Booting a virtual machine from CD drive on vSphere Client

[core10]

ESXi V4.1--

I know how to get the virtual machine to connect at startup to the host's cd drive.  But it seems I must power on the virtual machine first, then connect the client drive-- and by this time it is too late.

Postponing the boot 5s after power up did not allow me to connect the client CD to the virtual machine during the 5 second pause-- connection was grayed out until the virtual machine started to boot.

Is it possible to boot from the virtual machine from the client CD?

[weinstein5]

Yes - in the settings of the VM you should be able to configure your virtual cd to connect at power on and have it point to the local cd.

Check out page 99 of http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_vm_admin_guide.pdf

[a_p_]

When you see the white bar (after starting the VM) press the "ESC" key. This will bring you to a boot menu (which may not show the CD-ROM at this time). At that point connect the CD-ROM drive and then "warm" boot the VM by pressing CTRL-ALT-INS. Once the white bar comes up, press the ESC key again. Now you should see the CD-ROM as a boot device.

André

[Marek Zdrojewski]

Alternatively, press F2 during the white bar and go to the BIOS. Set the CD-ROM as first boot device. Exit BIOS to reboot.

- hth

Cheers!