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iDRAC 8/7 v2.50.50.50 User’s Guide

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Managing virtual media

Virtual media allows the managed server to access media devices on the management station or ISO CD/DVD images on a network share as if they were devices on the managed server.

Using the Virtual Media feature, you can:
  • Remotely access media connected to a remote system over the network
  • Install applications
  • Update drivers
  • Install an operating system on the managed system

This is a licensed feature for rack and tower servers. It is available by default for blade servers.

The key features are:
  • Virtual Media supports virtual optical drives (CD/DVD), floppy drives (including USB-based drives), and USB flash drives.
  • You can attach only one floppy, USB flash drive, image, or key and one optical drive on the management station to a managed system. Supported floppy drives include a floppy image or one available floppy drive. Supported optical drives include a maximum of one available optical drive or one ISO image file.

    The following figure shows a typical Virtual Media setup.

  • Virtual floppy media of iDRAC is not accessible from virtual machines.
  • Any connected Virtual Media emulates a physical device on the managed system.
  • On Windows-based managed systems, the Virtual Media drives are auto-mounted if they are attached and configured with a drive letter.
  • On Linux-based managed systems with some configurations, the Virtual Media drives are not auto-mounted. To manually mount the drives, use the mount command.
  • All the virtual drive access requests from the managed system are directed to the management station across the network.
  • Virtual devices appear as two drives on the managed system without the media being installed in the drives.
  • You can share the management station CD/DVD drive (read only), but not a USB media, between two managed systems.
  • Virtual media requires a minimum available network bandwidth of 128 Kbps.
  • If LOM or NIC failover occurs, then the Virtual Media session may be disconnected.
Figure 1. Virtual media setup
Virtual Media setup

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