One of the custom views I like to create is the ability to see which VMs in my clusters have a mounted ISO file. There are many justified reasons to mount an ISO file via the CD-ROM on a virtual machine. However, this prevents the VM from being able to vMotion. This can impact things like DRS or the ability to vMotion a VM while trying to put a host into maintenance mode for an upgrade. Below are the steps I took to create a custom view and report to show all the VM’s with mounted ISO files.
Pre-Req:
If you haven’t already go to Home > Troubleshoot > Compliance and enable vSphere Security Configuration Guide
—If you do not do this then you won’t get the security metrics required to create the custom view.
Step 1. Create the view
New view
Give it a name like -> VM’s with Mounted ISO
List -> we just need to see a list of the VM’s, nothing fancy here.
Select vCenter > Virtual Machine for subject
Change metric to properties
Drag and drop Guest OS Full Name into the data section
Go to Filter – Change Metric to Properties
Configuration > Security > Disconnect CD-ROM
You can also filter by disconnect and select CD-ROM
Select “is”
Select “false”
Then “Save”
Step 2. Create the report
Dashboards > Reports > New Template
Give the Report a name and description that will make it easy to filter by in the future
Use the filter to locate the view we created earlier
Double click the view to move it over
You can play around with format and layout or you can click save to create the custom report
Finally, you can now run the report against the object you desire.
Summary:
I find this report to be very useful and time saving when doing things like upgrade prep. I understand if you aren’t aware of where to look for all the little details it can be tedious to create this view and report. As always I hope this article helps anyone out there who has been having struggles generating a report like this.