6.0

Add a Serial Port to a Virtual Machine in the vSphere Client
A virtual machine can use up to four virtual serial ports. You can connect the virtual serial port to a physical
serial port or to a file on the host computer. You can also use a host-side-named pipe to set up a direct
connection between two virtual machines or a connection between a virtual machine and an application on
the host computer. In addition, you can use a port or vSPC URI to connect a serial port over the network.
Prerequisites
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Verify that the virtual machine is powered off.
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Familiarize yourself with the media types for the port to access, vSPC connections, and any conditions
that might apply. See “Using Serial Ports with vSphere Virtual Machines,” on page 154.
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To connect a serial port over a network, add a Firewall rule set. See Adding a Firewall Rule Set for
Serial Port Network Connections.
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Required privilege: Virtual Machine .Configuration.Add or Remove Device
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Client inventory, right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
2 Click the Hardware tab and select Add.
3 Select Serial Port and click Next.
4 On the Serial Port Type page, select the type of media for the port to access.
Option Description
Use physical serial port on the host
Click Next and select the port from the drop-down menu.
Output to file
Click Next and browse to the location of the file on the host to store the
output of the virtual serial port.
Connect to named pipe
a Click Next and type a name for the pipe in the Pipe Name field.
b Select the Near end and Far end of the pipe from the drop-down
menus.
Connect via network
a Click Next and clickServer or Client and type the Port URI.
The URI is the remote end of the serial port to which the virtual
machine's serial port should connect.
b If vSPC is used as an intermediate step to access all virtual machines
through a single IP address, select Use Virtual Serial Port
Concentrator (vSPC) and type the vSPC URI location.
5 (Optional) Deselect Connect at power on if you do not want the parallel port device to be connected
when the virtual machine powers on.
6 (Optional) Select Yield on poll.
Select this option only for guest operating systems that use serial ports in polled mode. This option
prevents the guest from consuming excessive CPUs.
7 Review the information on the Ready to Complete page and click Finish.
Example: Establishing Serial Port Network Connections to a Client or Server
Without Authentication Parameters
If you do not use vSPC and you configure your virtual machine with a serial port connected as a server with
a telnet://:12345 URI, you can connect to your virtual machine's serial port from your Linux or Windows
operating system.
telnet yourESXiServerIPAddress 12345
vSphere Administration with the vSphere Client
156 VMware, Inc.