VI Client thinks my .ISO is corrupt when trying to mount

[richard6121]

Hi all,

I'm trying to mount a fresh-from-Microsoft ISO using the "Connect CD/DVD" button in my VI 2.5 client. It thinks my ISO is not valid. The file is this:

SW_DVD5_Windows_Svr_DC_Ent_Std_2008_English_32bit_MLF_X14-26710.ISO

I know this ISO is valid because I've booted and installed workstation VM's from it. I've also made successful physical DVD's from it. Is this a bug in the VI client, or a malformed ISO?

[richard6121]

The exact error is "please specify a valid image file". Workstation 6.0.3 is perfectly happy to work with it!

[ctfoster]

I've no idea if this will work, but have you tried renaming it to myiso.iso and trying again !!

[richard6121]

Just tried copying the ISO to my local HDD - No help. Then I renamed to myiso.iso - no help.

[ctfoster]

Is copying up to the host an option and try picking it up from there. I've referenced DVD ISO's before but I've always stored them on the host.

[Patrick_Miller]

I'm willing to bet the .iso file is greater than 2GB?

If so, it will show up as invalid (Shows as having negative bytes if you view it through the datastore browser). I havn't found a workaround for it, other than burning it to physical media.

-PM

[Aftenposten]

Hi,

I had the same problem with some of my iso images. They worked fine with vc 2.0.2 but not with 2.5. I ended up mounting the images using MagicDisk and creating new iso images.

GB

[richard6121]

1,881,141,248 bytes.

Yes, I'll probably have to create a new .ISO out of it.

[richard6121]

FWIW, I just copied the ISO up to the host's datastore and it works just fine. The trouble seems to be limited to the VI client.

Is there anything wrong with sticking ISO's on the VMFS? I know this was a no-no in the old days....

[BUGCHK · Accepted solution]

No, there is nothing wrong with it. I like to put .ISOs in a shared VMFS so I have them in one location.

The "Best Practices for VMware ESX Server 3" document says:

ESX Server no longer supports browsing the service console file system for ISO images. Instead, it allows browsing for ISO images located on both VMFS-based and NFS-based datastores.

[ZKrieger]

im having the same error and want to duplicate what you did. im fairly new to vmware though. im using everything through windows, and trying to mount an iso on a new vm i have created. how would i browse to the vmfs storage on the hosts? i can open the data stores through the host detail then upload the images that way. i just dont know how to access it from any place else.

right now i work around the problem by mounting the iso locally using demon tools then mount the drive letter it uses to vmware.

[parsnip]

Infrastructure Client looks for .iso not .ISO. Rename the iso to lowercase rather than uppercase and you'll be right..

[Exwork]

I'll second that on the case. I had the exact same problem, and changing .ISO -> .iso stopped the error.

Another interesting "feature" of the client.

[Behold]

Just to confirm the fix for this. I downloaded the SQL and Win2008 DVD ISO files from Microsoft and neither mounted. renaming them to .iso not .ISO resolved the issue. Both are over 2GB in size.

[slowroland]

In the latest version of Virtual Infrastructure Client (build 147633), which comes with the vCenter Server 2.5 Update 4, this bug seems to be fixed.