Unable to mount cdrom in RHEL4 guest vm &Issue with the vnic modules

[fusebox]

Folks!

This is a ESX3.0.2 server and I have been lately having wierd issues especially with the linux guest vm(s).

1)Unable to mount the virtual cdrom in the linux guest vm(s).

2)Due to the above issue,the esx is unable to mount the vmware tools cdrom into the guest vm and hence neither I am able to install or upgrade the vmware tools.

3) I have tried editing the vm cdrom settings(Connected;Connect at power on) and tried connecting to the host device cdrom and client device cdrom and none of them works.Tried restarting the guest vm and of no avail.

4)The already existing linux guest vm with vmware tools installed,is showing reference to pcnet32 module in the /etc/modprobe.conf and the vnic as e1000.Shouldnt vmxnet replace the vlance/pcnet32 module when vmware tools is installed??I have checked the forums and KB Home ,looks like this issue was spotted in 3.0.1 and claims to have been fixed in 3.0.2.Which is not true ,as I see lot of people complaining of this.The KB gives a workaround of editing either the .vmx or the linux guest vm(s) /etc/modprobe.conf (or) /etc/modules.conf to point the eth0 to vmxnet module.I am not exactly sure if this would work and havent tried it yet.Need your comments on this.(The KB I am referring to is )

5)

Any help would be appreciated.Please post your comments on the cdrom and the vmxnet issue.Thanks a zillion.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Moved to the Virtual Machine and Guest OS forum.

1)Unable to mount the virtual cdrom in the linux guest vm(s).

Can you insert a CDROM into the host and access that CDROM?

Can you use any other ISO and access the ISO?

If not then look within your Linux VM to see if it even sees a CDROM device. /var/log/messages will be your friend here. I use CDROMs all the time with no issues but for once and it was the VM having issues.

2)Due to the above issue,the esx is unable to mount the vmware tools cdrom into the guest vm and hence neither I am able to install or upgrade the vmware tools.

That will happen, check /var/log/messages within the VM. Also vmware.log within the host.

4)The already existing linux guest vm with vmware tools installed,is showing reference to pcnet32 module in the /etc/modprobe.conf and the vnic as e1000.Shouldnt vmxnet replace the vlance/pcnet32 module when vmware tools is installed??I have checked the forums and KB Home ,looks like this issue was spotted in 3.0.1 and claims to have been fixed in 3.0.2.Which is not true ,as I see lot of people complaining of this.The KB gives a workaround of editing either the .vmx or the linux guest vm(s) /etc/modprobe.conf (or) /etc/modules.conf to point the eth0 to vmxnet module.I am not exactly sure if this would work and havent tried it yet.Need your comments on this.(The KB I am referring to is )

Yes this works. I do this all the time now on RHEL platforms.

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.

Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Blog_Roll

Top Virtualization Security Links: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Top_Virtualization_Security_Links

[fusebox]

Texiwill,

Thanks for your post.I tried the iso method this morning and that worked.But,the cdrom method is not working.Coming to the vmxnet issue,I havent tried it yet.Could you take a look at the content of the /etc/modprobe.conf of the RHEL4 guest vm and let me know if ,vmxnet indeed is being installed,but its not being used or its falling back to pcnet32.I dont want to use vlance or e1000 as my ethernet adapter.I want to use vmxnet only.I guess that is the whole point of installing vmware tools.Will the fix mentioned in the KB article apply to this too?

alias eth0 e1000

alias scsi_hostadapter mptbase

alias scsi_hostadapter1 mptscsi

alias scsi_hostadapter2 mptspi

alias scsi_hostadapter3 mptsas

alias scsi_hostadapter4 mptscsih

alias scsi_hostadapter5 ata_piix

1. Added by VMware Tools*

install pcnet32 /sbin/modprobe -q --ignore-install vmxnet;/sbin/modprobe -q --ignore-install pcnet32 $CMDLINE_OPTS;/bin/true *alias char-major-14 sb

options sb io=0x220 irq=5 dma=1 dma16=5 mpu_io=0x330

[Texiwill]

Hello,

If the physical CDROM does not work, then there may be something about the CDROM. Is it USB or SATA based.

Also, VMware Tools is loaded in much the same way an ISO is, so if an ISO works, then VMware Tools should also work. However you need to do the mount by hand. On fedora I use the following which will mount the VMware Tools ISO after you select install vmware tools.

mount /dev/cdrom /mnt

Your line in modprobe.conf should be the following to use vmxnet instead of e1000. Note that the VM must be configured for the enhanced network driver and NOT the e1000 device. The easiest solution is to go into the VIC, delete the NIC, then readd it as the default.

alias eth0 vmxnet

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.

Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Blog_Roll

Top Virtualization Security Links: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Top_Virtualization_Security_Links

[fusebox]

Texiwill,

Just got off on phone with vmware tech support.They are saying that vmxnet driver is not emulated or supported on 64BIT RHEL4 guest machines in ESX Server 3.0.2,even after installing vmware tools for 3.0.2.I was told that e1000 is the only one which comes/is supported after vmware tools is installed .Could you kindly confirm if this is true?

Thanks a lot.

[Texiwill · Accepted solution]

Hello,

Ah, I did not know you were using a 64bit guest. Yes what they state is true.

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.

Blue Gears and SearchVMware Pro Blogs: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Blog_Roll

Top Virtualization Security Links: http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Top_Virtualization_Security_Links

[fusebox]

Ok.Makes sense.Then what was all this KB article about.It doesnt say anything about the 64bit not being supported or only 32bit being supported.I guess that needs to be put in there,unless they want people to assume that.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=100168...