When using a virtual machine in VMWare's vSphere, you probably will not be able to insert a CD or DVD into the machine running VMWare to access the data on the CD or DVD. The first step in being able to access the information on a CD or DVD when using vSphere is to create an ISO file of the data on the CD or DVD.

• Create an ISO or IMG file using dd or mkisofs in Linux

Once you have your ISO created, you can upload the ISO to the datastore in ESXi.

1. Select the root in the directory tree on the left side of vSphere
2. Select Configuration
3. Select Storage
4. Right-click on the datastore you want to add the ISO to and select Browse Datastore
5. Upload the ISO to a folder in the datastore

Once the ISO is on the datastore in ESXi, you can then access the data on the ISO from any virtual machine in ESXi:

1. Launch one of the virtual machines
2. In the virtual machine console, select the CD/DVD icon > CD/DVD drive 1 > Connect to ISO on datastore
3. In the pop-up box, select the ISO file that contains the data you want to use. If the operating system is Windows, the ISO should automatically be mounted to an available drive letter such as D:/