How to upload an ISO to a newly built VMWare ESX 3.5 server

Use VMWare Converter to connect to the ESX server - you can then "convert" your VM into a Virtual Appliance file (ovf), and store this on a network share, external hard drive etc. The appliance format will also compact your virtual hard drives, so you aren't archiving empty space.

You can also leave it as a VM, but the single ovf file is easier to manage IMHO.

Back in November 2009 VMware converter seemed to be the only VMware supported method for getting a VMs files out of the Datastore. Quick and easy too. Backup is another option, but VMWare converter is a lot easier to use for occaisonal archiving, or moving VMs around between different networks.

VMware Converter 4 will create ovf and VMs for ESX 3.5 and vSphere - make sure you use the appropriate one for your environment.

This is a pretty good summary of your direct storage access options:

http://professionalvmware.com/2009/08/vmdirectpath-paravirtual-scsi-vsphere-vm-options-and-you/

Another options would be guest OS logical volumes or raiding to join multiple vmdk files together into one large volume.