ESXI 6.5 Im not able to enable my usb device for passtrue

[Gunther74]

Hi,

First, here is my configuration:

HP ProLiant DL160 G5, 8 CPUs x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU L5420 @ 2.50GHz

The server runs 6.5.0 (Build 5310538)

I have a usb GPRS modem pluged in in the back.

I try for a week to get access to the usb in my VM

Here is what my shell returns:

[root@vmware:~] esxcli hardware usb passthrough device list

Bus  Dev  VendorId  ProductId  Enabled  Can Connect to VM          Name

---  ---  --------  ---------  -------  -------------------------  --------------------------------------------------------

3    2    12d1      1001         false  no (passthrough disabled)  Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E169/E620/E800 HSDPA Modem

When i try the following command, it looks like it execute without errors but nothing changes:

[root@vmware:~] esxcli hardware usb passthrough device enable -d 3:2:12d1:1001

I checked in the bios, Virtualisation is enabled under chipset.

I have tested other usb ports but that didn't help.

In my VM i added the usb cotroller but add usb device is greyed out.

As you can expect in my VM the usb device is not present:

gunther@Webserver:~$ lsusb

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 0e0f:0002 VMware, Inc. Virtual USB Hub

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0e0f:0003 VMware, Inc. Virtual Mouse

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

I looked in all relevant hits on Google but i can't get it to work.

Anyone got a idea how i can solve this?

[vmrale]

Hi,

try to load legacy USB driver: VMware Knowledge Base

Then check if usb device is shown in ESXi: lsusb

If usb device is in the list, try to add it to the VM. You could add this lines on the end of VM vmx file:

usb.generic.allowCCID = "TRUE"

usb.generic.autoconnect = "TRUE"

Regards

[Gunther74]

When i lsusb in the esxi shell the usb device was listed, only not in my VM

I have tryed the legacy driver, and added the 2 lines but still no changes.

What i do notice however after the reboot the 2 lines dissapeared from thes vmx file.

I added the 2 lines again and the server is rebooting right now.

Unfortunaly i have to leave foe work now. I guess the first moment to continue will be friday, got a tight agenda right now.

Ill report back later.

[Gunther74]

Allright the 2 lines are still in the file, they just moved away from the end of the file, my bad.

Anyway, i still can't add a usb device it's still greyed out.

[jUDASmILExAlmig]

Would you please post result of "lsusb -v" of this device? USB modem might not a supported device for passthrough. Generally we support passthrough storage devices to VM, I need to check with related team if USB network devices are supported for passthrough. Thanks.

[jUDASmILExAlmig]

Found a topic looks similar as yours which might help you to get your problem resolved:

Huawei USB Modem on an ESXi 5 Host attaches as a SCSI device and returns NSIS error on intallation

[Gunther74 · Accepted solution]

Allright i got it working!

Thanks @ jUDASmiLExAlmighty for linking the thread and give me a new thinking path.

The Huawei E169 does not support the AT commands in the thread but putting the device in modem only does the trick.

What i  did:

- Unpluged the modem and connected it to my laptop.

- Figure out the comport in device manager. Mine is com3

- With any terminal program connect to com3, boudrate 115200, databits8, parity none, stopbits 1

- Putting the device in "modem only" by: AT^U2DIAG=0 (Other Huawei modems use different AT commands)

- Then i pluged the modem back in the server.

- Powaeroff the Virtual machine.

- Add usb device > Huawei mobile. The controller i added allready.

- Started the VM and lsusb nicely came up with:

Bus 003 Device 003: ID 12d1:1001 Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. E169/E620/E800 HSDPA Modem

Thanks for all the help!

[jUDASmILExAlmig]

Great! And thanks for the detailed steps that will be very helpful for others who has the similar problem as yours. Have a nice day~