Unable to connect or disconnect virtual cdrom in esx 3

[aaz436]

Hello,

I believe the problem resulted from connecting a virtual CD-ROM from one host and then trying to disconnect that CD-ROM from a second host. It seems that the CD-ROM is just frozen as nothing happens when I click on the button. Perhaps there is a process I can kill? Thanks for your help!

[jprevett]

I've run into this before when putting a host into maintenance mode. There were two options that I was aware of.

1. Restart the VM

2. Reinstall VMTools without a reboot.

If the outage is not a problem, go with #1. If you can't afford an outage right now, go with #2 and schedule a reboot during a maintenance window.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

You have the VirtualCdrom within the Remote Console connected to two different VMs at the same time?

If so you can edit the settings and go to the CDROM and specify the 'disconnect' checkbox under there and save the settings. This will force the cdrom to disconnect separate from the other Virtual CDROM controls.

Best regards,

Edward

[Bastien_P]

Had this problem couple of time (specially with two user.. maybe the client has something to do with this?)..

Anyway most of the time i end up rebooting the vm and connecting the CD to physical server instead of the client cdrom. But if you disconnect the user with the problem and let time... it will eventually time out and come back but it's a loooong time when you have the user on your back waiting to make is installation ;).

The very best way is the datastore ISO option but not always practical and fast i admit.

[aaz436]

Edward,

Thanks for your time. I don't actually see the "disconnect" checkbox. I had two instances of this problem. I had two vms each connect to a different client cdrom. Later on, I disconnected the cdroms from a different client.

It seems now that one vm fixed itself after about 24 hours. The other vm is still connected. I've rebooted the vm but nothing. When access the settings, all the options are greyed out. Now, the virtual cdrom button shows its disconnected however when I left click, it says "Disconnect D:\". I choose disconnect and then the button times out (greys out) until it returns to its previous status.

I've had this problem before. I remember I would connect the A drive and then disconnect. That process seemed to free up the D drive. Right now though, I can only connect to a floppy image.

A few days ago I had this problem but I found a post on the forum that advised to ssh into the esx server and serach for a certain process related to the vm name and then kill -9 that process. I can't find that post now and I can't find the command in history. It was 'ps' with some options and then piped to grep to get the vm name.

[Bastien_P]

If not mistaken you are refering to this: Killing a hang VM.

o Login to the service console

o You can check the VM state by typing “vmware-cmd //server.vmx start” to power on VM

[aaz436]

Thanks for the quick response!

ps -ef or -eaf is right. This solution worked before but now it's saying:

ps -eaf | grep Director

root 12373 12262 0 15:19 pts/0 00:00:00 grep Director

bash: kill: (12373) - No such process

[Bastien_P]

Hmm dunno. Last time saw something similar, the VM was closed. If you run esxtop does the VM appear?

[jprevett]

Have you tried to reinstall VMTools on the VM in question to see if it free's up the CDROM?

[lazyllama]

I just had the same problem, a stuck "other client" using the CD-rom/DVD drive.

Starting a VMware Tools install and cancelling it once it had started on the VM freed up the stuck drive. I guess it changes the state of the virtual CD-ROM drive and when it goes to change it back, fixes the brokenness

Thanks for the hint!

[snowbird · Accepted solution]

I also found that running the following works too.

service mgmt-vmware restart

service vmware-vpxa restart

service vmware-vmkauthd restart