Mounting an AIX share on Windows Server 2019

Hi

I have upgraded a Windows 2008 server that mounts an NFS share from an AIX box.
The mount command is as follows:
mount -o anon -o fileaccess=777 -o nolock \\Servername\<Path to share> F:

This command works perfectly on the Windows 2008 server but doesn't work on the Windows 2019 server it just keeps throwing a Network Error - 53

Firewall rules are all in place but I suspect this requires some Unix attributes added to a user account or similar.

The export share owner is the root account so UID=0 and GID=0 and I have tried adding this to a regkey for bot UID and GID named AnonymousUIOD and AnonymousGID but still hasn't worked.

My feeling is this is AIX related and was hoping somebody would have any idea how to get this to work?

Any ideas are welcomed, thank you

How old is the AIX box operating system?

My first thought would be to compare the NFS versions of the NFS client and NFS server.

The Windows NFS client will almost certainly be V3. Can you specify that on your mount command line?

If your AIX is version 2 or 4, then that will probably be it.

Could be another reason but that's where I'd start looking. Network error 53 is usually a connectivity issue rather than a security/authentication issue.

I'm not an AIX expert but there are others on here that are.

The AIX box is NFS 4 being used but supports 2 and 3

So I think you need to force V3 on your mount command line. Windows is likely V3 so you need to ask AIX to talk V3.

Yea, this says Windows 2019 NFS client is V3

I think that Windows asks for v3.

Is port 111 open in the firewalls?
The NFS client does an rpc call on port 111 (rpcbind/portmap) first.
There it gets two more ports, for nfs and mount
Also these must be open in the firewalls.

You can run a snoop or tcpdump on AIX to see what's happening on the network.

All ports open on firewall

BTW, looking at your first post, doesn't Windows require a double backslash before a server name? And are you sure that if you use a server name that Windows can resolve it?

Good observation, only one backslash was visible.
Now I have edited the initial post, and wrapped the command in triple-backticks markdowns. And the double backslash shows up.
@nitrox2000, use the icons ICode(Inline Code) and Code(Code Block) at the top of the editor window!

Understood, apologies

So if it works perfectly on Windows 2008 what makes you think that the problem is at the AIX end of things? Is there something that you haven't told us?

Do you have another *nix box that you can test mounting this NFS share on?
Do you have another Windows 2008 server? Does it still work on that one?

This is the UNC notation.
Maybe the mount command wants the NFS notation?
Servername:</Path to share>

Solution found and it was a simple issue with AIX box.

The server name was required to be added to the host file on the AIX box and it mounted straight away.

The AIX admin only added it to the IPTable and not the host file so couldn't find its way back to Windows.

Thanks for all you suggestions and advice and hope this helps someone.

Thanks for the info!

The accessing IP address is (reverse-)resolved to a hostname and must exactly match the given hostname in /etc/exports.

"Network Error - 53" is not a good error message. A *x box would say sth like "Permission denied by server".

So whilst upgrading Windows from 2008 to 2019 you changed the host name and/or it's ip address?

No, as the 2008 server was in Production a new replacement 2019 box was built, configured and tested using a fixed disk to replicate the mounted AIX drive, using a new hostname and IP address. Then a cutover was planned and the fixed disk removed and FW rules duplicated to match the current server. The problem was pre-cutover the drive wouldn't mount so delayed the change.

As I'm not an AIX admin I relied on the admin to setup the config on the AIX side and the new hostname wasn't added to the host file it was only added to the IPTable.

It took another admin to perform a TCPDump and you could see traffic from the new server hitting AIX box but not getting back to the Window box.
Then the host file was checked and it contained an entry for the current Prod 2008 boxes hostname (FQDN), so the new 2019 server hostname (FQDN) was added and the mount command worked immediately.

So was indeed an AIX issue, well technically networking, but was missed by the original admin who was working with me.

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