Forum ©XSIBackup: ©VMWare ©ESXi Backup Software

Arindrew

Member

Registered: 2018-06-29

Posts: 3

XSI Backup to NFS datastore on Windows 2012 R2

On each of the VMs I am trying to backup to an NFS datastore hosted on a Windows 2012 R2 server, I receive the following error:

ERROR CLVMKFS1, details: [VM] error: vmkfstools error, details: Failed to clone disk: Input/output error (327689).

I have read another thread with the same issue and followed the advice in the last post. I have confirmed that I am using NFS3, and I am able to browse the datastore while in an ssh session, and can read, write, modify, and delete files in the path xsibackup is trying to write to.

[root@esxi5:/vmfs/volumes/4943ae8a-9311cf65/xsi-backup/esxi5] touch newfile
[root@esxi5:/vmfs/volumes/4943ae8a-9311cf65/xsi-backup/esxi5] ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r--    1 42949672 42949672         0 May 16 18:04 newfile
[root@esxi5:/vmfs/volumes/4943ae8a-9311cf65/xsi-backup/esxi5] vi newfile
[root@esxi5:/vmfs/volumes/4943ae8a-9311cf65/xsi-backup/esxi5] cat newfile
this is a new file
[root@esxi5:/vmfs/volumes/4943ae8a-9311cf65/xsi-backup/esxi5] rm newfile
[root@esxi5:/vmfs/volumes/4943ae8a-9311cf65/xsi-backup/esxi5] ls -l
total 0
[root@esxi5:/vmfs/volumes/4943ae8a-9311cf65/xsi-backup/esxi5]

# esxcli storage nfs list
Volume Name  Host                             Share  Accessible  Mounted  Read-Only   isPE  Hardware Acceleration
-----------  -------------------------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  -----  ---------------------
UTDCFS       utdcfs                             nfs          true        true         false        false        Not Supported
MDDCFS       mddcfs                           NFS          true        true         false        false        Not Supported

# esxcli storage nfs param get --volume-name=MDDCFS/UTDCFS
Volume Name  MaxQueueDepth  MaxReadTransferSize  MaxWriteTransferSize
-----------  -------------  -------------------  --------------------
MDDCFS          4294967295                32768                 32768
UTDCFS          4294967295                32768                 32768

What else can I provide or do to troubleshoot this?

admin

Administrator

Registered: 2017-04-21

Posts: 2,057

Re: XSI Backup to NFS datastore on Windows 2012 R2

Failed to clone disk: Input/output error

The above is a low level transport error which undoubtedly means your NFS share is not working as expected. It's an error raised by vmkfstools when it can't read or write data from the share.

The fact that you can browse or create some file on the share does not mean you can copy a gigabyte file. Try to copy the same file manually and you will, most probably, receive the same error. Backup to some other local datastore and you will most probably not get any errors.

The cause for this could be from some bad cable to some inconsistency in the NFS protocol configuration. Do make sure that you are not connecting as NFS 4.1, as this is the most common cause for this kind of errors, apart from physically damaged cables or disks.

Arindrew

Member

Registered: 2018-06-29

Posts: 3

Re: XSI Backup to NFS datastore on Windows 2012 R2

We are using the free version of ESXi, which I know restricts the usage of the vStorage API. Could that be the issue?

I have tried everything. The backup location in question has been tested and vetted every way I know how.

admin

Administrator

Registered: 2017-04-21

Posts: 2,057

Re: XSI Backup to NFS datastore on Windows 2012 R2

No, XSIBackup has nothing to do with VMWare propietary APIs. It simply copies data from one share to another, I believe in your case by means of the vmkfstools utility.

You have not commented any of the possible causes that we mentioned in our first response. We can't help you if communication is not bidirectional. Don't even try to use NFS 4.1, use NFS 3. NFS 4 does not work on the ESXi shell, this is not a guess, it just does not work.
Can you confirm that you are using NFS 3?

AFAIK you are mixing a Windows server acting as an NFS device and mounted on an ESXi box. Excuse our little sarcasm, but this is like the recipe for a poisson. It does not mean that it can't work, in fact it should work, what I mean is that you have chosen a dangerous combination.

You will need to debug the NFS protocol to find out the exact cause. if you are not willing to do so, just change your NFS server by something that will offer more guarantees.

VMWare and MS just hate each other, they have had all sort of incompatibilities affecting users. Some of them haven't been addressed by any of the parts for years. MS is now investing insane amounts of money in promoting Azure (Hyper-V) which is VMWare's most direct competitor...