Configuring a CD/DVD Drive

Use VI Web Access to edit a CD/DVD drive attached to a virtual machine.

Virtual machines can access physical CD/DVD drives or ISO images on the server or physical CD/DVD drives on the client machine where you are running your browser.

To edit an existing CD/DVD drive

1. Make sure the virtual machine is powered off if you are changing the IDE device node.
2. From the VI Web Access client, select the virtual machine.
3. On the Summary tab, under Hardware, click CD/DVD Drive.
4. Click Edit.
5. The media source machine is selected at the top of the dialog box.

   Select an action:

   • To connect the CD/DVD drive to the ESX Server devices or files, select Host Media.
   • To connect the CD/DVD drive to devices on your computer, click Client Media.

     Client Media is supported on ESX Server 3 virtual machines only. For more information on client devices, see Using Client Devices.

     The remainder of the dialog box contents changes to accommodate the capabilities of the selected media source. For example, virtual machines cannot connect to client media while powering on. Consequently, the Connect at power on check box is disabled if the Client Media option is selected.

6. To connect this virtual machine to the server's CD/DVD drive when the virtual machine is powered on, select Connect at power on.
7. Specify whether to connect to the server's CD/DVD drive or to an ISO image.

   Select Physical Drive or ISO Image.

8. Enter the location of the drive or ISO image in the Physical Drive field.

   For example, the server's CD drive could be /dev/cdrom.

9. Select the IDE device node from the IDE Device Node list.
10. Click OK.

When you click OK after you connect the drive to Client Media, a Device Status pop-up window appears. This window must remain open to keep the client device connected. Turn off pop-up blocking on your browser before you connect a drive to client media.