Accessing a Mounted File System is Slow or Fails After a Few Seconds

Learn how to troubleshoot delayed UNC access or Error 53 on a file system mounted using Windows NFS.

Important

Before proceeding with troubleshooting, be sure to implement the following prerequisites for connecting to file systems from Windows instances:

Symptom 1: Accessing a mounted file system with File Explorer or Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path or Command Prompt/Powershell is significantly delayed or fails. The effect is intermittent.

Symptom 2 : Mount fails using Windows NFS connection with "Network Error 53 "Network path not found".

Cause: By default, Windows network providers have higher priority than the client for NFS network provider. Initially, the delay as Windows tries each provider in the default order is significant. Subsequent attempts may be faster because the mount information is cached. After the cache times out, the delay increases again. The native Windows file system client called Distributed File System (DFS) is also given default priority over NFS client, increasing the delay.

Solution: Change the network provider order and disable the DFS client so that the client for NFS Network provider is tried first.

For reference, see:

To change the network provider order on Windows 2012+
  1. Click Windows Search.
  2. Enter regedit in the Search field and press Enter.
  3. Click Yes to allow changes to your device.
  4. Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
  5. Browse to: System\CurrentControlSet\Control\NetworkProvider\Order
  6. Change the Network Provider order from default to Nfsnp,RDPNP,LanmanWorkstation:

    1. Right-click ProviderOrder, and select Modify.
    2. In the Value Data field, enter Nfsnp,RDPNP,LanmanWorkstation. If there are any further items that exist in this field on your instance, enter them after LanmanWorkstation.
    3. Click OK.
  7. Restart the instance.
To disable the DFS Client on Windows 2012+
  1. Click Windows Search.
  2. Enter regedit in the Search field and press Enter.
  3. Click Yes to allow changes to your device.
  4. Click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
  5. Browse to: System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Mup.
  6. Add a new DWORD32 registry entry for DisableDfs:

    1. Click Edit, and select New DWORD (32 bit) Value.
    2. In the Name field, enter DisableDfs.
    3. Right-click DisableDFS, and select Modify.
    4. In the Value Data field, enter 1.
    5. Click OK.
  7. Restart the instance.