Copy and paste into an ESXi hosted virtual machine?

[Martin]

I am trying to copy and paste from my laptop (e.g. from my Desktop) which is running VMware vSphere client into a VM (running Windows Server 2003) running on an EXSi 4.1 (free) host server - just like i can do into VMware Workstation running on the same laptop.

Now i know that they defaulted this to NOT work on ESXi 4.1 (for security reasons), but setting the VM Configuration Parameters isolation.tools.copy.disable and isolation.tools.paste.disable both to "false" still does not seem to enable it

Anyone any idea why i can't copy and paste into an ESXi 4.1 VM (or is there some other way to easily transfer files when the VM is on an isolated/host-only vSwitch)?

Thanks in advance,

mb

[jamesb]

Did you restart the machine after making the config changes?

[Martin]

Yup, both the VM, the ESXi host and my laptop

The VM needs to be "off" to change the (advanced) config anyway!

mb

[Martin]

Thought that i would resurrect this thread as i have had a bit more time to play with things.

Disabling "isolation.tools.copy.disable" and "isolation.tools.paste.disable" does allow you to copy a text string from a VM onto your local machine (the one running vSphere Client) and vice versa. However VMWare Workstation allows you to copy a file from, say, your VM desktop to your local desktop - something that vSphere Client does not appear to allow you to do.

This looks like a (frustrating) restriction, so does anyone know of any other ways of quickly copying data (files) to and from a VM that resides on the equivalent of a host-only network switch. I can transfer stuff in bulk from my local desktop by creating an ISO file containing the required files and then mounting the virtual CD onto the VM via "Connect to ISO image on local disk..." - but i can't find a way of going the other way around

Are there any other methods of tansferring data to and fro??

Thanks in advance,

mb

[Abaddon]

Map a drive to the VM?

[jamesb]

Map a drive to the VM?

This. Or set up an FTP server, or something similar. VMWare went into detail about why they disabled the copy-paste functionality, but it basically boils down to it being a security risk.

[Martin]

Map a drive to the VM?

But how do i map a drive when (from a Windows perspective) the VM runs in an isolated network?

mb

[Martin]

This. Or set up an FTP server, or something similar. VMWare went into detail about why they disabled the copy-paste functionality, but it basically boils down to it being a security risk.

Similar to above, FTP will only work if the local machine can "see" the VM over an IP network, yet the VM is on a host-only switch - not connected to the outside world.

mb

[Abaddon]

Sorry - completely missed the host-only bit. I don't see any way of doing what you want - is there a particular reason it's host-only?

[TobyS]

You could either add the required files to a .iso image and mount the virtual image to the machine, or create a text file, rename it , <NAME>.FLP (which denotes a vmware floppy image) mount in a network connected machine, add files and them mount to isolated machine, or - probably the quickest way - use a spare USB key as your copy buffer - copy from physical pc to usb, mount to isolated vm, copy off.