change cd rom to use my work station's

[fitzie22]

OK I have been working with no luck to be able to have a virtual server use my local work station's cd rom rather that the one on the host. can someone give some pointers on this?

Thanks

[esiebert7625]

It's fairly straightforward, what problem are you experiencing. All you do is Edit the VM settings and select Client Device. You can also change the from Emulate IDE to Passthrough IDE if you have problems. Are you trying to boot off the CD-ROM on the VM?

[fitzie22]

yeah I did that . I cahnged it to client device but it is not reading it. I am actually tryign to boot from a cd adn read from it through windows. after I change it to client device do i need to reboot the vm for teh change to take place?

[lbourque]

Not necessarily but checking the "Connected" and "Connect at power on" (if you need to boot from the CD) would be things to verify.

[esiebert7625]

You need to click the Connect CD-ROM button after you connect to the VM remote console. If you are trying to boot off it, first click this and then hit ESC at the VMware BIOS at boot and select CD-ROM as the boot device.

[esiebert7625]

"Connected" and "Connect at power on" are not options for Client Device, only for Datastore ISO or Host device.

[fitzie22]

I am not able to see the "Connect CD ROm Button:

I see the connected adn connect at power on check boxes. is this what you are talking about?

[lbourque]

Did you click the "Connect DVD/CDRom button" in the toolbar as the note suggests when choosing the client device? Keep in mind that using the client device can be very slow compared to ISO and depends on the speed of your network. You do have the CD in your desktop CDRom/DVDRom device, correct?

[esiebert7625]

Once you connect to the remote console of the VM there is a button on the icon bar called "Virtual CD-ROM". If you previously had Datastore or Host selected you sometimes have to power down the VM to change it to Client device. If you have Client Device select the Connected and Connected at power on check boxes are greyed out.

[fitzie22]

yes there is a cd in there. see that is where I am loosing my mind. I do not see the :Connect DVD/CDrom" button.

[esiebert7625 · Accepted solution]

Try changing to Host Device, selecting OK and then edit the settings again and sleect Client Device. The button will appear only when Client Device is selected.

<a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank">!http://i14.tinypic.com/5yba4ab.jpg|alt=Image and video hosting by TinyPic|src=http://i14.tinypic.com/5yba4ab.jpg|border=0!</a>

[VirtualNoitall]

Hey,

If you have the CDROM setting configured to connected/connect at power on and set the CDROM Device Type to client device then you will see it above the console window a little to the left of center in the VI client. Simply press it to connect to a local CDROM or iso file.

[fitzie22]

OK I need a vacation. I hid the top tool bar because my resolution was not good. I foud it and it works great. thanks to all who helped.

[fitzie22]

how did you get a pic up on here. man that would help out big time

[esiebert7625]

Just uploaded via Tinypic and added the html code to the post.

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=585364&#585364

[fitzie22]

awesome. I will give it a whirl

[fitzie22]

one more quick thing. it is working fine on windows 2003 serevers but it does not work on windows 2000. have you heard of that problem?

[esiebert7625]

Do you not get the button on those or does it not map at all? Do you have VMware tools installed on the VM?

[fitzie22]

ok I got. sorry about that. what I had to do was change it to use the host adn then back to the client adn it worked.