Disabling the HotAdd/HotPlug capability in virtual machines

Products

• VMware vSphere 7.0 with Tanzu
• VMware vSphere Essentials Plus
• VMware vSphere ESX 6.x
• VMware vSphere ESX 7.x
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article provides information on disabling the HotPlug capability on removable devices.

• NICs and SCSI controllers appear as removable devices.
• The Safely Remove Hardware option for the virtual hardware appears in the Windows System Tray.
• When using VMware View, you notice that View desktops that have persistent disks are disconnecting.

Resolution

You can disable HotPlug capability for devices using the vSphere Client or by editing the .vmx file. This setting does not interfere with CPU/memory HotPlug capabilities.

Note: You can disable HotPlug capability for PCI devices such as e1000 or vmxnet2 NICs.

To disable HotPlug capability follow the relevant steps below.

vSphere Client:

1. Connect to the ESXi/ESX host or vCenter Server using the vSphere Client.
2. Power off the virtual machine.
3. Right-click the virtual machine and click Edit Settings.
4. Click the Options tab.
5. Click General > Configuration Parameters > Add Row.
6. Insert a new row with the name devices.hotplug and a value of false.
7. Power on the virtual machine.

vSphere Web Client:

1. From a web browser, connect to the vSphere Web Client.
2. Log in with Administrator credentials.
3. Navigate to the virtual machine you want to modify.
4. Power off the virtual machine.
5. Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
6. Click the VM Options tab.
7. Click Advanced > Edit Configuration.
8. Either select Add Row, or enter the values directly into the provided fields at the bottom.
9. Insert a new row with the name devices.hotplug and a value of false.
10. Power on the virtual machine.

HTML5 Client:

1. From a web browser, connect to the HTML5 Client.
2. Log in with Administrator credentials.
3. Navigate to the virtual machine you want to modify.
4. Power off the virtual machine.
5. Right-click the virtual machine and select Edit Settings.
6. Click the VM Options tab.
7. Click Advanced > Edit Configuration.
8. Click Add Configuration Params to enter a new row
9. In the new row, enter the name devices.hotplug and a value of false.
10. Power on the virtual machine.

By editing the .vmx file:

1. Power off the virtual machine.
2. Access the ESXi/ESX service console using an SSH client.
3. Open the virtual machine configuration file (.vmx) in a text editor. The default location is:
   
   /vmfs/volumes/datastore_name/vm_name/vm_name.vmx
    
4. Add the line:
   
   devices.hotplug = "false"
   
   Note: This setting does not interfere with HotPlug CPU/memory.
    
5. Save and close the file.
6. Power on the virtual machine.

Note: If you are using VMware View, perform one of the preceding procedures for the parent virtual machine first, then perform these steps:
 

1. Create a new snapshot of the parent virtual machine:
    
   1. In the vSphere Client, right-click the parent virtual machine and click Snapshot > Take Snapshot.
   2. Give the snapshot a name and description.
   3. Click OK.
       
2. Recompose the affected pools to this new snapshot:
    
   1. In the View Manager console, select a pool and open it.
   2. Click View Composer > Recompose, and select the newly created snapshot.
   3. Click Next.
   4. Configure the Schedule and Warnings options.
   5. Click Next.
   6. Review the confirmation information.
   7. Click Finish and verify that the recompose operation successfully completes.
   8. Repeat the recompose procedure for all affected pools.