I think a better question would be, what are you trying to do?  What is the CD for?

You can't install anything in the 3i shell anyway, there is no installable command line.  So mounting the CD on 3i isn't going to allow to use the CD.  If you need some files, you can extract the contents and put them in the VMFS volume on the ESX host, in that case you can do this remotely using VI Client.

You could also create an ISO from your cdrom, copy it to your vmfs volume and then mount it from there in VI client.

Regards

Leafy911

(Dont forget you recieve points when you award points)

For ESX regular,  the management agent gets installed into the Linux based service console VM.    ESXi lacks that service console so you won't be able to add any management agents.   With ESXi the intent is to use CIM providers to manage hardware and what is available will come on the ESXi CD (or a version specific to the hardware vender).

I'm working with a customer who has a requirement for prestaging windows.ISO files onto an ESXi  vmfs datastore before the server is shipped. They have some remote offices with serious low bandwidth.

They are looking to use an OEM integrator who will factory install ESXi, ship the server to site and install it on the network - then new virtual machines may be built from ISO files by the customer.

Our challenge is finding a way to have these ISO's available from which to build from. We had the idea of mounting from within the ESXi shell the IDE drive that would contain the ISO files - we could then copy then directly from the CDROM to the local vmfs datastore. This would be really handy.

Any one with any tricks or tips or the viability of doing this.

Hello,

why cant you answer the question how to mount a CDROM in ESXi.

Simple question.

thanks

To find the device reference of your CDROM:

esxcfg-mpath -l

Example output:

ide.vmhba32-ide.0:0-mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local TEAC CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0)
    State: active
   Transport: ide

Load the iso9660 module with this command:

vmkload_mod iso9660

Mount the CDROM using the device determined earlier with esxcfg-mpath -l:

/sbin/vsish -e set /vmkModules/iso9660/mount mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

The CDROM will be mounted under /vmfs/volumes/ [CDROM Label] /

I've done this in the past to install 10GBe NIC drivers and its worked... I just recently ran into an issue with a fresh ESXi install and this command:

/sbin/vsish -e set /vmkModules/iso9660/mount mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0

It outputs a VSISHCmdSet(): Set failed: Not supported

Any ideas why?

When i try to connect the CD-ROM gives the same error - VSISHCmdSet (): Set failed: Not supported.
Maybe because ESXi (4.1) installed on Usb flash drive?

I know this thread is from long ago and people have probably answered it for themselves however in answer to your question:

It outputs a VSISHCmdSet(): Set failed: Not supported

 

Any ideas why?

In my case this was because there was not a recognizable CDROM in the drive or rather it was not in the location I had specified. The CDROM was mounted via iLO (HP) and therefore turned up as mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0 - this only turned up after mounting an ISO via virtual media and therefore the following output was generated from esxcfg-mpath --list:

sata.vmhba32-sata.0:0-mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0 ------------------> LOCAL CDROM drive
   Runtime Name: vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local hp CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0)
   Adapter: vmhba32 Channel: 0 Target: 0 LUN: 0
   Adapter Identifier: sata.vmhba32
   Target Identifier: sata.0:0
   Plugin: NMP
   State: active
   Transport: sata

usb.vmhba33-usb.0:0-mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0 ------------------> virtual CDROM drive
   Runtime Name: vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local USB CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0)
   Adapter: vmhba33 Channel: 0 Target: 0 LUN: 0
   Adapter Identifier: usb.vmhba33
   Target Identifier: usb.0:0
   Plugin: NMP
   State: active
   Transport: usb

Trust this helps or at least doesn't hinder.

Kind regards,

Glen

I'm using ESXi 5.1 and DELL inspiron box. Here are the steps;

vmkload_mod iso9660

vmkload_mod -l|grep iso

iso9660                  0    28

esxcfg-mpath -l

sata.vmhba0-sata.0:0-t10.ATA_____WDC_WD10EALX2D759BA1__________________________WD2DWCATRA056272

   Runtime Name: vmhba0:C0:T0:L0

   Device: t10.ATA_____WDC_WD10EALX2D759BA1__________________________WD2DWCATRA056272

   Device Display Name: Local ATA Disk (t10.ATA_____WDC_WD10EALX2D759BA1__________________________WD2DWCATRA056272)

   Adapter: vmhba0 Channel: 0 Target: 0 LUN: 0

   Adapter Identifier: sata.vmhba0

   Target Identifier: sata.0:0

   Plugin: NMP

   State: active

   Transport: sata

sata.vmhba33-sata.0:0-mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0

   Runtime Name: vmhba33:C0:T0:L0

   Device: mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0                                                            <-----This is my CD/DVD device.

   Device Display Name: Local PLDS CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0)

   Adapter: vmhba33 Channel: 0 Target: 0 LUN: 0

   Adapter Identifier: sata.vmhba33

   Target Identifier: sata.0:0

   Plugin: NMP

   State: active

   Transport: sata

# ls -lh /dev/cdrom/mpx.vmhba33\:C0\:T0\:L0

-rw-------    1 root     root        3.5G Feb 27 19:23 /dev/cdrom/mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0

Browse your datastore and decide/create ISO folder.

I'm using /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ISO

# dd if=/dev/cdrom/mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0 of=/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ISO/RHEL7.iso bs=1024k

3570+0 records in

3570+0 records out

# ls -lh /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ISO

-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        3.5G Feb 27 19:02 RHEL7.iso

Attach this iso image to your CD/DVD drive and Power up your VM to install the OS.