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I am running a vmware environment (Version 4 unfortunately) which requires me to use a bios rom file in order to run server 2012. I upload it to the root folder of the VM after creation, before boot and change some config lines.

bios440.filename = bios.440.rom
mce.enable = TRUE
cpuid.hypervisor.v0 = FALSE
vmGenCounter.enable = FALSE

Configuration Parameters and ROM from here

That works perfectly until I clone the VM or try and deploy a template. The file is not copied.

Is there any way to tell vmware that the file needs to be copied with the VM when cloning or deploying from template?

bios440.filename =[ESX-ISO (SAN1)] ROMs/bios.440.rom

Where the name of the datastore is ESX-ISO (SAN1)

ZZ9
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  • I'd suggest that making a long-term shim for this is far more effort than using a current and supported version of VMware. There's no excuse to still be on version 4 of vSphere in 2015. For your immediate situation, add a step to the process to make sure this boot file is present. – ewwhite Apr 14 '15 at 18:53
  • It's not an arrogant stance; I'd say that it's fairly accepted professional sysadmin practice to stay within a vendor's compatibility list. You say yoou have good reasons to stay on 4.0, but you also have good reasons to upgrade to 5.x - specifically, running Win2012. – mfinni Apr 14 '15 at 19:18
  • Have you tried just going into the datastore and copying/pasting the VM you want to copy and adding the resulting clone to the inventory? – Nathan C Apr 14 '15 at 19:43
  • That would work but then I do not get the deployment options from templates and its just as easy to copy the ROM. Thanks though. – ZZ9 Apr 14 '15 at 20:09

1 Answers1

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I found a solution... put the bios.440.rom in a "common" location and then give the full path to the rom in the VMX file

"/vmfs/volumes/mydatastore/bios.440.rom"

Neil OHara
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