Mounting cd rom drive in ESXi Free version

[coote98]

Is it possible to mount the cd-rom drive through putty in the free version of ESXi. Trying to install Arcserve version 12 agent on ESXi.

[weinstein5]

I do not think that will work since there is no Service console on an ESXi server - you might need to use the RCLI -

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[nick_couchman]

As David mentioned, ESXi doesn't have a service console in the same sense as ESX does. Unless the Arcserve agent is designed specifically to run in ESXi's limited management console, even if you get the CD-ROM drive mounted, I doubt you'll be able to install anything. Since logging in to the management console, either via SSH or directly on the machines, is unsupported, I doubt any vendor would create a piece of software for ESXi that would require you to do that.

That said, I'm not sure ESXi supports mounting CD-ROMs directly at all - support for mounting additional devices under ESXi is very, very limited. If you have something designed specifically for ESXi that you need to get installed, your best bet may be to use the VI Client to upload the install files to one of your datastores and try to install that way.

[iwienand]

ESXi has no support for the ISO 9660 file system, so it will not be able to mount your CD

[Joshua5]

So how do you install the intel 82576 driver from CD? In the vmware support section for this driver it says if you want to update from the CD:

step 3: mount the driver CD.

And then it goes on to cd to VMupdates/RPMS and execute esxupdate. So how do you do that if there is no cd support?

[DSTAVERT]

I believe that is a reference to ESX not ESX.

[Dave_Mishchenko]

Assuming you're speaking of this driver then you don't mount the CD in your ESXi host. Instead you'll mount it on the PC where you have the vCLI installed or you can just extract the ZIP file and copy it over to the vCLI host.

[seanscott83]

I'm having the same issue, because I cant get my intel NIC to work, I cant remotely connect to the server. Would it be possible to copy the files onto a USB flash drive and mount the usb drive, then using the Alt+F1 command line follow the instructions in http://www.vmware.com/support/vsphere4/doc/drivercd/esx40-net-igb_400.1.3.19.12-1.0.4.html

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Sean

[kstalledo]

this may be pretty late. but just wanted to throw this in just incase somebody would like to have the info. the driver cdrom should be on the workstation you use to connect to your esxi server (where you have installed your vsphere client software) and not on the host. then...

- connect to your esxi host using vshpere client.

- once in, click on CONFIGURATION then STORAGE.

- right click on the datastore then choose "BROWSE DATASTORE".

-click on the upload file icon (4th from the left) and choose the intel file (=INT-intel-lad-ddk-igb-1.3.19.12.1-offline_bundle-185976.zip).

- login to your esxi server using ssh (you have to enable ssh to do this... google "enable ssh esxi how").

- go to the datastore directory (/vmfs/...) where you have placed the zip file.

- on your vsphere client, right click on your server on the left pane and click ENTER MAINTENANCE MODE.

- execute this command on the ssh console " esxupdate --bundle=INT-intel-lad-ddk-igb-1.3.19.12.1-offline_bundle-185976.zip update".

- once done, reboot your esxi server and login to your visphere client and EXIT MAINTENANCE MODE.

that should do it.