I have being so busy lately until forgot to update my blog here. Actually nothing much to share at this moment. Although I had done so many testing before, without doubt I may need sometime before I can share everything here. However, lets start with the simple one.

So today I would like to share with you on how we can attach usb device to your virtual machine(VM) running on ESXi host. Some of you may already know how to do it and perhaps some may not. Nevertheless, for those who still don’t know how to do it, here we go…

Hardware Setup:

• ESXi 4.1 Build 260247 (without update 1)
• HP Proliant DL160 G6 (56xx Processor series)
• Unsupported Kingston Traveler 100 USB Drive
• Linux 32 bit 2.6 VM (live cd)

Well, Kingston Traveler absolutely not in the supported list but I’m lazy looking for another USB device. So, lets try first with what I have right now. Before that, I also lazy to install any OS for the VM part. So, Linux live CD is my best option for this test.

First, I have to enable device passthrough in vSphere client. This can be done by going to configuration -> advance setting -> edit and then reboot the host as requested.

Fact: When I enabled all USB devices available, inevitably my usb mouse and keyboard are not working.

Once rebooted, I plugged my Kingston drive to my host and check the usb status by using $lsub command via putty and from the result, I know it will be good from here.

Then, create a linux VM and add USB controller to this VM -> edit setting -> add -> usb controller -> OK

Once I managed to add usb controller, I then added my USB device (Kingston) as shown below:

Don’t forget to tick “vMotion support” if you intend to vMotion this VM later.

Next, boot the VM with linux live CD, run $lsusb command from the VM, mount the usb manually if it couldn’t mount it automatically for you and start using it.

Without doubt by attaching USB device to your VM, it can be very useful. However piece of advice from me, please read usb limitation and ONLY use supported USB devices as listed in VMware KB whenever possible.
ariyossss

athlon_crazy