Burning files from Guest OS through Host CD Drive

[Timothy_Swett]

At my job we are looking to P2V an Archiving server (Win2k3) and we will be archiving to CD/DVD.

We are running ESX 3.5/VC 2.5.

The Host is a HP DL 585 G2 with a HP Lightscribe CD/DVD burner.

The datastore where the guest resides can either be a SAN LUN or local harddrive storage.

Does anyone have a recommendation on this process?

[Texiwill]

Hello,

ESX's Virtual CDROM/DVD-ROM is a standard PATA CDROM device. I have not heard of it being able to support CD-R capability. I think you may have to keep that server physical or using a USB over IP type CD/DVD writing device. I would also expect the performance to really be horrendous if it does work.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education. CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354, As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[Timothy_Swett]

I will see how it goes with the P2V and will respond back to this thread. Thanks for the help!

[jreininger]

What if you made the CD-R drive on the VM target (using MS iSCSI intitator) to an iSCSI device shared out on a physical server/desktop? Then install the cd-burning software on the VM and try it. Sorta silly since you would still need a physical server (or desktop) and the drive would be external to the VM/Host but it would be fun to try.

JR

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Another option is to use a USB over IP device to access a USB based CD-R.

Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education. CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354, As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

[Anton_Kolomyeyt]

Install iSCSI initiator on VM-ed OS. Both StarPort and MSiSCSI work fine, both are free... Install StarWind iSCSI Target on machine hosting burner device.

Use any burning software installed on the client (I'd go for StarBurn) to burn to "remoted" or "networked" burner. Works just fine

Anton

[mejason69]

Could you not just connect a USB cd burner and connect add it as a usb device to the guest?? Or not so easy?

[asatoran]

Could you not just connect a USB cd burner and connect add it as a usb device to the guest?? Or not so easy?

ESX does not support USB devices. Thus the suggestion posted earlier about needing a USB over IP adapter if you want to use USB devices.

[mejason69]

OK, however this should then work on a normal Linux Host VMware server. I'm going to try this later when I get home.

[asatoran]

OK, however this should then work on a normal Linux Host VMware server. I'm going to try this later when I get home.

Yes, it will work for the hosted products. However, it should be Server2, Workstation6 or Player2. Older versions did not support USB2 and would be very slow burning, if it works at all. (On non-virtualized systems, I've had problems with burning at USB1 speeds. The burning software would often give errors.) However, if you're using a hosted product, it has been posted in the past on the forums how to use the host's IDE burner. But that is for hosted products. Neither works for ESX.