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Mounting ISO from ILO/iDRAC of an ESXi host

 

Symptoms
Does not detect the ISO.
Purpose
To mount an ISO from ILO/iDRAC to ESXi host.
Cause
Unknown
Workaround
  •  Run below command and see if you can find any USB vmhba
esxcfg-mpath -l

For eg.,
usb.vmhba32-usb.0:0-eui.00e04c2020202000
   Runtime Name: vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device: eui.00e04c2020202000
   Device Display Name: Local USB Direct-Access (eui.00e04c2020202000)
   Adapter: vmhba32 Channel: 0 Target: 0 LUN: 0
   Adapter Identifier: usb.vmhba32
   Target Identifier: usb.0:0
   Plugin: NMP
   State: active
   Transport: usb
usb.vmhba33-usb.0:0-
   Runtime Name: vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
   Device: No associated device
   Device Display Name: No associated device
   Adapter: vmhba33 Channel: 0 Target: 0 LUN: 0
   Adapter Identifier: usb.vmhba33
   Target Identifier: usb.0:0
   Plugin: NMP
   State: active
   Transport: usb
   
  • The USB vmhba  showing "No associated device" is the virtual USB / USB cd-rom where ISO has been mounted from iLO/iDRAC.
  •  Run below command to load the iso9660 module.
vmkload_mod iso9660
  • Run below command and you should be able to see an attached device/path for the ISO on USB vmhba.
esxcfg-mpath -l

For eg.,

usb.vmhba32-usb.0:0-eui.00e04c2020202000
   Runtime Name: vmhba32:C0:T0:L0
   Device: eui.00e04c2020202000
   Device Display Name: Local USB Direct-Access (eui.00e04c2020202000)
   Adapter: vmhba32 Channel: 0 Target: 0 LUN: 0
   Adapter Identifier: usb.vmhba32
   Target Identifier: usb.0:0
   Plugin: NMP
   State: active
   Transport: usb
usb.vmhba33-usb.0:0-mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
   Runtime Name: vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
   Device: mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
   Device Display Name: Local USB Direct-Access (mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0)
   Adapter: vmhba33 Channel: 0 Target: 0 LUN: 0
   Adapter Identifier: usb.vmhba33
   Target Identifier: usb.0:0
   Plugin: NMP
   State: active
   Transport: usb
  •  To mount the ISO to the host run below command.
vsish -e set /vmkModules/iso9660/mount mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
  • After that you should see a new datastore showing the ISO contents and you should be able to browse to that datastore.
ls -l /vmfs/volumes/
cd /vmfs/volumes/<datastore_name>
  • If you want to unmount the ISO, please run below command.
vsish -e set /vmkModules/iso9660/umount mpx.vmhba33:C0:T0:L0
  • To unload the iso9660 module.
vmkload_mod -u iso9660

Note- Please make sure the ISO is mounted at iLO/iDRAC and is visible in BIOS before proceeding with the above steps.

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