Automatically attach - detach USB device on virtual machine

[chora]

We have a server hosting 3 ESXi 4.1 virtual machines running Windows 2008.

On the server there is an Imation RDX USB backup device. (It's a backup device with removable USB disks)

Virtual machines cannot be simultaneously connected to the host's device, and I could not find a way to automatically attach/detach the USB disk either from VMWare or from within the virtual machine.

We need to backup to the USB device from all three virtual machines.

Any ideas on how to access the USB device from all vms or switching USB disk from one vm to another using a script or something?

[Hanoon]

How about you make space on usb a network shared volume - that way you can access it from all three vms.

As far as I know there is no way to access same USB port on multiple vms at the same time.

if you have a license - try vmware data recovery appliance...

[chora]

Let me clarify.

There is no need to access USB device at the same time.

The process could be:

1.Attach USB to VM1, backup VM1, detach USB

2.Attach USB to VM2, backup VM2, detach USB....etc.

The only requirement is to be able to do it automatically.

A shared drive might be a good idea, I thought of moving RDX device to another server and use it as a network share but it was too much trouble to do it.