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andypircher
Contributor
Contributor

USB\unknown on 6.7 vista guests

Hello,

I'm trying to get a USB Harddrive to work in a Windows Small Business Server 2008 guest.

I have also a Vista and a Windows 10 guest on the ESXi 6.7 Host, which is a Dell R640.

I'm trying with a

The drive is recognized in the CLI: lsusb

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1604:10c0 Tascam

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1604:10c0 Tascam

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 413c:a101 Dell Computer Corp.

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0930:0b1a Toshiba Corp. STOR.E ALU 2S

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1604:10c0 Tascam

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

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

It is recognized in the Windows 10 guest, but not in Vista and SBS 2008.

I've tried the following and rebooted ()ESXi 6.5 USB Devices attached to VMs Issues?

esxcli system module set -m=vmkusb -e=FALSE

On the Vista guest I also tried adding these lines ()ESXi 6.5 USB Devices attached to VMs Issues?

usb.generic.allowCCID = "TRUE"

usb.analyzer.enable = "TRUE"

But I can't get it to work on those 2 guests.

Any advice?

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AmeenMunaff
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Might be very obvious, can you confirm if the VM uses the right guest OS name and VMtools are up to date?

Regards, Ameen Munaf
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andypircher
Contributor
Contributor

On the Virtual machines page it shows them as:

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (64 Bit)

     VMware Tools installed and running: VMware Tools 10.2.1 build 8267844

Microsoft Windows Vista (32 Bit)

     VMware Tools installed and running: VMware Tools 10.2.1 build 8267844

So this should not be the problem, right?

I've tried with VMRC:

     another Toshiba external USB 3.0 is not working

     a Trekstor DS pocket light works, which might be USB 2

USB 3.0 Harddisk works if connected through a USB 2.0 Hub,

but I really hope there is a real solution to this

If a drive is connected to the front USB I'm not even able to add it to a VM, but it is recognized:

lsusb

Bus 001 Device 009: ID 0529:0001 Aladdin Knowledge Systems HASP copy protection dongle

Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0480:a202 Toshiba America Inc Canvio Basics HDD

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1604:10c0 Tascam

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1604:10c0 Tascam

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 413c:a101 Dell Computer Corp.

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 1604:10c0 Tascam

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

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

lsusb -t

Bus# 2

`-Dev# 1 Vendor 0x1d6b Product 0x0003

  `-Dev# 3 Vendor 0x413c Product 0xa101

Bus# 1

`-Dev# 1 Vendor 0x1d6b Product 0x0002

  |-Dev# 8 Vendor 0x0480 Product 0xa202

  |-Dev# 9 Vendor 0x0529 Product 0x0001

  `-Dev# 2 Vendor 0x1604 Product 0x10c0

  |-Dev# 3 Vendor 0x1604 Product 0x10c0

  `-Dev# 4 Vendor 0x1604 Product 0x10c0

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andypircher
Contributor
Contributor

No ideas?

Am I the only one having this issue?

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bluefirestorm
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Champion

Windows 7 and Windows 2008 does not have native drivers for USB 3.0.

Windows Vista, which was released before Windows 7, therefore cannot be expected to have any support for USB 3.0.

For VMware VMs, there can be USB 3.0 but the virtual hardware version needs to be at least version 12 (this is from the Workstation 12.x support for USB 3.0).

You could download and install the Intel USB 3.0 drivers into the Windows 2008 VM. This is the same driver recommended by VMware for Workstation 12 and later for Windows 7 VMs with virtual USB 3.0 controllers.

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/22824/USB-3-0-Driver-Intel-USB-3-0-eXtensible-Host-Control...

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andypircher
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Thank you for the link.

It says: Vista and XP are not supported.

Are you sure SBS 2008 is supported, then?

I don't expect to have full 3.0 support,

but usually when you plug a 3.0 device into a 2.0 port, it just works,

not at full speed, but it gets recognized and it works.

So I will not be able to use a virtual USB 3.0 Controller in Vista VMs,

but why is the device id not passed, so a usb 2.0 driver can be used by the guest?

Would a upgrade to the latest Dell version of ESXi 6.7 solve this problem?

Current version is: 6.7.0 (Build 9484548)

With virtual hardware version I won't be able to run those machines on a T610 eventually, which only supports ESXi 6.0

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bluefirestorm
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The Intel USB 3.0 driver is for the VM so that you can use assign virtual USB 3.0 controller on the Windows 2008 VM. The download link also shows SBS 2008 on top of the link to download; and it is also stated in the readme.txt that SBS 2008 is supported.

It looks like the R640 has USB 3.0 ports

https://i.dell.com/sites/csdocuments/Shared-Content_data-Sheets_Documents/en/poweredge-r640-spec-she...

Sometimes plugging a USB 3.0 device into a virtual USB 2.0 controller just does not work.

https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2147568

Looks like the T610 does not have any USB 3.0 ports and only has USB 2.0.

https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/pedge_t610_technical_guidebook_en.pdf#page=8...

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andypircher
Contributor
Contributor

The Intel USB 3.0 sounds good, but it seems not to be compatible with Windows SBS 2008.

When I try to run "Setup.exe", an error appears: This OS is not supported.

R640 has USB 3.0 on the rear and USB 2.0 on the front,

T610 has only USB 2.0

Sometimes plugging a USB 3.0 device into a virtual USB 2.0 controller just does not work.

https://kb.vmware.com/kb/2147568

It's a pity that in this case virtualized hardware doesn't act like the physical one...

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bluefirestorm
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The link I sent you is the translated link of

http://www.vmware.com/go/dl_intel_usb3_driver

What if you try the older Intel USB 3.0 driver?

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/65855/Intel-USB-3-0-eXtensible-Host-Controller-Driver

An alternative way to access the USB devices instead of connecting it physically to the server is to use a different desktop/laptop PC that has USB 2.0/USB 3.0 ports. Using this method might help with the access to the VM on ESXi 6.0 on T610. To attach the USB 3.0 device to a different PC instead of on the server, you would need to access the VM either via Workstation Pro or use VMware Remote Console (VMRC). Workstation Pro is not free but VMRC is free.

https://my.vmware.com/web/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VMRC1003&productId=742

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andypircher
Contributor
Contributor

I've tried those and some more drivers for Intel Chipset C620 and C610,

and I always get a message about unsupported OS.

I've already tried passing it to the guest via VMRC, no luck, just a USB\unknown device.

In my eyes, this is a bug in the driver implementation of vmware .. if a USB 3.0 device gets passed through a virtual USB 2.0 controller to a client OS, it should work ... somehow

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andypircher
Contributor
Contributor

USB (Universal Serial Bus)-Controller

is showing in device manager with: VEN_15AD DEV_0779

I tried to let windows search for a driver in the unzipped driver install folder, but it didn't find any.

Maybe because the reported Vendor isn't Intel?

Installed Tools Version is: VMware Tools 10.2.1 build 8267844

Is there a driver in newer versions?

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andypircher
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Contributor

As a workaround at the moment I'm using a Ubuntu guest

to pass the usb-device via targetcli as an iscsi target to the Windows guest.

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bluefirestorm
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The vendor ID 15AD is for VMware. I see that in a Windows 10 VM, the vendor ID/device ID pair is 15AD:0779. But Windows 10 VM does not require the Intel USB 3.0 driver and it uses the default Microsoft Windows 10 USB driver.

I don't think VMware Tools comes with any USB 3.0 controller driver. You can extract the contents from command line executing setup /a and you won't be able to find a subfolder for USB drivers (you can see the subfolders for vmxnet3, video driver, etc but none to indicate a USB controller).

For a Windows 7 VM on Workstation/Player, the USB 3.0 controller vendor ID/devie ID pair is 8086:8C31. The vendor ID for Intel is 8086.

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