How to copy files from/to VM within VMWare ESX with host-only network?

Question

I have a group of isolated virtual machines running on VMWare ESX server and connected to "host-only" vSwitch (it's not connected to any physical adapter).

All machines are running Windows Server 2008 R2 /Windows 7.

These machines are not network accessible, and I'm controlling them via vSphere Client Console (I need UI control).

Question is how to copy files from and to these machines from my local machine? (VMWare Tools and Drag&Drop doesn't work)

Solution

Make the files you need to make available into a ISO file(s) then mount to the VM(s). Of course, once you have them on one machine, you can also just copy them around - you really only need to mount them once.

If you are using ESXi (cannot get directly to command line/file system by default), then you do need to use the management client to put the ISOs on the file system of the VM host (they can go anywhere - don't need to be in the default vmware-images directory), then mount to the guest(s).

FWIW: I don't recommend installing/configuring Shared Folders (vmware term of art) between guest and host as many security vulnerabilities have worked from that in the past. However, if the ISO method is not possible, that might be another way to solve this problem.