HOWTO: Re-enable VMware Console copy/paste functionality

HOWTO: Re-enable VMware Console copy/paste functionality

So, if you’re like me, you copy and paste a lot fro your VM consoles – or *want* to.  It kind of drove me nuts for a while, as I was certain I’d done this in the past, hit or miss.  Turns out it’s a feature that got disabled by default after vSphere 4.1 as a “security concern”. 

Now, I can understand why or how it could be a concern, but let’s be realistic:

• A user who has access to the console, is likely a Domain Admin – or at least a vSphere Admin, unless roles have been delegated
• 
  
• We likely have DEV/TEST environments, and/or DMZ’s that have VM’s that can’t easily see, browse, RDP, 
• etc, to your workstation or other networks.
• 
  
• Copy and paste is *good*, darn it!

VMware has a KB 1026437 that talks about how to re-enable this:http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1026437

By far the best option for me is the second option, which enables it for all VM’s on a host:

First ensure SSH server is running on the ESXi host.

Then make sure the firewall on the ESXi host will allow SSH connections

1. Log in to the ESX/ESXi host as a root user.

2. Take a backup of the /etc/vmware/settings file.

3. Open the /etc/vmware/settings file using a text editor.

4. Add these entries to the file: isolation.tools.copy.disable="FALSE" 
   isolation.tools.paste.disable="FALSE"

5. Save and close the file. 

The Copy and Paste options are only enabled when the virtual machines restart or resume the next time or shutdown and power-on the virtual machine for changes to take effect

It should be noted that these changes will not remain after a host upgrade.  So you may need these to be part of your scripting, use the vMA, or my preference, embed it in your kickstart.cfg files you use for installation customization.