VMware: Creating VM failed on NETAPP NFS datastore from ESXi or vCenter

Summary: This article discusses issues seen with running VMs on a NETAPP Datastore connected to an ESXI host or cluster.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.
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Symptoms

  • It is an NFS storage device, and the NFS share folder is mounted to an ESXi host.
  • VM creation fails on this NFS datastore but no issues seen on a VMFS datastore.
  • When logging in to the ESXi host command line with root testing the reads and writes on the NFS datastore show no issues.
  • The NFS export permissions are all good from the NETAPP storage.
  • The VM creation log states "Failed to lock the vmx file."

Cause

The NetApp Fpolicy causes this issue with providing a lock on the storage.

Resolution

It is not a ESXi problem, check if the "NetAPP Fpolicy" is enabled or not on the storage OS. If enabled this function blocks the "lck" lock file from being created during the VM creation or power on.

Disable the Fpolicy, and the VM actions on the NFS datastore work as expected.

Affected Products

VMware ESXi 7.x, VMware ESXi 8.x
Article Properties
Article Number: 000220840
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 13 Jun 2025
Version:  2
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