose 'HostsvcPlugin'] CreateEntry '64' Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.385 5AA03B90 verbose 'ResourcePool ha-root-pool'] Added child 64 to pool Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.385 5AA03B90 verbose 'Vmsvc'] Create VM initiated [64]: /vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8/win2k8.vmx Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.387 5AA03B90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8/win2k8.vmx'] CreateVmDirectory: Creating vm dir (as vm principal user) '/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8' Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.388 5AA03B90 info 'App'] CreateDirectory: Calling _file->CreateDirectory with _file = [N7Vmacore6System8FileImplE:0x5af0ae58] Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.388 5AA03B90 info 'App'] CreateDirectory: Calling _file->CreateDirectory for /vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8 Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.389 5AA03B90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8/win2k8.vmx'] CreateVmDirectory: Failed to create vm dir (as vm principal user) '/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8'. Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.389 5AA03B90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8/win2k8.vmx'] CreateVmDirectory: Creating vm dir (as superuser) '/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8' Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.390 5AA03B90 warning 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8/win2k8.vmx'] CreateVmDirectory: Failed to create vm dir '/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8' Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.391 5AA03B90 info 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8/win2k8.vmx'] Create failed with given spec: /vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8/win2k8.vmx Hostd: (vim.vm.ConfigSpec) { dynamicType = , changeVersion = , name = "win2k8", version = "vmx-07", uuid = , instanceUuid = , npivWorldWideNameType = , npivDesiredNodeW wns = , npivDesiredPortWwns = , npivTemporaryDisabled = , npivOnNonRdmDisks = , npivWorldWideNameOp = , locationId = , guestId = "winLonghorn64Guest", alternateGuestName = "Microsoft Wi ndows Server 2008 (64-bit)", annotation = , files = (vim.vm.FileInfo) { dynamicType = , vmPathName = "[VMs]", snapshotDirectory = "[VMs]", suspendDirectory = , logDirectory = , }, tools = (vim.vm.ToolsConfigInfo) { dynamicType = , toolsVersion = , afterPowerOn = true, afterResume = true, beforeGuestStandby = true, beforeGuestShutdown = true, beforeGuestReboot = true, toolsUpgradePolicy = , pendingCustomization = , syncTimeWithHost = , }, flags = (vim.vm.FlagInfo) null, consolePreferences = ( Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.391 5AA03B90 info 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8/win2k8.vmx'] Exception thrown vim.fault.FileFault Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.391 5AA03B90 info 'TaskManager'] Task Completed : haTask-ha-folder-vm-vim.Folder.createVm-172 Status error Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.391 5AA03B90 verbose 'ha-host'] ModeMgr::End: op = normal, current = normal, count = 1 Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.391 5AA03B90 verbose 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8/win2k8.vmx'] RemoveFromAutoStart Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.391 5AA03B90 verbose 'Hostsvc::AutoStartManager'] Request spec is (vim.host.AutoStartManager.Config) { dynamicType = , defaults = (vim.host.AutoStartManager.SystemDefaults) null, powerInfo = (vim.host.AutoStartManager.AutoPowerInfo) [ (vim.host.AutoStartManager.AutoPowerInfo) { dynamicType = , key = 'vim.VirtualMachine:64', startOrder = -1, startDelay = -1, waitForHeartbeat = "n o", startAction = "none", stopDelay = -1, stopAction = "none", } ], } Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.391 5AA03B90 verbose 'Hostsvc::AutoStartManager'] Updated AutoStart sequence. Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.392 5AA03B90 verbose 'Hostsvc::AutoStartManager'] Autostart info after reconfiguration: (vim.host.AutoStartManager.Config) { dynamicType = , defaults = (vim.host.AutoStartManager.SystemDefault s) { dynamicType = , enabled = , startDelay = 120, stopDelay = 120, waitForHeartbeat = false, stopAction = "PowerOff", }, } Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.392 5AA03B90 verbose 'Vmsvc'] Released Vm Id: 64. Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.392 5AA03B90 verbose 'HostsvcPlugin'] RemoveEntry '64' Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.392 5AA03B90 verbose 'HostsvcPlugin'] RemoveEntry succeeded Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.392 5AA03B90 verbose 'ResourcePool ha-root-pool'] Removed child 64 from pool Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.392 5A9C2B90 verbose 'App'] Looking up object with name = "64" failed. Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.392 5AA03B90 info 'vm:/vmfs/volumes/0cb8d2a5-20f15722/win2k8/win2k8.vmx'] Create worker thread failed Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.393 5AA03B90 verbose 'Statssvc'] EntityRemovedListener: Deleting stats for entity 64 Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:36.565 5AA44B90 verbose 'DvsTracker'] FetchDVPortgroups: added 0 items Hostd: [2010-01-22 19:45:41.690 5AA03B90 verbose 'App'] Looking up object with name = "haTask-ha-host-vim.host.DatastoreSystem.removeDatastore-114" failed.
After searching the 'nets for about an hour, I found a post on MyBook World that addressed my issue. By default the MyBook mounts NFS shares as read-only. To change that, I modified the /etc/exports file, changing all instances of "ro" to "rw." /nfs/Public *(rw,all_squash,sync,insecure,anonuid=65534,anongid=65534) /nfs/Download *(rw,all_squash,sync,insecure,anonuid=65534,anongid=65534)
Then, I restarted the service by issuing /etc/init.d/S80nfsd restart. Once the restart was complete, my VM creation was successful :)