topic Re: See if USB drive is connected in ESXi Discussions

See if USB drive is connected

huwy — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 18:59:42 GMT

hi there,

I'm trying to get a usb disk connected to a VM on an ESXi 5.0 server in a remote office.

I'm told by staff in the office that the drive is plugged into the ESXi server, yet when I try to add it to a VM it says no devices available.

Is there a way I can check that the ESXi host itself is detecting the drive? A shell command perhaps?

Thanks for any assistance.

-Al

Re: See if USB drive is connected

marcelo_soares — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 19:42:31 GMT

lsusb

This will show you all USB devices connected. Also, if you need to check if an USB device was plugged or not (if the ESXi can detect it) you can do:

tail -f /var/log/vmkernel.log | grep -i USB

And monitor it for the output.

Also, have in mind ESXi 5.0 does not support USB 3.0 devices/ports. Check http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022290

Hope this helps

Re: See if USB drive is connected

huwy — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 19:58:41 GMT

Thanks Marcelo. It didn't find anything.

~ # lsusb

~ # tail -f /var/log/vmkernel.log | grep -i USB

I'll get more info on which port they've plugged in and what make/model the drive is.

Thanks for your help

Re: See if USB drive is connected

marcelo_soares — Thu, 12 Sep 2013 23:57:25 GMT

If the output of lsusb were nothing, it may mean that the USB controller is not enabled on the server BIOS.

Look mine:

# lsusb

Bus 06 Device 02: ID 0624:de11 Avocent Corp.

Bus 06 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 05 Device 02: ID 046b:ff10 American Megatrends, Inc.

Bus 05 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 02 Device 04: ID 413c:a101 Dell Computer Corp.

Bus 02 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 07 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 04 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 03 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 01 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

There is no USB device attached, but I can see the USB hubs and etc (this is an ESXi 5.1 server).

Re: See if USB drive is connected

SatyS — Fri, 13 Sep 2013 05:48:10 GMT

Also check the status of usbarbitrator service in your base machine.

#chkconfig usbarbitrator --list.

By default it will be on.Means that the USB will be available to VMs on the host,but not to host.

If it is off,change it by using the command

#chkconfig usbarbitartor on

and then perform a reboot of the base host.

Right click the VM and Edit Settings,Add USB controller.

Now the USB will be available in your VM.

You can check the same by using esxcfg-scsidevs -c|grep -i usb ,if it is a ESX VM

Regards,
SatyS

If you find this useful,mark the answer as correct/helpful

Re: See if USB drive is connected

Loksa — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 15:06:53 GMT

Try in passthrough options for your ESXi host enable only USB 2.0 controllers or even only one USB 2.0 controller to which storage device is connected. This helped in my case.

More details here: https://communities.vmware.com/message/2387390#2387390