Starting from VSphere 4.1, the copy&paste options in virtual machines’ consoles are disabled by default.
You can enable the clipboard:
- for a single virtual machine;
- for all the VM running on a given ESXi host.
Single VM
Shut down the VM, then select Edit Settings…
Choose the Options tab, select Advanced – General and click Configuration Parameters…
Add the following two parameters, both with false value:
[checklist]
- isolation.tools.copy.disable
- isolation.tools.paste.disable
[/checklist]
Host ESXi
Connect to the host via SSH (you may need to enable the SSH service in the Security Profile setting of the host):
Edit the file /etc/vmware/config and add the following lines:
isolation.tools.copy.disable="FALSE" isolation.tools.paste.disable="FALSE"
Save the file.