You can upload an ISO image file to a datastore from your local computer. You can do this when a virtual machine, host, or cluster does not have access to a datastore or to a shared datastore that has the guest operating system installation media that you require.

Prerequisites

Required privileges:
  • Datastore.Browse datastore on the datastore.
  • Datastore.Low level file operations on the datastore.

Procedure

  1. In the vSphere Client, select Menu > Storage.
  2. Select the datastore from the inventory to which you will upload the file.
  3. (Optional) On the Files tab, click the New Folder icon to create a new folder.
  4. Select an existing folder or the folder that you created, and click the Upload Files icon.
  5. On the local computer, find the file and upload it.
    ISO upload times vary, depending on file size and network upload speed.
  6. Refresh the datastore file browser to see the uploaded file in the list.

What to do next

After you upload the ISO image installation media, you can configure the virtual machine CD-ROM drive to access the file.