6.0.1

Table Of Contents
3 If you plan to use Kerberos authentication with the NFS 4.1 datastore, congure the ESXi hosts for
Kerberos authentication.
Make sure that each host that mounts this datastore is a part of an Active Directory domain and its NFS
authentication credentials are set.
What to do next
You can now create an NFS datastore on the ESXi hosts.
Using Kerberos Credentials for NFS 4.1
With NFS version 4.1, ESXi supports Kerberos authentication mechanism.
Kerberos is an authentication service that allows an NFS 4.1 client installed on ESXi to prove its identity to
an NFS server before mounting an NFS share. Kerberos uses cryptography to work across an insecure
network connection. The vSphere implementation of Kerberos for NFS 4.1 supports only identity
verication for the client and server, but does not provide data integrity or condentiality services.
When you use Kerberos authentication, the following considerations apply:
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ESXi uses Kerberos version 5 with Active Directory domain and Key Distribution Center (KDC).
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As a vSphere administrator, you specify Active Directory credentials to provide an access to NFS 4.1
Kerberos datastores to an NFS user. A single set of credentials is used to access all Kerberos datastores
mounted on that host.
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When multiple ESXi hosts share the same NFS 4.1 datastore, you must use the same Active Directory
credentials for all hosts that access the shared datastore. You can automate this by seing the user in
host proles and applying the prole to all ESXi hosts.
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NFS 4.1 does not support simultaneous AUTH_SYS and Kerberos mounts.
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NFS 4.1 with Kerberos does not support IPv6. Only IPv4 is supported.
Configure ESXi Hosts for Kerberos Authentication
If you use NFS 4.1 with Kerberos, you must perform several tasks to set up your hosts for Kerberos
authentication.
When multiple ESXi hosts share the same NFS 4.1 datastore, you must use the same Active Directory
credentials for all hosts that access the shared datastore. You can automate this by seing the user in host
proles and applying the prole to all ESXi hosts.
Prerequisites
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Make sure that Microsoft Active Directory (AD) and NFS servers are congured to use Kerberos.
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Enable DES-CBC-MD5 encryption mode on AD. The NFS 4.1 client supports only this encryption mode.
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Make sure that the NFS server exports are congured to grant full access to the Kerberos user.
Procedure
1 Congure DNS for NFS 4.1 with Kerberos on page 159
When you use NFS 4.1 with Kerberos, you must change the DNS seings on ESXi hosts to point to the
DNS server that is congured to hand out DNS records for the Kerberos Key Distribution Center
(KDC). For example, use the Active Directory server address, if AD is used as a DNS server.
2 Congure Network Time Protocol for NFS 4.1 with Kerberos on page 159
If you use NFS 4.1 with Kerberos, congure Network Time Protocol (NTP) to make sure all ESXi hosts
on the vSphere network are synchronized.
vSphere Storage
158 VMware, Inc.