Virtual Device Serial0 Will Start Disconnected Today

A student attempted to build a Frame Relay switch using a Cisco 3640 in GNS3. After configuring the Frame Relay map statements and inverse ARP, the PVCs remained inactive. The student spent six hours checking DLCI numbers and encapsulation types.

If you tell the VM to connect to COM1 on the host, but that port is already in use by another host application (e.g., a real terminal program, a PLC programming tool, or another VM), VMware will not forcibly steal the port. Instead, it starts the VM with that device disconnected and logs this warning. virtual device serial0 will start disconnected

If you don't use serial ports, delete the device. If you might use them later, leave it disconnected – your VM will run perfectly either way. A student attempted to build a Frame Relay

While safe to disable for everyday use cases, virtual serial ports remain critical for specific administrative tasks: If you tell the VM to connect to

Verify that the datastore path or local directory path exists and that the ESXi host has write permissions to that directory.