Mounting Course ISOs

Some course content are contained within "ISO" files. ISO files are archives containing numerous files, similar to a zip or 7zip file. However, ISO files can be mounted to your host computer in the same way that a USB or CD/DVD drive can be attached.

Important notes about the ISO files

Like a CD/DVD drive, the attached ISO file system will be mounted read-only. As such, files cannot be added or extracted to the mounted ISO location.
Your course ISO files do not contain bootable operating systems. Do not attach the ISO directly to VMware unless specifically directed by the lab instructions.

These directions will cover how to mount and unmount ISO files on your host operating system. After your ISO file(s) are mounted, you may need to extract Virtual Machines for your course. Instructions for this process are available at https://sansurl.com/decompressing-booting-vms.

Notice

Content and screenshots in this section are examples and do not reflect your specific course ID and name.

Apple macOS Host

We've provided a video demonstration that details the process of mounting an ISO in Apple macOS, available at https://sansurl.com/classprep-iso-macos.

To mount ISO volumes:

Locate the downloaded ISO file(s) on your host system.
Double-click each ISO file to mount it.
In a Finder window, the ISO contents can be accessed from the volume name under the "Locations" section of the sidebar.

In a terminal window, the ISO contents will be available under the /Volumes/ directory, with subdirectory names for each volume. For example, /Volumes/123.22.1A/.

Notional results

Last login: Tue Dec 27 11:51:18 on ttys008
sansstudent@SANS-MacBook-Pro ~ % cd /Volumes/123.22.3
sansstudent@SANS-MacBook-Pro 123.22.3 % ls -l
total 32
drwxr-xr-x  1 sansstudent  staff  2048 Jun 28  2022 cheat_sheets
-rwxr-xr-x  1 sansstudent  staff  3403 Dec  8 13:10 license.txt
drwxr-xr-x  1 sansstudent  staff  2048 Jun 28  2022 misc
-rwxr-xr-x  1 sansstudent  staff   291 Jan 22  2021 readme.txt
-rwxr-xr-x  1 sansstudent  staff  1609 Dec 27 11:40 sans-integrity.yml
drwxr-xr-x  1 sansstudent  staff  2048 Dec  5 13:33 utilities
drwxr-xr-x  1 sansstudent  staff  2048 Dec 27 11:38 virtual_machines

To unmount ISO volumes:

In a Finder window, locate the mounted ISO volume under the "Locations" section.
Click the "Eject" icon to the right of each volume you wish to unmount.

Microsoft Windows Host (Graphical)

We've provided a video demonstration that details the process of mounting an ISO in Microsoft Windows, available at https://sansurl.com/classprep-iso-windows.

To mount ISO volumes:

Locate the downloaded ISO file(s) on your host system.
Double-click each ISO file to mount it.
In an Explorer window, the ISO content can be accessed from a drive letter assigned as a DVD drive.

In a command prompt, the ISO contents will be available from a drive letter assigned as a DVD drive.

Notional Results

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19044.2251]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\sansstudent>E:

E:\>dir
 Volume in drive E is 123.22.3
 Volume Serial Number is 1F00-A077

 Directory of E:\

06/28/2022  08:56 AM    <DIR>          cheat_sheets
12/08/2022  01:10 PM             3,403 license.txt
06/28/2022  08:56 AM    <DIR>          misc
01/22/2021  09:15 AM               291 readme.txt
12/27/2022  11:40 AM             1,609 sans-integrity.yml
12/05/2022  01:33 PM    <DIR>          utilities
12/27/2022  11:38 AM    <DIR>          virtual_machines
            3 File(s)          5,303 bytes
            4 Dir(s)               0 bytes free

Note

In some extremely rare cases, this method may not work as described. If the above steps are not successful, the Microsoft Windows Host (PowerShell Command Line) section of this document provides an alternate method to mount ISO images.

To unmount ISO volumes:

In an Explorer window, locate the mounted ISO volume under the "This PC" section.
Right-click the mounted volume and select "Eject".

Microsoft Windows Host (PowerShell Command Line)

In some rare cases, the graphical methods explained above may not work. In this case, the following PowerShell commands can be used to mount the downloaded ISO(s).

To mount ISO volumes:

Run PowerShell as Administrator.

In the PowerShell window, run the following command, replacing the path and filename for the ISO file(s) you downloaded.

Command lines

Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath "C:\Users\sansstudent\Downloads\SEC123 Downloads\123.22.3.iso"

Note

This command requires the full path to the ISO image you wish to mount and does not support relative pathing!

Expected results

PS C:\Users\sansstudent> Mount-DiskImage -ImagePath "C:\Users\sansstudent\Downloads\SEC123 Downloads\123.22.3.iso"

Attached          : True
BlockSize         : 0
DevicePath        : \\.\CDROM1
FileSize          : 19844464640
LogicalSectorSize : 2048
Number            : 1
Size              : 19844464640
PSComputerName    :

In an Explorer window, the ISO content can be accessed from a drive letter assigned as a DVD drive.

In a PowerShell prompt, the ISO contents will be available from a drive letter assigned as a DVD drive.

Notional Results

PS C:\Users\sansstudent> E:
PS E:\> dir


    Directory: E:\


Mode                 LastWriteTime         Length Name
----                 -------------         ------ ----
d-----         6/28/2022   9:56 AM                cheat_sheets
d-----         6/28/2022   9:56 AM                misc
d-----         12/5/2022   1:33 PM                utilities
d-----        12/27/2022  11:38 AM                virtual_machines
--r---         12/8/2022   1:10 PM           3403 license.txt
--r---         1/22/2021   9:15 AM            291 readme.txt
--r---        12/27/2022  11:40 AM           1609 sans-integrity.yml

To unmount ISO volumes:

Follow the same unmounting instructions as detailed in the Microsoft Windows Host (Graphical) section of this document.