Connecting a CD/DVD drive to a virtual machine fails with "Connection control operation failed for disk '###'"

Products

• VMware vSphere ESX 8.x
• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

• Connecting a CD/DVD drive to a virtual machine fails.

Operation:

1. 1. Select the virtual machine in the vSphere Client.
   2. Select "Datastore ISO File."
   3. Check "Connected" for the CD/DVD drive.

• If the connection fails, the following message will appear in the upper right corner of the vSphere Client screen.

Operation failed!
Task name: Reconfigure virtual machine
Target ######
Status: Connection control operation failed for disk '###'.

• The following output will be confirmed in the vmware.log of the target virtual machine.

CDROM: Connecting sata0:0 to '/vmfs/volumes/######/######/######.iso'. type=2 remote=0
AIOGNRC: Failed to open '/vmfs/volumes/######/######/######.iso': Insufficient permission to access the file (70003) (0x21).
CDROM-IMG: Image open for '/vmfs/volumes/######/######/######.iso' failed: Insufficient permission to access the file (70003).
CDROM: Failed to connect CDROM device '/vmfs/volumes/######/######/######.iso'

• The selected ISO file is stored in an NFS datastore.

 

• Moving the ISO file to another folder will allow the CD/DVD drive to connect properly.

For example, suppose you have two files like the following: 
File on Path 1 fails to connect the drive, but Path 2 works as expected.

Path 1: /vmfs/volumes/NFSdatastore/ISOImages/folderA/media.iso
Path 2: /vmfs/volumes/NFSdatastore/ISOImages/folderB/media.iso

 

Environment

vSphere 8.0

Cause

The NFS permission settings may be preventing the ESXi host from operating on the file correctly.

Resolution

Verify that the NFS settings for the NFS datastore grant the appropriate read/write permissions so that the ESXi host can access the file, and correct the settings as necessary.

If your NFS server has a "No Root Squash" option, verify that this option is enabled or contact your NFS server administrator.