VMware ESXi 5.1 and HDD USB/PenDRIVE

[GianDO]

Hi,

i need to connect an hard disk usb or pendrive to service console of esxi 5.1, because i need to transfer a large amount of data. I found this kb

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=103634...

I run the steps correctly and the usb device appears under "fdisk -l" command, but it is not appears mounted under /vmfs/volumes (the directory "NO NAME" was not create), why?

Thanks in advance

G.

PS: the mount command seems not exist.

[Linjo]

Does your pendrive fulfill this requirement: "The USB key or disk device media is formatted with a FAT16 partition and is of maximum size 2GB"?

// Linjo

[GianDO]

Thanks for the suggestion.

My pendrive and usb disk not fulfill this requirement. I tried to format another pendrive in fat16 and it works now. I followed the same way for the usb disk.

FAT filesystem supports volumes  up to 2GB and i understood that esxi support only vfat (fat16) and vmfs filesystem. I'd know if there is a way for bypass this limitation i.e. if ESXi can support (for ex.) NTFS filesystem and volumes over 2GB.

Thank you very much

G.

[Linjo]

Not that I know of, the primary function of this is to be able to copy drivers into your ESX to bring up network etc.

I would suggest other ways of uploading data, maybe a simple NFS-share?

// linjo

[GianDO]

Yes, OK for NFS-Share, but it is more slower than a direct connection .. I'd like to copy more quickly.

[krishna_v78]

Hi,

You can copy if from a guest VM which is hosted on that ESXi host.

1. Enable Passthru on ESXi host

2. create virtual usb port on that VM and connect the usb device to ESXi host

3. copy the data to local datastore.

[GianDO]

ok, but you'll never be as fast as a direct connection to service console. Then to enable Passthrou must have an architecture that supports VT-d, or not?