VMware 4817V62 - vSphere - PC Administration Manual page 157

Start the Add Hardware Wizard
The Add Hardware Wizard enables you to reconfigure a virtual machine's hardware.
Procedure
1 In the vSphere Client, click Inventory in the navigation bar. Expand the inventory as needed, and click
the appropriate virtual machine.
2 To display the Virtual Machine Properties dialog box, click the Edit Settings link in the Commands panel.
3 Click the Hardware tab.
4 Click Add to start the Add Hardware wizard.
Add a Serial Port to a Virtual Machine
When you add a serial port to a virtual machine, you can use a physical serial port on the host, an output file,
or a named pipe.
Procedure
1 Start the Add Hardware wizard.
2 Select Serial Port, and click Next.
3 Select the type of media you want the virtual port to access: use a physical serial port on the host, output
to a file, or connect to a named pipe.
4 Click Next.
5 If you selected Use physical serial port on the host, use the drop-down menu to select the port on the
host computer that you want to use for this serial connection.
6 If you selected Output to file, browse to the file on the host that you want to use to store the output of the
virtual serial port.
7 If you selected Connect to named pipe, enter a pipe name in the Pipe Name field and use the drop-down
menus to select the near and far ends of the pipe.
The options for the near end are client or server. The options for the far end are a process or a virtual
machine.
By default, the serial port is connected when you power on the virtual machine.
8 (Optional) Deselect the Connect at power on check box if you do not want the serial port to connect when
the virtual machine is powered on.
9 (Optional) Deselect the I/O mode Yield CPU on poll check box if you want to configure this serial port to
use interrupt mode as opposed to polled mode.
Polled mode is of interest primarily to developers who are using debugging tools that communicate over
a serial connection. Polled mode causes the virtual machine to consume a disproportionate share of CPU
time. This makes the host and other guests run sluggishly.
10 (Optional) To maintain best performance for applications on the host, select the Yield CPU on poll check
box.
This forces the affected virtual machine to use interrupt mode, which yields CPU time if the only task it
is trying to do is poll the virtual serial port.
11 Review the information on the Ready to Complete page, and click Finish.
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Chapter 13 Virtual Machine Configuration
157