USB external disk attached to guest in raw mode

[Anonymous]

mac os Sierra (not the high one), Fusion 11.1.latest, Ubuntu 18.04 as guest

SATA III hard disk (WDC) in SATA-USB 3.0 disk dock station

For external disk attached to guest under v.m.'s Settings > USB & Bluetooth following command does not work in guest

smartctl - t short /dev/sdX

Permission denied

To fix it disk was attached to v.m. in raw mode by following instructions found in kb.vmware.com/s/article/2097401.

.vmx file attached that disk on sata bus, all other points as in mentioned KB article.

In consequence disk was available in guest however

* with no SMART support

* reported to guest as VmWare virtual disk - original brand and model name lost

Physical disk however supports SMART - it works fine if to attach it to guest in non-raw mode by usual ways.

Any way exists to attach and USB external disk in raw mode but SMART support and disk brand/model name dont get lost on guest side?

[ColoradoMarmot]

Just out of curiosity, how do you get smart to work with a USB drive?  I've never seen an enclosure that will pass the status.

[Anonymous]

No clue any more as the purchase is dated multiple years back. I dont remember if I put additional efforts into maters while searching for and ordering the dock. It is DeLock with (model?) number 61965.

[ColoradoMarmot]

I'll have to look into that, thanks!

[Anonymous]

Raw-mode disks are attached to guest machine by entry in v.m. configuration in form as following

ide0:0 .present = TRUE

ide0:0.fileName = ....file name follows

ide0:0.deviceType = "rawDisk"

where the string 'ide' must be replaced by one from few other choices.

Any idea if there is some additional field in that structure which could help to pass through SMART to guest in raw-disk mode?