Unable to mount VMware tools iso file on a specific ESXi host

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0
• VMware vSphere ESXi 8.0

Issue/Introduction

When a user attempts to mount VMware tool ISO by choosing "Edit Settings" of a VM > CD/DVD drive and tries to find VMware tools ISO file under /vmimages/tools-isoimages, It reports below error:

Environment

vSphere ESXi 7.x

Cause

It can be caused by a user access permission issue with /vmimages/tools-isoimages/ folder , or an issue with symbol link  of  /productLocker

Resolution

•  Login to ESXi host, ensure that files below exist and the access mode is  rw-r--r--:
  • ls /vmimages/tools-isoimages/ 
    

    drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       72.0K MM DD 03:16 .
drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root       72.0K MM DD 08:01 ..
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        6.0K MM DD 08:01 isoimages_manifest.txt
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        3.3K MM DD 08:01 isoimages_manifest.txt.sig
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root       53.6M MM DD 08:01 linux.iso
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root      857.5K MM DD 08:01 linux.iso.sha
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        3.3K MM DD 08:01 linux.iso.sig
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        1.9K MM DD 08:01 linux_avr_manifest.txt
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        3.3K MM DD 08:01 linux_avr_manifest.txt.sig
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root      126.3M MM DD 08:01 windows.iso
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        2.0M MM DD 08:01 windows.iso.sha
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        3.3K MM DD 08:01 windows.iso.sig
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        1.6K MM DD 08:01 windows_avr_manifest.txt
-rw-r--r--    1 root     root        3.3K MM DD 08:01 windows_avr_manifest.txt.sig

• Check symbol link for /productLocker, it should point to /locker/packages/vmtoolsRepo:
  • grep -i product
• If it points to incorrect location, remove the current symbol link:
  • rm /productLocker/
  • rm: remove '/productLocker'? y
• Create a new symbol link for /productLocker:
  • ln -s /locker/packages/vmtoolsRepo /productLocker
• As a workaround, new symbol link can be created:
  • cd  /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/
  • mkdir newiso
  • cd  /vmimages/
  • ln -s  /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/newiso     newiso 
  • ls -lha  

   total 20
   drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         512 MM  DD 03:27 .
   drwxr-xr-x    1 root     root         512 MM  DD 06:44 ..
   lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          23 MM  DD  2023 floppies -> /productLocker/floppies
   lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          44 MM  DD 03:27 newiso  -> /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/newiso/
   lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root          22 MM  DD 2023 tools-isoimages -> /productLocker/vmtools