ESXi 4.1: Got USB to work on VMs! But, Windows VM reports no HI-SPEED USB Host Controllers installed..."

[ReedMikel2]

Just upgraded from ESXi 4.0 to 4.1 and see some signs of progress on the issue of USB device support. I was able to add my Dell branded UPS (actually made by Eaton) and SBS 2008 detected it and now power management shows battery and plugged-in settings Finally I can safely shut down or hibernate my VMs!!! I wonder if I can install this uninterruptible power supplies USB connection to all my Windows VMs and get native Windows UPS management? Only one way to tell, I'll post back after I try it...

Back to original subject: when I tried to add 2 different USB memory sticks, Windows reported an install error:

Then I also get a popup telling me that no HI-SPEED Host Controllers installed. Also, USB memory sticks do not show as drives, whichis no doubt related to the forst error screen above.

I am going to reboot this SBS 2008 VM and see if that helps.

[J1mbo]

To get rid of the message, you need to remove and re-add the USB controller. Don't expect any performance increase though.

See here: http://blog.peacon.co.uk/usb-passthrough-with-esxi-4-1/

http://blog.peacon.co.uk

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[J1mbo]

Also it would be great if you could post the exact UPS model or just add it to my list:

http://blog.peacon.co.uk/wiki/ESXi_4.1_USB_Passthrough_Working_Devices

Cheers

http://blog.peacon.co.uk

Please award points to any useful answer.

[ReedMikel2]

Thanks J1mbo - the instructions about removing/reinstalling the virtual USB Controller worked perfectly! I did find that a given USB port can only be active on one virtual machine. So I'll probably install Dell's UPS managenmenbt software and configure it to execute SHUTDOWN commands to each of the other virtual servers and workstations on this ESXi host. Only thing I am not sure of is how to shut down the ESXi host software once all the VMs are off. Or do I even need to worry about it, since all the VMs are off?

The UPS is a Dell 1000 watt line-interactive model, p/n 330-7516 (off the packing list). On the UPS itself, it says Dell model: p/n K778N (nothing like having mutiple parts nos to confuse folks )

[J1mbo · Accepted solution]

Thanks for posting.

You don't need to worry overly about host shutdown, perhaps unless your AC will stop on a power failure and you have long battery run time and the host is likely to overheat in that situation. You can use plink to SSH into ESXi to request host shutdown (need to enable SSH first of course) or use a suitably crafted perl script.

http://blog.peacon.co.uk

Please award points to any useful answer.

[ReedMikel2]

Hmmm, how does one enable SSH on ESXi? Is it a configuration option under vSphere Client? If I understand correctly from my limited reading of ESXi, the free version does not have a true console like ESX. But one can SSH into ESXi and do just about the same things as with ESX? Bear with me, I'm a total newbie to ESXi.

[J1mbo]

It's pretty much covered here: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/242550

http://blog.peacon.co.uk

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