This blog post has been written by Dave Collier and Ananthanarayanan AK
With the release of the iDRAC7 1.50.50 firmware, significant enhancements have been made to the Virtual Media feature. First and foremost, Virtual Media operation is more intuitive than it was in previous releases, as it’s based on the server’s “view” of the virtual devices, rather than the client’s. In addition, Virtual Media is now integrated with the Virtual Console feature, though a stand-alone Virtual Media mode is available, as well.
Connecting and Mapping Virtual Media
To enable Virtual Media, open a Virtual Console session, select the Virtual Media menu and choose “Connect Virtual Media”.
Wait a few seconds while Virtual Media connects. Again select the Virtual Media menu and choose “Map CD/DVD” or “Map Removable Disk” (or “Map Floppy Disk”, if floppy emulation is enabled on the iDRAC Attached Media page).
Selecting “Map CD/DVD” will bring up the following dialog, where the CD/DVD media or image can be selected.
Note that the Drive/Image File drop-down list will include all unmapped devices of the selected type (i.e. CD/DVD), as well as image files of the appropriate type (.iso for CD/DVD, .img for removable and floppy disks) that are located in the default image file directory, which is typically the user’s desktop. If the desired drive or image file is not seen in the pull-down list, the “Browse” button can be clicked to navigate to the required location.
Once the desired drive or image has been selected, click “Map Device” to complete the activity.
At this point, selecting the Virtual Media menu option again will display the mapped device status:
The procedure is the same for mapping a Removable Disk or a Floppy.
Note that Virtual Media supports mapping a single DVD/CD and a single Removable Disk or Floppy at one time.
Virtual Media Status
At any time, details of the mapped devices can be displayed by selecting the Tools menu, and choosing “Stats”:
This will display the Virtual Console (KVM) and Virtual Media statistics, where the mapping information, read/write status, session duration and traffic metrics are presented:
Un mapping and Disconnecting Virtual Media
Note, it is always recommended to eject the Virtual Media drive from the host operating system prior to unmapping the device or disconnecting Virtual Media, in order to allow any pending file operations to complete.
To unmap a Virtual Media device, select the Virtual Media menu and choose the device you wish to unmap.
A popup warning will be displayed:
If you wish to continue to unmap the device, click “Yes”. Clicking “No” will exit the dialog without unmapping the device.
To disconnect Virtual Media (terminating the session and unmapping all Virtual Media drives), open the Virtual Media menu and select “Disconnect Virtual Media”.
Standalone Mode
As mentioned above, Virtual Media can be launched in standalone mode. This might be needed if Virtual Console is disabled or if your account has Virtual Media but not Virtual Console privileges. To launch Virtual Media in standalone mode, in the iDRAC tree view, select Virtual Console. On the Virtual Console page, click on Launch Virtual Console.
You might see this message:
If so, click OK. You might receive various certificate notices, if so, click through them.
The standalone Virtual Media window will be displayed.
You’ll note that this is the Virtual Media section of the Virtual Console and Virtual Media Stats page discussed above. From here, Virtual Media operations can be controlled as described above.
Creating an Image
To create a Virtual Media image, select the Virtual Media menu and click on “Create Image…”. The “Create Image from Folder” dialog will be displayed:
Browse to the desired Source Folder and the Image File location and click “Create Image”. The specified image file will be created.
We at Dell hope you find this enhanced and refined Virtual Media feature to streamline your server management processes. Please give us feedback on how we’re doing and what new features you’d like to see.