6.7

Change the Parallel Port Configuration
You can change the output file for peripheral device output and schedule the parallel port to connect when
the virtual machine powers on.
Note If you are changing the parallel port on a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi 4.1 or earlier host,
you can send output to a physical parallel port on the host or to an output file on the host. This option is
not available with ESXi 5.0 and later.
Prerequisites
Verify that you have the following privileges:
n
Virtual machine.Configuration.Modify device settings on the virtual machine.
n
Virtual machine .Interaction .Device connection on the virtual machine to change the device
connection status.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand Parallel port.
3 For virtual machines running on ESXi 4.1 and earlier hosts, select the type of media for the parallel
port to access.
4 Click Browse to navigate to the file location.
5 Type a name for the file in the Save As text box and click OK.
The file path appears in the Connection text box.
6 Select whether to connect the device whenever you power on the virtual machine.
You can change this setting when the virtual machine is either powered on or powered off.
7 Click OK.
Add a Parallel Port to a Virtual Machine vSphere Web Client
To connect peripheral devices to virtual machines, such as printers or scanners, you can use a parallel
port. You send the output of such devices to a file on the host computer.
Note If you are adding a parallel port to a virtual machine that runs on an ESXi 4.1 or earlier host, you
can also select to send output to a physical parallel port on the host. This option is not available with ESXi
5.0 and later host versions.
Important With virtual hardware version 11 and later, if you configure a virtual machine without parallel
ports, they are entirely removed from the virtual chipset and they are not visible to the guest OS.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
VMware, Inc. 133