How to Change a CDDrive to use a SATA Controller

[Aaron Kopel]

I have figured out how to ADD a SATA Controller in PowerCLI, but I can't figure out how to change a CDDrive to use it.

When you add a CDDrive with New-CDDrive, it by default attaches it to IDE(0:0). I want to change it to SATA(0:0) (You can assume the Sata controller is already created)..

Attached is the place in the Web GUI.

Thanks!

Aaron

[LucD]

No cmdlet support for SATA controllers yet, you'll have to fall back to the API methods.

Try something like the following.

The UnitNumber got me stick for a while. I came to the following conclusions, but could find no documented justification for all of this.

• A SATA controll can have 30 devices (documented)
• A SATA controller uses a unitnumber (documented)
• Devices already connected to the SATA controller use unitnumbers which can not be used (documented)
• The IDE unitnumber seems to fail when reused for the SATA unitnumber (no clue why that is, but the script excludes it)

$vmName = 'MyVM'

$cdName = 'CD/DVD drive 1'

$sataName = 'SATA controller 0'

$vm = Get-VM -Name $vmName

$cd = Get-CDDrive -VM $vm -Name $cdName

$sataCtrl = $vm.ExtensionData.Config.Hardware.Device | where{$_ -is [VMware.Vim.VirtualAHCIController] -and $_.DeviceInfo.Label -eq $sataName}

$unitInuse = $vm.ExtensionData.Config.Hardware.Device | where{$_.ControllerKey -eq $sataCtrl.Key} | %{$_.UnitNumber}

$freeUnit = 0..29 | where{$_ -ne $sataCtrl.UnitNumber -and $unitInuse -notcontains $_ -and $_ -ne $cd.ExtensionData.UnitNumber} |

    Measure-Object -Minimum | select -ExpandProperty Minimum

$spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec

# Point CD/DVD to SATA ctrl

$dev = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec

$dev.Device = $cd.ExtensionData

$dev.Device.ControllerKey = $sataCtrl.Key

$dev.Device.UnitNumber = $freeUnit

$dev.Operation = [VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpecOperation]::edit

$spec.DeviceChange += $dev

$vm.ExtensionData.ReconfigVM($spec)

[Aaron Kopel]

Thanks LucD!

This worked perfectly!

AK

[JohnB_PA]

An alternative method, if you consider you're creating a new VM with no CD drive or SATA controller, here $cfg.iso_path holds the path to the ISO I wanted to connect to the CD drive, and $new_vm is the newly created VM (without -CD)

$vmConfigSpec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec[] (2)
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[0] = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[0].Device = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualAHCIController
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[0].Device.DeviceInfo = New-Object VMware.Vim.Description
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[0].Device.DeviceInfo.Summary = 'New SATA Controller'
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[0].Device.DeviceInfo.Label = 'New SATA Controller'
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[0].Device.Key = -103
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[0].Device.BusNumber = 0
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[0].Operation = 'add'
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1] = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualCdrom
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.Connectable = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConnectInfo
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.Connectable.Connected = $false
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.Connectable.AllowGuestControl = $true
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.Connectable.StartConnected = $true
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.Backing = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualCdromIsoBackingInfo
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.Backing.FileName = $cfg.iso_path
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.ControllerKey = -103
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.UnitNumber = 0
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.DeviceInfo = New-Object VMware.Vim.Description
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.DeviceInfo.Summary = 'New CD/DVD Drive'
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.DeviceInfo.Label = 'New CD/DVD Drive'
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Device.Key = -104
$vmConfigSpec.DeviceChange[1].Operation = 'add'
$vm_view = $new_vm | Get-View
$vm_view.reconfigVM($vmConfigSpec)

add-sata-cd.ps1 · GitHub

[Noah]

How did you add a new sata controller over Powercli? I can't find anything in google.

[LucD]

Try like this

$vmName = 'MyVM'

$vm = Get-VM -Name $vmName

$spec = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualMachineConfigSpec

$dev = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpec

$dev.Operation = [vmware.vim.VirtualDeviceConfigSpecOperation]::add

$ctrl = New-Object VMware.Vim.VirtualAHCIController

$ctrl.BusNumber = 0

$ctrl.UnitNumber = -1

$ctrl.DeviceInfo = New-Object VMware.Vim.Description

$ctrl.DeviceInfo.Label = 'My new SATA controller'

$ctrl.DeviceInfo.Summary = 'My new SATA controller'

$dev.Device = $ctrl

$spec.DeviceChange += $dev

$vm.ExtensionData.ReconfigVM($spec)