6.5.1

Table Of Contents
By default, passthrough IDE mode is used for remote client device access. You can write or burn a
remote CD only through passthrough mode access.
Prerequisites
Verify that the virtual machine is turned on.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and click the Summary tab.
2 In the VM Hardware pane, click the CD/DVD drive connection icon, select an available drive to
connect to, and browse for the CD/DVD media.
An Access Control dialog box opens. Click allow to proceed. To change your selection, click the
connection icon, select Disconnect, and select a different option.
Add a CD or DVD Drive to a Virtual Machine in the
vSphere Web Client
You can use a physical drive on a client or host or you can use an ISO image to add a CD/DVD drive to a
virtual machine. CD/DVD drives are necessary for installing a guest operating system and VMware Tools.
The following conditions exist:
n
If you add a CD/DVD drive that is backed by a USB CD/DVD drive on the host, you must add the
drive as a SCSI device. Hot adding and removing SCSI devices is not supported.
n
You must disconnect virtual machines that have CD drives that are backed by the physical CD drive
on the host, before you migrate the virtual machine.
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You access the host CD-ROM device through emulation mode. Passthrough mode is not functional
for local host CD-ROM access. You can write or burn a remote CD only through passthrough mode
access, but in emulation mode you can only read a CD-ROM from a host CD-ROM device.
Prerequisites
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Verify that the virtual machine is turned off.
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If an ISO image file is not available on a local or shared datastore, upload an ISO image to a
datastore from your local system by using the datastore file browser. See Upload ISO Image
Installation Media for a Guest Operating System.
n
Verify that you have the Virtual machine.Configuration.Add or remove device privilege on the
virtual machine.
Procedure
1 Right-click a virtual machine in the inventory and select Edit Settings.
2 From the New device drop-down menu, select CD/DVD Drive and click Add .
The new drive appears at the bottom of the Virtual Hardware list.
vSphere Virtual Machine Administration
VMware, Inc. 145