Error Code: [19:1950] Unable to mount the media as a datastore. Please check the communication between the 3dfs server and the ESX host.

Live Mount, Live File Recovery, or Live VM Recovery operations fail because the port mapper service cannot be started.

Symptoms

During Live Mount operations, Commvault is unable to mount the virtual machine backup as an NFS datastore, and the following error message is displayed:

In addition, the following error is displayed in the 3dnfs.log file:

PortMapperService::Start(…) - cannot bind the port for port mapper IPv4
main() - Cannot start the port mapper service
PortMapperService::~PortMapperService(…) - Port Mapper service is exiting

For V11, the following error is displayed in the 3dnfs.log file:

PortMapperService::StartUDP(3593) - Error: cannot bind TCP for port mapper. errno [10048]

PortMapperService::StartUDP(3595) - Error: Looks like there is already port mapper service running.

Causes

Live Mount uses port 111 on the Windows MediaAgent that performed the virtual machine backup to mount an NFS datastore during Live Mount operations. In some cases, that port might be used by third-party devices or software, blocking access to the port by Live Mount operations.

Resolution

If port 111 is already in use on the Windows MediaAgent that performed the backup, you can use one of the following options to enable Live Mount operations to proceed:

Stop the third-party service that is binding to port 111 on the Windows Media agent.
Use a different Windows MediaAgent for the backup and subsequent Live Mount operation.

If no port mapping errors are not shown in the 3dnfs.log file, check for other connectivity issues (for example, routing issues between the ESX server and the MediaAgent).

If 3dfs fails to start on the Windows MediaAgent, run the following command to determine whether port 111 is being used, to check the process ID, and to stop the services:

netstat -ano | find "111"
net stop portmap