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I followed these instructions for esxi 5.1 to enable copy paste from the host config. (search for "To enable this option for all the virtual machines in the ESX/ESXi host:") http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1026437

But copy and paste doesn't work for new VMs or existing VMs.

Did I do something wrong somewhere?

I've rebooted VMs and even rebooted host. I can confirm that if I do a per VM configuration, it works. Just not a central host config.

Here is my /etc/vmware/config file:

libdir = "/usr/lib/vmware"
authd.proxy.vim = "vmware-hostd:hostd-vmdb"  
authd.proxy.nfc = "vmware-hostd:ha-nfc"  
authd.proxy.nfcssl = "vmware-hostd:ha-nfcssl"
authd.proxy.vpxa-nfcssl = "vmware-vpxa:vpxa-nfcssl"
authd.proxy.vpxa-nfc = "vmware-vpxa:vpxa-nfc"
authd.fullpath = "/sbin/authd"
authd.soapServer = "TRUE"
vmauthd.server.alwaysProxy = "TRUE"

isolation.tools.copy.disable = "FALSE"  
isolation.tools.paste.disable = "FALSE"
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5 Answers 5

Reset to default
3

You must add:

isolation.tools.copy.disable = "FALSE"
isolation.tools.paste.disable = "FALSE"

to virtual machine configuration file (*.vmx). In my case this file is placed in:

/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/MyVmMachine/MyVmMachine.vmx

After editing this file and add two lines provided above copy paste works perfectly!

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  • 1
    this question relates to enabling from the host config, not each individual VM comfig.
    – w--
    Jun 27, 2013 at 20:54
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I just got copy/paste working on ESX 5.1

Two ways to affect copy/paste

  • Each VM you can add the "isolation.tools.*" variables
  • OR you can add Copy/Paste to all VMs by SSH'ing into ESX and edit /etc/vmware/config

I think your issue may be that you need to Power-Off and back on the machine ... not just an OS reboot, actually from Vsphere. Here's VMware's KB quote:

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. This must be done on the virtual machine side, not the guest OS side.

Secondly, make sure VMware tools are installed in your VMs

This is described here

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1

This Reddit post suggests that, if the isolation.tools.copy.disable=False and isolation.tools.paste.disable=False are set and it doesn't work, even after rebooting the VM, you may want to reinstall the VMWare Tools, following these steps:

Okay, it seems to be a problem with the VMWare tools. I had to uninstall them, then install the Ubuntu packages open-vm-tool, then reinstall the vendor VMWare Tools (while keeping the Ubuntu package installed, just overwrite files). The other way around doesn't work and neither to any of them alone. So something seems to missing with the Tools' normal install and the Ubuntu ones are too old.

For more details: https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/1026437

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I noticed you don't have the vmx.fullpath property in your config file and you have blank line. Try changing your config file to match this one: http://www.ryanbelanger.com/vmware-esxi-copy-paste/

Then reboot a VM and test the settings.

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  • Thx @JamesBarnett, haven't had a chance to try this yet. What is the vmx.fullpath property supposed to do? I can't seem to turn up documentation on this?
    – w--
    Jan 10, 2013 at 6:40
  • unfortunately, this did not work. =(
    – w--
    Jan 12, 2013 at 6:14
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If you want to enable it at VM level, it can be automated using PowerCLI:

Example:

New-AdvancedSetting -Entity ((Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine).Name) -name "isolation.tools.paste.disable" -Value $false -Confirm:$false 

New-AdvancedSetting -Entity ((Get-View -ViewType VirtualMachine).Name) -name "isolation.tools.copy.disable" -Value $false -Confirm:$false

Extracted from: http://www.sysadmit.com/2016/02/vmware-esxi-copiar-pegar-consola.html

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