vSphere: Add a vSwitch that has no access to physical network adapters

I have a few test servers that I wanted to be virtualized but have no access to the campus network or Internet. I also wanted to be able to give those servers access to the Internet or campus network easily for whatever reason. Some good use cases are test environments for domain controllers, SCCM upgrades, you name it.

In vSphere, I created a new vSwitch that does not have access to any physical network adapters. When a particular vm needs Internet access, I can simply change the network settings on that vm's network adapter.

Pretty simple stuff.

Installing Software From a DVD on a vSphere VM

This was a little different scenario than usual. I had a dual-layer DVD, 7.5GB's worth of software that I needed to install on a vSphere VM (server). The software wouldn't allow install through a remote desktop connection. The second approach I took was to create a folder on the VM desktop and copy the files over. That didn't work because I was getting "file name too long" error's, so the copy would not fully complete. What I ended up doing was using ImgBurn to create an .iso of the DVD, then I uploaded the .iso to the desired datastore in vSphere, attached the iso to the cd/dvd drive of the VM, then done deal! A little extra work, but it got the job done.

*Edit* - It was brought to my attention of a much easier way to do this Go to the Properties of the VM, CD/DVD Drive, then (o) Client Device