Audio redirection not supported on ESXi/ESX

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• You cannot perform audio redirection on a virtual machine console.
• You cannot play audio files by opening the console of a virtual machine.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 5.0
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Installable
VMware ESX 4.0.x
VMware ESX Server 3.5.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.5
VMware vSphere ESXi 5.1
VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.0.x Embedded
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded

Cause

This is expected behavior. The audio redirection feature is not supported on an ESXi/ESX server platform.

Resolution

You can perform audio redirection using only:

• VMware Horizon View
  
  Or
  
  
• A Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) session to a guest virtual machine.

Additional Information