Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 9.17
VMs can access
optical disks physi-
cally located on the
vSphere Client sys-
tem, located on the
ESXi host, or stored
as an ISO image.
ISO images are the recommended way to install a guest OS because they are faster than
using an actual optical drive and can be quickly mounted or dismounted with very little effort.
Before you can use an ISO image to install the guest OS, though, you must i rst put it in a
location that ESXi can access. Generally, this means uploading it into a datastore accessible to
your ESXi hosts.
Perform these steps to upload an ISO image into a datastore:
1.
Use the vSphere Web Client to connect to a vCenter Server instance or launch the vSphere
Client to connect to an individual ESXi host.
2.
From the vSphere Web Client menu bar, select Storage.
3.
Right-click the datastore to which you want to upload the ISO image and select Browse
Files from the context menu.
4.
Select the destination folder in the datastore where you want to store the ISO image. Use
the Create A New Folder button (it looks like a folder with a green plus symbol) if you
need to create a new folder in which to store the ISO image.
5.
From the toolbar in the Files screen, click the Upload button (it looks like a disk with
a green arrow pointing into the disk). From the dialog box that appears, select the ISO
image as shown in Figure 9.18 and click Open.
6.
The vSphere Web Client uploads the i le into the selected folder in that datastore.
After the ISO image is uploaded to an available datastore, you're ready to actually install a
guest OS using that ISO image.
