Copy files to USB drive under VMware ESX4/ESXi4 (vSphere) console

AID: 2094
  • Status: Published

11572 points

  • Byryder0707
  • TypeTips/Tricks
  • Posted on2009-12-12 at 11:37:03
This article describes how you can connect a USB drive directly to an esx4/esxi4(vSphere) host
As most people know, this is an unsupported method and undocumented by vmware

Refer to KB Article: 1015 http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=1015&sliceId=2&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&dialogID=53350659&stateId=0

Hopefully this will be the first article to discuss about copying files to USB drive under vmware esx/esxi console, as most returned results from Google search are basically for a VM(Virtual Machine) to access USB drive on the vSphere host via VMDirectPath. For short, VMDirectPath requires IOMMU feature enabled in BIOS and allows VM to access an USB drive attached to esx4/esxi4 host directly

Why do you want to connect a USB drive to an esx4/esxi4 host under console?
Quick copy/backup of virtual machine files or other files such as dump, log, txt, conf, etc. at the console without needing a vSphere Client or other machine to download the files

Requirements:
1.      Server hardware with USB controller/port (It may not work for all hardware)
2.      esxi4/esx4 installed (First release, haven't tried on Update 1 yet)
3.      USB drive (any type of USB drive should work but must be formatted correctly, refer steps below)
4.      Yourself physically at the server and a bit of luck with the hardware
5.      Minor unix skills

STEPS FOR VMware ESX 4

1.      Format the USB drive with the classic FAT aka FAT16 or FAT32 filesystem
2.      If you need linux ext3 you can format it with mke2fs -j /dev/sdXX (refer to step 6 for the correct device)
3.      FAT/ ext3 will work but since Windows based machines are highly available today, it is recommended that to format the USB drive with FAT using any Windows based machine, for example you can format the USB drive under Windows XP Professional
4.      FAT is also the prefered file system for this because it can be read by almost any OS, so you can still use the USB drive for other purposes but take note due to FAT file system limitation, you can't copy large files more than 4GB, so if you really need to copy huge vmdk files, format drive with ext3 instead or use the split command to split the huge file to smaller files(for eg. split -b 2000m /path/to/large/file prefix_name)
5.      Login to your esx service sonsole with a non root, always use sudo to run command
6.      List current partition in with sudo fdisk -l | more (lines shortened to simplify output)
Disk /dev/sda: 10.7 GB, 10737418240 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1305 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         140     1124518+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2             141         154      112455   fc  VMware VMKCORE
/dev/sda3             155        1305     9245407+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5             155        1305     9245376   fb  VMware VMFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 7973 MB, 7973371904 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 969 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1          76      610438+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb2              77         331     2048287+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb3             332         969     5124735    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5             332         969     5124703+  83  Linux
                                    
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7.      List current path (lines shortened to simplify output)
ide.vmhba32-ide.0:0-mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local NECVMWar CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0)
   State: active
   Transport: ide

pscsi.vmhba0-pscsi.0:0-mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba0:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local VMware, Disk (mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0)
    State: active
   Transport: parallel
                                    
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8.      Now plug in the drive to any available USB port
9.      Wait for few seconds for the device to initialize or wait until LED to stop blinking(if any)
10.      Sudo tail -n 30 /var/log/messages
Nov 10 00:13:01 esx kernel: [ 1846.960769] scsi6 : usb-storage
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.251287]   Vendor: Kingston  Model: DataTraveler 2.0  Rev: PMAP
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.257273]   Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.296265] SCSI device sde: 3919872 512-byte hdwr sectors (2007 MB)
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.319976] sde: Write Protect is off
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.372450] sde: got wrong page
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.374587] sde: assuming drive cache: write through
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.407522] SCSI device sde: 3919872 512-byte hdwr sectors (2007 MB)
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.418315] sde: Write Protect is off
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.431574] sde: got wrong page
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.440507] sde: assuming drive cache: write through
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.440514]  sde: sde1
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.447718] sd 4:0:4:0: Attached scsi removable disk sde
Nov 10 00:13:04 esx kernel: [ 1849.449689] sd 4:0:4:0: Attached scsi generic sg5 type 0
                                    
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11.      As you can see the USB drive is detected & initialized by host
12.      Now verify current partition in with sudo fdisk -l | more
Disk /dev/sda: 10.7 GB, 10737418240 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1305 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1         140     1124518+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2             141         154      112455   fc  VMware VMKCORE
/dev/sda3             155        1305     9245407+   5  Extended
/dev/sda5             155        1305     9245376   fb  VMware VMFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 7973 MB, 7973371904 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 969 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1               1          76      610438+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb2              77         331     2048287+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb3             332         969     5124735    5  Extended
/dev/sdb5             332         969     5124703+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sde: 2006 MB, 2006974464 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 7656 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sde1               1        7656     1959920    6  FAT16
                                    
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13.      From the output above, /dev/sde1 is actually the USB drive (it may be different on your machine but it will be in this format /dev/sdXX)
14.      Now verify current path with esxcfg-mpath -l (lines shortened to simplify output)
ide.vmhba32-ide.0:0-mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local NECVMWar CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0)
    State: active
   Transport: ide

pscsi.vmhba0-pscsi.0:0-mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba0:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local VMware, Disk (mpx.vmhba0:C0:T0:L0)
   State: active
   Transport: parallel

usb.vmhba34-usb.0:0-mpx.vmhba34:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba34:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba34:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local USB Direct-Access (mpx.vmhba34:C0:T0:L0)
    State: active
   Transport: usb
                                    
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15.      As you can see, the USB drive is active and ready to be mounted
16.      Type sudo mkdir /mnt/myusb
17.      Type sudo mount /dev/sde1 /mnt/myusb
18.      Note, you don't even have to specify the filesystem with -t
19.      Now verify current mount points by typing mount
/dev/sdb5 on / type ext3 (rw)
None on /proc type proc (rw)
None on /sys type sysfs (rw)
None on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sdb2 on /var/log type ext3 (rw,errors=panic)
none on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw)
sunrpc on /var/lib/nfs/rpc_pipefs type rpc_pipefs (rw)
/dev/sde1 on /mnt/myusb type vfat (rw)
                                    
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20.      Your USB drive is now mounted as vfat
21.      Try copying files from /vmfs/volumes/your_datastore/your_vm to your USB drive
22.      For example, sudo cp /vmfs/volumes/iscsi-50GB/VDR-01/*.log /mnt/myusb
23.      Now verify copied files in your USB drive, sudo ls -lah /mnt/myusb
total 548K
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  16K Nov 10 00:32 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4.0K Nov 10 00:23 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  35K Nov 10 00:32 vmware-1.log
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  52K Nov 10 00:32 vmware-2.log
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  55K Nov 10 00:32 vmware-3.log
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  56K Nov 10 00:32 vmware-4.log
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  56K Nov  9 23:26 vmware-5.log
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  56K Nov  9 23:26 vmware-6.log
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  58K Nov  9 23:26 vmware-7.log
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  52K Nov 10 00:32 vmware.log
                                    
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24.      Now you get the idea, happy copying files to USB drive on your esx host!
25.      By the way, if you are wondering what happen if you try to mount NTFS drive, you will get this friendly message "mount: unknown filesystem type 'ntfs'"

STEPS FOR VMware ESXi 4

1.      Note, ext3 will not work with esxi!
2.      Assuming USB drive is already formatted with FAT, login to "unsupported mode"
3.      At the esxi console, press alt+F1 and Type: unsupported (you can't see what you type and hit ENTER)
4.      Key in the root password(you can't see what you type and hit ENTER)
5.      View current partition with fdisk -l
Disk /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0: 10.7 GB, 10737418240 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 10240 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

                          Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p1             5       900    917504    5  Extended
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p2           901      4995   4193280    6  FAT16
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p3          4996     10240   5370880   fb  VMFS
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p4   *         1         4      4080    4  FAT16 <32M
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p5             5       254    255984    6  FAT16
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p6           255       504    255984    6  FAT16
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p7           505       614    112624   fc  VMKcore
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p8           615       900    292848    6  FAT16
                                    
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6.      View current path with esxcfg-mpath -l
ide.vmhba32-ide.0:0-mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local MagicISO CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0)
   State: active
   Transport: ide

pscsi.vmhba1-pscsi.0:0-mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba1:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local VMware, Disk (mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0)
   State: active
   Transport: parallel
                                    
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7.      Now plug in the drive to any available USB port
8.      Wait for few seconds for the device to initialize or wait until LED to stop blinking(if any)
9.      Sudo tail -n 30 /var/log/messages
Dec 13 02:01:21 vmkernel: 0:00:04:46.032 cpu0:4298)<6>usb 1-1: New USB device found, idVendor=0951, idProduct=1607
Dec 13 02:01:21 vmkernel: 0:00:04:46.032 cpu1:8807)<7>usb-storage: device found at 2
Dec 13 02:01:21 vmkernel: 0:00:04:46.032 cpu0:4298)<6>usb 1-1: new device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
Dec 13 02:01:21 vmkernel: 0:00:04:46.032 cpu1:8807)<7>usb-storage: waiting for device to settle before scanning
Dec 13 02:01:21 vmkernel: 0:00:04:46.043 cpu0:4117)ScsiNpiv: 1304: GetInfo for adapter vmhba33, [0x410004103bc0], max_vports=0, vports_inuse=0, linktype=0, state=0, failreason=0, rv=-1, sts=bad0020
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.038 cpu0:8806)usb-storage: detected SCSI revision number 0 on vmhba33
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.038 cpu0:8806)usb-storage: patching inquiry data to change SCSI revision number from 0 to 2 on vmhba33
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.038 cpu1:8807)ScsiScan: 839: Path 'vmhba33:C0:T0:L0': Vendor: 'Kingston'  Model: 'DataTraveler 2.0'  Rev: 'PMAP'
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.038 cpu1:8807)ScsiScan: 842: Path 'vmhba33:C0:T0:L0': Type: 0x0, ANSI rev: 2, TPGS: 0 (none)
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.038 cpu0:8807)ScsiUid: 268: Path 'vmhba33:C0:T0:L0' does not support VPD Device Id page.
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.038 cpu0:8807)ScsiScan: 954: Path 'vmhba33:C0:T0:L0' : No standard UID: Failure. ANSI version 'SCSI-2' (0x2).
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.039 cpu0:8807)VMWARE SCSI Id: Could not get disk id for vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.040 cpu0:8807)ScsiPath: 3698: Plugin 'NMP' claimed path 'vmhba33:C0:T0:L0'
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.046 cpu1:8806)usb-storage: detected SCSI revision number 0 on vmhba33
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.046 cpu1:8806)usb-storage: patching inquiry data to change SCSI revision number from 0 to 2 on vmhba33
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.046 cpu0:8807)ScsiUid: 268: Path 'vmhba33:C0:T0:L0' does not support VPD Device Id page.
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.047 cpu1:8807)VMWARE SCSI Id: Could not get disk id for vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
Dec 13 02:01:23 Hostd: [2009-12-13 02:01:23.768 33018B90 verbose 'StorageSystem'] StoragePathUpdate Refresh --: [N11HostdCommon25VmkernelUpdateStoragePathE:0xec882f8] timestamp=1260669683768212 updated=0xecd3a08
Dec 13 02:01:23 Hostd: [2009-12-13 02:01:23.768 33018B90 verbose 'StorageSystem'] SendStorageInfoEvent() called
Dec 13 02:01:23 Hostd: [2009-12-13 02:01:23.769 33018B90 verbose 'StorageSystem'] StoragePathUpdate: Path state change event generated Storage related Notifications
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.047 cpu1:8807)VMWARE SCSI Id: Could not get disk id for vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.047 cpu1:8807)ScsiDeviceIO: 2114: Get VPD 80 Inquiry for device "mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0" from Plugin "NMP" failed. Not supported
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.047 cpu1:8807)ScsiDeviceIO: 2124: Get VPD 83 Inquiry for device "mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0" from Plugin "NMP" failed. Not supported
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.102 cpu1:8807)FSS: 3647: No FS driver claimed device 'mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0:1': Not supported
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.102 cpu1:8807)ScsiDevice: 1757: Successfully registered device "mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0" from plugin "NMP" of type 0
Dec 13 02:01:23 vmkernel: 0:00:04:48.104 cpu1:8807)<7>usb-storage: device scan complete
                                    
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10.      As you can see the USB drive is detected as vmhba33:C0:T0:
11.       Now verify current partition in with sudo fdisk -l | more
Disk /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0: 2006 MB, 2006974464 bytes
16 heads, 32 sectors/track, 7656 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 512 * 512 = 262144 bytes

                           Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0p1             1      7656   1959920    6  FAT16

Disk /dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0: 10.7 GB, 10737418240 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 10240 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2048 * 512 = 1048576 bytes

                          Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks  Id System
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p1             5       900    917504    5  Extended
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p2           901      4995   4193280    6  FAT16
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p3          4996     10240   5370880   fb  VMFS
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p4   *         1         4      4080    4  FAT16 <32M
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p5             5       254    255984    6  FAT16
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p6           255       504    255984    6  FAT16
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p7           505       614    112624   fc  VMKcore
/dev/disks/mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0p8           615       900    292848    6  FAT16
                                    
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12.      From the output, we can see that the drive partition is detected fine as well
13.      Now verify all paths with esxcfg-mpath -l
ide.vmhba32-ide.0:0-mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local MagicISO CD-ROM (mpx.vmhba32:C0:T0:L0)
    State: active
   Transport: ide

usb.vmhba33-usb.0:0-mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local USB Direct-Access (mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0)
   State: active
   Transport: usb

pscsi.vmhba1-pscsi.0:0-mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba1:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local VMware, Disk (mpx.vmhba1:C0:T0:L0)
    State: active
   Transport: parallel
                                    
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14.      Looks good, but how do we mount it?
15.      Well the answer is you don't have to! It's already magically mounted! As long as the USB drive is formatted with FAT, esxi4 will mount it as NO NAME under /vmfs/volumes/
16.      To check this, simply ls -lah /vmfs/volumes (lines shortened to simplify output)
l---------    0 root     root         1.9k Jan  1  1970 Hypervisor1 -> 8cb4ed7d-7ff4129e-ea93-3a40177d3073
l---------    0 root     root         1.9k Jan  1  1970 Hypervisor2 -> be05e675-6944d5d6-989a-883d97a99f55
l---------    0 root     root         1.9k Jan  1  1970 Hypervisor3 -> efd8efe3-03bc1cbf-15e0-080efd9e7379
l---------    0 root     root         1.9k Jan  1  1970 NO NAME -> mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0:1
l---------    0 root     root         1.9k Jan  1  1970 datastore1 -> 4b2448d6-67f9bb38-2010-000c2963e851
                                    
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17.      Meaning you can copy files from anywhere to /vmfs/volumes/NO\ NAME/
18.      Again, it is actually /vmfs/volumes/NO\ NAME/ with the backslash in between NO and NAME not /vmfs/volumes/NO NAME/ or you can use the TAB button to complete it as you type /vmfs/volumes/N
19.      If that is too complicated, mkdir /myusb
20.      Create a soft symbolic link(shortcut), ln -s /vmfs/volumes/NO\ NAME /myusb/
21.      From now on, you can copy files to /myusb for example cp /etc/*.conf /myusb/
22.      Now you get the idea, happy copying files to USB drive on your esxi host!

Thanks for reading my article and try this on a test server first!
If you dont understand or not sure, i recommend to get someone familiar with esx/esxi to assist you.
Cheers!
Asked On
2009-12-12 at 11:37:03ID2094
Tags

usb drive

,

esx

,

esxi

,

vsphre

,

console

,

unsupported

,

copy

Topic

VMware

Views
30070

About The Author

ryder0707

Comments

Expert Comment

by: rindi on 2009-12-16 at 01:50:45ID: 6752

Maybe a simple Question, but how do you get to the Console ("CLI") in ESXi 4  Server? On the Server itself I only get a simple interface where I can change the network setting, passwords, view logs etc, but I don't have any normal bash prompt access. I also tried connecting to the server from a Linux PC using ssh, but there doesn't seem to be any SSH Server running on the ESXi Server. The ViClient tool running on a Windows 7 PC also doesn't have any options that I can find with which I can get to a command prompt on the ESXi server.

Author Comment

by: ryder0707 on 2009-12-16 at 03:26:10ID: 6760

As desribed in the step, you need to login to "unsupported mode"
See here http://www.virtualizationadmin.com/articles-tutorials/vmware-esx-articles/general/how-to-access-the-vmware-esxi-hidden-console.html

Expert Comment

by: tracerb on 2010-01-22 at 19:03:05ID: 8333

Hi. The USB drive didn't automount in Volumes. Everything else worked fine. What's the best way to mount the USB drive now?

Author Comment

by: ryder0707 on 2010-01-22 at 19:09:00ID: 8334

Can you be more speciifc what you mean by that?

Expert Comment

by: tracerb on 2010-01-22 at 19:33:28ID: 8336

Under the ESXi4 instructions, I followed all the way down to point 14 and it was matching your screenshot outputs perfectly.

In point 14 you ask how do we mount it and in point 15 you state that it you don't have to as it is magically automounted as long as it is a FAT formatted disk.

Unfortunately, when I follow the instructions for point 16 I don't see a NO NAME volume only the volumes for the Hypervisors and datastores. The USB drive hasn't been mounted.

I was wondering if it was possible to manually mount the USB disk or why mine wouldn't have automounted when everything else worked perfectly.

Author Comment

by: ryder0707 on 2010-01-22 at 21:06:59ID: 8341

That's strange, have you tried restarting the host?
As i said, it may not work on all hardware

Expert Comment

by: tracerb on 2010-01-22 at 21:21:07ID: 8342

Yes. Unfortunately, I'm having to try this as I'm trying to resurrect a friend's primary server for his small business. The IT integrators he had come in and originally set him up installed ESXi 3.5 on an HP Proliant ML150 and then promptly placed MS SBS2008 and Terminal Server on 2 VM's under ESXi and didn't supply him with the root password and didn't set the VM's to autostart on reboot.

He had a power outage yesterday and now can't get in to restart the VMs due to not knowing the password (and he can't get it either). I've turned up with ESX4i on USB and booted off of that to actually get in to the disks and I wanted to take a backup of the VMDK's I can now access following your handy hint before I try and run a repair on the ESXi 3.5 to remove the unknown root password. Little bit concerned as there is NO backup in place and all his business files etc are on the VMs. The Proliant had a TBU and he had thought it was being backed up to that unfortunately the integrators didn't configure it to take backups (handy).

I've tried searching alternative ways of bypassing the ESXi3.5 root password but no joy, repair seems the only option. While it may be 99% reliable, my mate doesn't want to risk the 1% unreliable on his data until it is the last resort. In your infinite wisdom in regards to vmware, am I missing something glaringly obvious I could be doing to a) ensure a successful backup of his VMs and b) bypassing the unknown root password?

I know I've gone a little OFT, I'm sorry, but a bit desperate now and appreciate any advice you could offer.

Author Comment

by: ryder0707 on 2010-01-22 at 21:24:39ID: 8343

Why dont you post a Q under vmware zone, i dont think this is a good place to discuss Q

Expert Comment

by: tracerb on 2010-01-22 at 21:29:16ID: 8344

Thanks. Have done so.

Expert Comment

by: ooharris on 2010-02-24 at 12:06:06ID: 10041

I have the same problem - I found a post on the vmware website that suggests this has been resolved in update1.

Author Comment

by: ryder0707 on 2010-02-24 at 15:59:16ID: 10045

Can you share the post link?

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