CD/DVD drive automatically connected at power on despite "Connect At Power On" being unchecked

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

A virtual machine (VM) may exhibit unexpected behavior where the CD/DVD drive is automatically marked as Connected immediately upon power on, even when the Connect At Power On option is disabled in the VM hardware settings.

Environment

VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Cause

This issue occurs if the advanced parameter sata0:0.connectionStatus is present and its value is set to 1 in the VM's configuration.

Note: The prefix sata0:0 may vary depending on the environment and the device node assigned to the CD/DVD drive, such as ide0:0 or sata0:1.

Resolution

First check the Virtual Device Node of the CD/DVD drive, and then remove the parameter from the VM's advanced settings:

1. Right-click the VM and select Edit Settings.
2. On the Virtual Hardware tab, expand the CD/DVD drive section and note the Virtual Device Node (e.g., SATA (0:0)). 
3. Select Advanced Parameters tab.
4. Locate the row where the Name matches your device node's connection status (e.g., sata0:0.connectionStatus).
   Note: The prefix varies depending on the Virtual Device Node confirmed in Step 2, such as ide0:0 or sata0:1.
5. Click the ellipsis icon (...) for that row and select Remove.
6. Click OK to save the changes.

Note: Do not use the filter function in the vCenter UI when searching for this parameter. There is a known issue that prevents parameters from being removed when a filter is applied. For more details, see: Unable to delete a VM advance parameter from the vCenter UI if a filter is selected