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catseye
Contributor
Contributor
‎03-28-2008 01:23 PM
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CD-Rom not available as host device

Am I missing something obvious? I'm trying to install an OS from an ISO that is sitting on a server running ESX 3i. When I edit the settings for the vm, the Host Device drop down for configuring the CD-ROM says "No Devices available". I know the CD-ROM drive is functioning fine since that is where I installed 3i from. I went into the command line to see what I could see and I don't see anything under /dev that looks like a CD-ROM. This is on a Dell PowerEdge 2900. While technically this server is not on the 3i HCL, it is pretty close to a 2950, which is. From what I have been told, the only difference between the 2900 series and the 2950 series is form factor.

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shar_234
Contributor
Contributor
‎04-25-2008 06:16 AM
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Some more info..

The VM had a SCSI controller that had buslogic scsidevice and a virtual shared bus.

From my understanding, It is the virtual shared bus that requires the disks to be created as thick.

Pls let me know the comments asap..

Thanks Smiley Happy

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ocremel
Hot Shot
Hot Shot
‎04-25-2008 03:55 PM
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Re: Booting from virtual SCSI CD.

Unfortunately as you have discovered it is not possible. This is being addressed in the next release. For now, I think there are some freeware floppy image you can boot from that then chainboot into a CD. I'll try to find one.

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jhu
VMware Employee
VMware Employee
‎04-25-2008 05:07 PM
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When you specify the virtual disk backing to be created, it should create the file using the thick format. In VirtualDiskFlatVer2BackingInfo, there is an optional property "thinProvisioned" that determines whether the file should be created using thin provisioning. By default, thick is used. If the property is set to true in the specification sent to create the VM, then thin will be used.

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