Issue with USB passthrough

[adrien92]

Hello,

I'm trying to use a Western Digital Passport (3TB) on one of my virtual machine. I followed the VMWare procedure and finally I can add an USB controller which is detected by my virtual machine (version 7 ; Red Hat EL 5.3).

But when the hard drive is plugged, Red Hat doesn't detect the hard drive.

Does anyone know what's going wrong?

Regards,

Adrien

[schepp]

Hi, welcome to the forums.

Well, the VM won't recognize it by itself. After adding the USB-controller to the VM, in vSphere Client you have to edit the VM settings, add a USB-device and select your drive.

Regards

[adrien92]

Hi schepp,

Thanks!

I don't have 'USB-Device' object within VM settings. Is it really necessary while we try to use DirectPath? That's the way I was thinking we should proceed to passthrough an usb hard drive.

Regards,

Adrien

[schepp]

Ah, you forgot to mention you want to use DirectPath

You can also attach a usb drive to the vm by adding a virtual USB controller and then the USB device.

So for DirectPath you did:

1. configured your USB controller card for Passthrough

2. added a usb controller to the VM by editing it's settings -> add PCI device -> selected the passed through PCI USB card

right?

Is your PCI USB card now visible in your VM via the lspci command, etc.?

Regards

[adrien92]

Yes, you're right. It's what I done. I can see the controller with 'lspci' but unfortunately I don't see anything about a hard drive.

The only difference is that I don't need to add a PCI device. Only the USB Controller has been added.

What would be the procedure for adding a virtual USB device as I cannot see any USB device?

[adrien92]

Anyone can help? I'm still not able to access to my hard drive.

[nkrishnan]

- Check the service /etc/init.d/usbarbitrator is started, otherwise restart the service,

- Follow the KB http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&docTypeID=DT_KB_1_1&e...

Thanks

Nithin

[mydearcosmo]

Do you think it is possible that you should use a connection better than the normal 2.0 USB?

[adrien92]

Hi nkrishnan,

I checked 'usbarbitrator' and he was running. Also I tried to restart the service.

I followed the KB you mentionned but I never got the ability to Add an USB Device on my virtual machine after having added the USB Controller.

I don't know if 'VMDirectPath' can affect the behavior or if it's my hard drive which fails. I still not understand the difference between VMDirectPath and the procedure witin the KB you mentionned.

[JaySMX]

DirectPath will passthrough a PCI device itself to VM, along with anything attached to it.  USB Passthrough will only pass one USB device to the VM at a time.  Check out the KB below, in some situations the hostd service can interfer with the usbarbitrator service and the USB Device option in the VM's settings will be greyed out.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=201194...

[adrien92]

Hi Justin,

Thank you for your reply.

I tried the procedure mentionned in your post but there is nothing to do... I'm still having a problem.

My USB hard drive is connected to a port which is part of VMDirectPath (that's the way I understood how to setup a connection between USB and VM). After having added a USB Controller to my virtual machine, I can't add an USB Device (no device detected) and within the VM I don't see an hard drive on the virtual system.

[JaySMX]

Hi Adrien,

  USB passthrough and DirectPath are two different things. In order to use USB Passthrough for supported devices you only need to upgrade the virtual hardware, add a USB Controller, then add a USB device. VMDirectPath grants the VM direct access to the PCI bus and anything attached to it. You can pass a PCI USB controller via VMDirectPath, but from that point it is up to the guest OS to detect the USB controller and supply the correct drivers to utilize it.

[adrien92]

Hi Justin,

It becomes clear. The guest OS sees the USB controller added in the VM configuration. But he doesn't see the hard drive connected to it.

My understanding is that I can cancel VMDirectPass and just try USB Passthrough provided that my USB Hard Drive is a supported device. But, VMDirectPath should avoid a compatibility issue with VMWare because the devices communicate with the guest OS.

Is that make sense?

[JaySMX]

That does make sense, though if your guest OS doesn't correctly support the USB controller Passthrough is worth a try. The supported device list for USB passthrough is still very short, but your device may still work.

[adrien92]

To conclude,  if the USB controller is correctly detected by the guest OS the problem must reside on USB hard-drive sides? I have nothing to do in addition of adding a USB Controller when I want to use DirectVMPath?