When attempting to mount a floppy image from vCenter Server the vmimages folder for the ESXi host is empty. To provide a workaround for this issue you will need to create a new floppies folder and copy the files from the copy the contents of the original floppies folder.
To do this you must login into the ESXi host; this will require you to enable Tech Support Mode.
To perform this from the vSphere Client perform the following:
1) Select the ‘ESXi’ host
2) Select the ‘Configuration’ tab
3) Select ‘Security Profile’ and select ‘Properties’.
4) Select ‘Remote Tech Support (SSH)’ and select ‘Options’.
5) Select ‘Stop and Start Manually’ and select ‘Start’.
6) Confirm the status is ‘Running’.
Once you have confirmed the status is running log into the ESXi Host using SSH (For example, PuTTY) and perform the following steps:
1) Create a folder to store the floppy images on a selected datastore.
mkdir /vmfs/volumes/<datastore_name>/floppies
2) Copy the floppy images to the folder created in Step 1 from the original floppies directory
cp /productLocker/floppies/*.flp /vmfs/volumes/<datastore_name>/floppies/
Mount the floppy image and stop the ‘Remote Tech Support (SSH)’ service from the Security Profile for the ESXi Host.