ESXi 5.1 direct access

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rtangwai

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 26, 2007
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I'm new to Type-1 hypervisors (used Type-2 for years) and I have what might sound like a stupid question:

Is it possible to use the keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc. on the ESXi server itself to control *ONE* VM?

I just built a whitebox ESXi 5.1 server and I currently access it thru vSphere loaded on a workstation. Ideally I'd like it to double as a workstation because I am about to convert the workstation into a SAN (using FreeNAS). One of the VM's is Windows 7 (because my primary workstation on another floor of my house is Windows 8) and I was wondering if I could use it without going thru a client. I know it sounds redundant, this is why I used Type-2 hypervisors for so long but I'm tired of not getting jobs because I don't know VMware so I have to start somewhere. Can this be done or am I simply not getting the concept of a bare-metal hypervisor?
 
No because ESXI is a bare metal hypervisor. You must use the clients supplied in order to access it. It can double as a workstation if you run in ESXI inside of the VMware Workstation setup.

a bare metal hypervisor controls the hardware directly. There is no operating system that you can load under or over it.
 
So basically treat the ESXi box as something you tuck away in a corner and don't look at unless you smell smoke.
 
rtangwai said:
Hmmm, VMware must have been taking lessons from Novell :)
Click to expand...

hehe

Passthrough would do what you want - pass through a video card, and the keyboard/mouse. It's doable, but painful, since that's not what ESX was designed for.
 
lopoetve said:
hehe

Passthrough would do what you want - pass through a video card, and the keyboard/mouse. It's doable, but painful, since that's not what ESX was designed for.
Click to expand...

My problem is that you would still have to use a second computer to actually control the VM (settings, restart, etc.) even if I could get this to work. I've already tried, I got the video but the keyboard and mouse were surprisingly stubborn because there is a bug in ESXi 5.1 that breaks USB passthrough. I also couldn't get the audio working.
 
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