usb modems will not dialout after 6.5 upgrade

[Bucky101]

I have 2x USB modems inside a Server 2008R2 instance for remote connectivity to customers.  After upgrading to esxi 6.5, I can still see the USB modems inside the VM and inside the OS displaying as connected but when attemping to dial out it fails and throws a windows based 'modem hardware failed to respond' error even though i know the HW is fine

Interestingly I built a Server 2012R2 and a Server 2016 instance.  Same problem on Server 2012 but works on 2016?

Unfortunately Server 2016 is having major performance issues on my 6.5 and besides this due to legacy software I have to keep this inside Server 2008.  Any help greatly appreciated.

Have tried all the obvious first steps like

-rebooting host

-rebooting USB devices

[lancechou]

Thanks for reporting the issue.

The issue should have been fixed and will be in the next release (I don't know when).

Before you can upgrade your ESXi, the temporary workaround is switching to the old driver as follows:

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

  # reboot

For more information, please visit Important information about the new ESXi 6.5 USB driver vmkusb, and the legacy USB drivers (2147650)...

Thanks,

Lance

[mcreedjr]

I, too, had the same or similar problem. A USR 5637 USB modem would not dial out, or otherwise respond to the guest OS after upgrading to ESXi 6.5. Querying the modem in device manager returned a message saying the modem was not responding. I reverted to the old driver on the host, and now the USB modem works fine inside the guest OS.