NFS server on Windows
Posted by jpluimers on 2021/05/14
One way to access files from ESXi is over NFS shares.
Out of the box, Windows Server is the only edition that provides NFS server capability, but desktop editions only have an NFS client.
There are some commercial and open sources implementations though, of which [WayBack] GitHub – winnfsd/winnfsd seems the best maintained open source one.
In case I ever need NFS server support, I need to check out these links:
- [WayBack] How to Mount Windows Folder into VMware ESXi – TheITBros
- [WayBack] GitHub – winnfsd/winnfsd
- [WayBack] GitHub – ZeWaren/WinNFSd_edited: Standalone, simple NFS Server for Windows (unmaintained since 2012)
- [WayBack] WinNFSd download | SourceForge.net (unmaintained since 2005)
- [WayBack] haneWIN NFS Server for Windows – Networking Software for Windows (shareware: EUR 20-30 per license)
- [WayBack] Allegro NFS for Windows (commercial USD 75 per license)
- [WayBack] [How To] Add NFS server capabilities to Windows (free)
1. Download WinNFSd.exe latest version from here (2.4.0 as of now)
2. Place it in a new folder. I’m gonna use C:\winnfsd for this guide.
3. Inside that folder create a text document, name it exports.txt, open it and paste inside the paths you’d like to share (eg F:\Videos). One path per line, and start from the second line – leave first line blank! (I don’t know why but in my case the path I put in the first line didn’t get shared).
4. Create another text document in the same folder, name it nfsservice.bat, and paste in it: winnfsd.exe -id 0 0 -log off -pathFile “C:\winnfsd\exports.txt” and save it.
5. Right-click on that file, Send to -> Desktop (create shortcut).
6. Move shortcut to windows’s startup folder (C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup)That’s it, run nfsservice.bat or restart (the service will start on every boot).
- [WayBack/Archive.is]
–jeroen
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