Block device - CD rom

[Matt_Malpica]

Hi everyone, i have a problem i am trying to install Windows on my ESXi but i am having problems, i am doing it over a blade server, the problem is, first of all i present the windows cd on the blade where i am running ESXi, then i try to add the cd using vclient but nothing is showing up, so i started looking around and this is what i found, dont know really know if thats actually my problem, but under data storage adaprter i can see that somehow the device is block, does anyone know why is it block and how to unblock it?

[Matt_Malpica]

Anyone??? Please help!!!

[Darius Davis]

Here's an explanation of what a Block Device is and why it is not a problem for your CDROM to be a block device.

The best approach to installing Windows into a VM is probably to find a utility you can use on your PC to make an .iso file from your Windows media and then upload that .iso to the datastore.  Create a virtual CDROM drive in the VM's settings, and connect it to the image file.  The VM should then boot from the Windows image.

Cheers,

--

Darius

[zXi_Gamer]

If by any chance, you are trying to install Windows 2008+, can you test it out by changing the bios version to EFI in [poweroff VM, settings, options, bios-change to efi]

[Matt_Malpica]

Thanks for all your answers, the real problem is that i can get VMware to see the cd, nothing shows up when im trying to attach it to my VM.

[zXi_Gamer]

can you just post the screenshot of the screen where the ISO is mounted and the blank screen from the VM where it is mounted. Also, just to confirm, look at the vmware.log of the VM under /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/VM/vmware.log when you are powering on the VM with the ISO attached.

[Kameni]

I have the same issue and this applies to all VMs:

Under "CD/DVD dirve1" and "Host Device" section in vSphere Client configuration of a VM I have only one option to select CD from the host. It is /vmfs/devices/cdrom/mpx.vmbha2:C0:T0:L0. I select that and then I check the option "Connect at power on". After powering on VM, OS (Win 7) will not see the host's CD drive no matter what I do. I can mount Datastore ISO file with no problems doing same steps.

If I select in VM configuration "Client Device" and power VM and try to connect host's CD manually it doesn't do anything except ejecting CD from the server.

I tried to create a new VM and was making sure that I selected "Host Device" option and "go to bios and boot from CD/DVD option", VM will not boot from the CD and it will give an error message that no bootable media is present. Yes, I'm sure that my DVD is bootable.

Strange thing is that this used to work fine long ago and if I look at the configuration of some old VMs I can see under "Host Device" selection there is "CD/DVD Drive 1 (Device unavailable)". If I try to change it in dropdown menu I see /vmfs/devices/cdrom/mpx.vmbha2:C0:T0:L0 as the only option.

It seems to me that my original option is not an option anymore and it got replaced at some point, probably by ESXi updates with the  "/vmfs/devices/cdrom/mpx.vmbha2:C0:T0:L0" that doesn't work.

Please help me figuring this out..

Thanks

[zXi_Gamer]

Hi Kameni, Matt, again, we need the vmware.log to understand why the VM is rejecting the mounted CD-rom device. Without it, we can only make assumptions like:

1. The host CD drive is being used by ESX.

2. The vmx file is changed which does not register the cd-rom changes.

3.  The Iso file is being used by some other program which denies its request to the VM.

[Matt_Malpica]

Hi, thanks for the help, i am attaching a document with the print screen, in the first image you can see that i am presenting the media tray to the blade i am using, in the second and third you can see that there is nothing to add.

I tried to get that log but couldnt, is there a procedure/steps on how to do it?

[Kameni]

Here are just the parts of the log regarding the CDROM and ide0:0.

2013-01-25T16:26:32.385Z| vmx| DICT            ide0:0.present = TRUE

2013-01-25T16:26:32.385Z| vmx| DICT           ide0:0.fileName = /vmfs/devices/cdrom/mpx.vmhba2:C0:T0:L0

2013-01-25T16:26:32.385Z| vmx| DICT         ide0:0.deviceType = atapi-cdrom

2013-01-25T16:26:32.385Z| vmx| DICT     ide0:0.startConnected = TRUE

2013-01-25T16:26:32.385Z| vmx| DICT       ide0:0.clientDevice = FALSE

2013-01-25T16:26:32.558Z| vmx| SCSI DEVICE (ide0:0): Computed value of ide0:0.useBounceBuffers: default

2013-01-25T16:26:32.558Z| vmx| DISKUTIL: ide0:0 : capacity=0

2013-01-25T16:26:32.558Z| vmx| DISKUTIL: ide0:0 : geometry=0/0/0

2013-01-25T16:26:32.731Z| vcpu-0| CDROM: Connecting ide0:0 to '/vmfs/devices/cdrom/mpx.vmhba2:C0:T0:L0'. img=0 raw=0

2013-01-25T16:26:32.731Z| vcpu-0| CDROM-SG:  Opening device '/vmfs/devices/cdrom/mpx.vmhba2:C0:T0:L0'

2013-01-25T16:26:32.743Z| vcpu-0| SGLIN:  /vmfs/devices/cdrom/mpx.vmhba2:C0:T0:L0 is not a block device

2013-01-25T16:26:32.743Z| vcpu-0| SGLIN:  Failed to get maximum transfer length for '/vmfs/devices/cdrom/mpx.vmhba2:C

2013-01-25T16:26:32.744Z| vcpu-0| SGLIN:  Using default maximum transfer length (131072 bytes)

2013-01-25T16:26:32.747Z| vcpu-0| CDROM: Checking initial physical media state...

2013-01-25T16:26:32.749Z| vcpu-0| CDROM:  initial physical CDROM state is 4 (sense)

2013-01-25T16:27:01.732Z| vmx| CDROM ide0:0: CMD 0x5a (MODE SENSE(10)) FAILED (key 0x5 asc 0x24 ascq 0)

2013-01-25T16:30:27.071Z| vmx| ide0:0: Command *UNKNOWN (0x4a)* took 1.731 seconds (ok)

on the ESXi 5.0 box after checking if I can mount CD i got this:

~ # /sbin/vsish -e set /vmkModules/iso9660/mount mpx.vmhba2:C0:T0:L0

VSISHCmdSet():Set failed: Not supported

~ #

[Matt_Malpica]

Could you help me to obtain that log?

[Kameni]

I used Putty to SSH to the ESXi and went to "/vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/<VM>/vmware.log" and simply used vi edditor to display it.

#cd /vmfs/volumes/<datastore>/VM/vmware.log

where datastore is the name of the datastore you have and VM is the name of the folder where your VM resides

List the folder content to make sure that you have vmware.log

#ls -la

Edit vmware.log

#vi vmware.log

copy/paste parts you want

As you can see I used harder way to get that log file. More simpler way would be by using vSphere client to browse your datastore and to download log file from that folder.

[zXi_Gamer]

Sorry for not getting back at this earlier. I thought I had it replied.

Coming to the issue, it does seem to be a known or common issue with VMware ESX and Blade server CDROM devices. The same is addressed here just in case, you haven't read it though.

As suggested earlier, you can try to copy the iso and continue your installation OR you need to make the cdrom devices as scsi targets and use them. But this way you wont be able to boot. This will defeat the purpose again.

Sorry to be of little help. I am still trying to find a blade server with multiple modules to try out your scenario and see if we could work around the issue.,