VM will not boot off CD

[helpmhost]

Hi,

Before I get started, let me just say that I have read several threads about this, and several had similar symptoms, but none of them fixed the problem for me.

What I am running:

Version: ESXi 3.5 Update 4

Motherboard: Intel D945GTP

CPU: Pentium D 915

Hard Drive: IDE (not SATA)

I would also like to say that I have tested with a Debian boot CD and a Windows boot DVD. I tested both the CD and DVD on the actual host and both boot successfully, so the media is good.

When my VM boots, it attempts to boot from the network. I have gone into the VM's BIOS and set it to boot from CD. I have also set a 10,000 ms boot delay. I have also tried pressing 'Esc' in the boot screen to manually pick CD from the boot menu.

I have tried the following configurations in the CD/DVD Drive hardware settings:

1. Client Device with Emulate IDE

2. Client Device with Passthrough IDE

3. Client Device with Passthrough IDE and Connect exclusively to this virtual machine

4. Host Device

5. Host Device and Connect at power on

I've even tried adding 3 more CD drives in order to set the Virtual Device Node to IDE (0:0), IDE (0:1), IDE (1:0), IDE (1:1).

More information:

1. The host device is: /vmfs/devices/genide/vmhba0:1:0

2. When I chose client device, I click on Connect CD/DVD and my option is "Connect to F:" and not "Connect to D:" as it seems most people have.

3. To install ESXi, I had to follow the steps from: http://www.vm-help.com/esx/esx3i/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive/ESXi_install_to_IDE_drive.php

Essentially, I had to edit: /usr/lib/vmware/installer/Core/TargetFilter.py

and change: return interface.GetInterfaceType() == ScsiInterface.SCSI_IFACE_TYPE_IDE

to: return interface.GetInterfaceType() == ScsiInterface.SCSI_IFACE_TYPE_ISCSI

I wonder if that change might have to do with my problem.

Anyways, I am out of ideas. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[Gerrit_Lehr]

Hm, you actually tried almost everything. Is the problem hapenning with all VMs? Did you for example try to create a new VM and boot it from CD?

Kind Regards,

Gerrit Lehr

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[helpmhost]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes I tried creating other VMs. I've tried VMs that were configured for Linux and for Windows.

I should also point out that I have 2 identical computers, both of which I have setup with VMWare, and this problem is occurring on both. I have tried all the mentioned configurations on both servers and they are acting exactly the same.

[Chamon · Accepted solution]

Where are you placing the CD? If it is in your local machine then chose client device and if it is in your esxi server choose host device. you can also place the iso on the datastore and choose to connect CD to iso and then browse to the iso file. then try and boot the VM to it.

[helpmhost]

Thank you Chamon. I feel like a complete idiot. I was always putting the CD in the VMware Host.

Anyways thanks again.

[Chamon]

Glad you got it worked out

[helpmhost]

While we are talking about it, any idea why it doesn't work when I pick Host and put it in the host's DVD drive?