As a VMware admin, I try to keep tabs on customer requests, especially when multiple issues are reported for similar problems. Recently I noticed two requests come through for virtual machine sound issues — within a day of each other. One customer was reporting that their application required a sound card to be installed and the other customer was reporting that their server was beeping and they wanted it to stop.
Issue #1: Sound card required
Description: The users application converted text to speech for use in an automated dialing application. The application would generate a WAV file, but an error would be generated as the the application attempted to play the file.
Resolution: Enabling sound for Remote Desktop Protocol in a Windows virtual machine http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004839
Issue #2: Stop the beeping
Description: The customers application would beep when moving from tab to tab if the required form fields were not complete. This beep was was the standard system beep and could be recreated by typing the following at a command prompt echo <CTRL>+<G>.
Resolution: System Beeps after Installing Hotfix Rollup Pack 5 for XenApp 5.0/4.5 on Windows Server 2003 http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX126856
At first I believed these issues to be hardware/ESXi related — I hadn’t experienced either problem before and both requests were received within 24 hours. Fortunately, however, neither issue was virtual or physical hardware related and were easily resolved within the guest operating systems.