diff --git a/builder/vmware/builder.go b/builder/vmware/builder.go
index 8f3ff4fdf..a9acaeb5d 100644
--- a/builder/vmware/builder.go
+++ b/builder/vmware/builder.go
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 package vmware
 
 import (
+	"github.com/mitchellh/mapstructure"
 	"github.com/mitchellh/multistep"
 	"github.com/mitchellh/packer/packer"
 )
@@ -14,11 +15,17 @@ type Builder struct {
 
 type config struct {
 	DiskName  string `mapstructure:"vmdk_name"`
+	ISOUrl    string `mapstructure:"iso_url"`
 	VMName    string `mapstructure:"vm_name"`
 	OutputDir string `mapstructure:"output_directory"`
 }
 
 func (b *Builder) Prepare(raw interface{}) (err error) {
+	err = mapstructure.Decode(raw, &b.config)
+	if err != nil {
+		return
+	}
+
 	if b.config.DiskName == "" {
 		b.config.DiskName = "disk"
 	}
diff --git a/builder/vmware/step_create_vmx.go b/builder/vmware/step_create_vmx.go
index 2383a3dac..02b95d11b 100644
--- a/builder/vmware/step_create_vmx.go
+++ b/builder/vmware/step_create_vmx.go
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ type vmxTemplateData struct {
 	Name     string
 	GuestOS  string
 	DiskName string
+	ISOPath  string
 }
 
 type stepCreateVMX struct{}
@@ -32,6 +33,7 @@ func (stepCreateVMX) Run(state map[string]interface{}) multistep.StepAction {
 		config.VMName,
 		"ubuntu-64",
 		config.DiskName,
+		config.ISOUrl,
 	}
 
 	t := template.Must(template.New("vmx").Parse(DefaultVMXTemplate))
@@ -71,6 +73,9 @@ gui.fullScreenAtPowerOn = "FALSE"
 gui.viewModeAtPowerOn = "windowed"
 hgfs.linkRootShare = "TRUE"
 hgfs.mapRootShare = "TRUE"
+ide1:0.present = "TRUE"
+ide1:0.fileName = "{{ .ISOPath }}"
+ide1:0.deviceType = "cdrom-image"
 isolation.tools.hgfs.disable = "FALSE"
 memsize = "512"
 nvram = "{{ .Name }}.nvram"