Configuring NFS networking for a nested ESXi VM

I have just begun planning and building a lab for my ESXi / vSphere environment so that I can do a upgrade of our vSphere environment (more to come on this process), but I got stuck with an issue for NFS storage. The issue was that I could not mount the datastores on the nested ESXi host, I was not able to find any clear information quickly on the web, so I decided to do a “settings” process here.

A brief background of the environment:

  • Networking: Cisco 3850, with Trunk VLAN configured.
  • Storage: NetApp cDOT with NFS volumes
  • ESXi Version: 6.0U3

The important changes are in bold below and the reasoning is VERY well outlined in this “ancient”, yet 100% valid post by William Lam: Why is Promiscuous Mode Forged?

Physical Host Config:

vSwitch:

  • Jumbo Frames: 9000
  • Virtual Machine Port Group:
    • Name: All Tagged VLANs – Storage
    • VLAN ID: All (4095) (this will allow me to use ALL the VLANs presented by the cisco switch ports)
    • Jumbo Frames: 9000
    • Network Security:
      • Promiscuous Mode: Accept
      • MAC Address Changes: Reject
      • Forged Transmits: Accept

Virtual Host Config:

vSwitch:

  • Jumbo Frames: 9000
  • VMKernal Port:
    • Name: NFS – VLAN 212
    • VLAN ID: 212
    • Jumbo Frames: 9000

EDIT: Turns out this is needed on all physical host vswitches ports (vmkernal and vm port groups) to have all networking functioning on a nested host.

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