when vm has a ide disk, can't change settings while it is powered on

[colinhd8]

On esxi 6.5d, When the vm has a ide disk, I was unable to change any VM settings such as Network Connected (Y/N), which Virtual Switch a NIC is connected to, unmapping an ISO image to a CD while a VM is powered on.

Any attempt to adjust settings yields the error "The attempted operation cannot be performed in the current state (Powered on)".

When remove the ide disk, everything is ok. Is this a normal thing?

Thanks

[continuum]

Using IDE vmdks really is not a good idea - many features such as expanding a vmdk on the fly are only possible with SCSI-vmdks.
So just avoid IDE vmdks.
If your IDE-vmdks contains only data - it is quite easy to redefine them to SCSI.
If you have IDE-vmdks to boot your guestOS redefining them will very likely result in an unbootable guestOS.

[colinhd8]

Agree with using ide vmdks is not a good idea. But some times there is no choice.

So "vms which has ide vmdks can't change setting when power on"  is not a bug?

[continuum]

I would not consider it a bug - it is the same behaviour with real hardware.
Hot-plug features with real hardware is only available for SATA or SCSI.
I assume that making it available would be possible for virtual machines but I doubt there is enough demand for that feature.
Anyway - I would be interested in your special need - maybe there are workarounds.

[colinhd8]

But the setting to be changed is such as Network Connected (Y/N). And for vmware workstation the operation is ok.

[continuum]

I have to agree on that part. Switching network on and off should not be affected by the disk type.