VMware Cloud Community
MI66
Contributor
Contributor

How to connect USB CD/DVD drive to ESXi 6.7 U2

Hi,

I am experiencing issues with connecting external CD/DVD drive to ESXi VM. I was planning to install the host OS using the external CD drive as our server does not have one. The server is HP ProLiant DL360 G10 and I installed the latest HPE Custom ESXi 6.7 U2 - suggested by HP.

The VM is created but the CD drive does not appear. Some people suggested to upload the ISO file to a folder on the data store and map it to the virtual CD/DVD. I tried this as well but still the VM reports there is no bootable device. I also pugget USB stick with the same ISO and still nothing. I tried both EFI and BIOS options but no joy so far.

I will apprecite if someone is able to help and provide a solution.

P.S.

I am now home and decided to keep trying to fix this remotely, however I can now see that neither the iLO or the VMWare are accessible via the static IP addresses I configured earlier today. I am not sure if both issues connected or not.  cannot ping both interfaces. What am I missing here?

I need help to sort this out.

Thank you in advance.

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

When you map an ISO file to the VM CD/DVD drive, make sure you select the “connect at power on” option. If that still doesn’t work, are you sure your ISO contains a bootable image?


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MI66
Contributor
Contributor

I am sure this option is selected. I also thought that there could be something wrong with the ISO and I will check this later on today. However why the external CD drive is not appearing as an option to be added to the host? I red other treads that people suggested USB CD drives should be added as SCSi device but this option is not on the list in my case. Hopefully all this will be resolved tonight. Will post an update.

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continuum
Immortal
Immortal

Sooner or later you will learn that using ISOs uploaded to a datastore is the most reliable option.

Why not spare yourself a lot of trouble and learn that lesson right now ?


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