Printer Redirection?

[vincentht]

Does ESX 3.0 redirect printers? USB? Parallel? Thanks.

[eaescob]

What you can do is map the Parallel port to a specific VM and then share this printer. Remember, ESX only controls the VM (And all their settings) even the SC (Service Console) is a VM but I don't think sharing the printer from the SC is a good idea.

[cheeko]

The Console isn't a VM, I'd say.

As for the printer: Use a network printer or buy a USB Network PrintPort.

If you need to share external physical devices (with fancy drivers) connected to the host system, i think you'd be better off with VMware Server.

cheeko

Message was edited by:

cheeko - typos ...

[sirdaver]

Actually, I'm pretty sure the console IS a VM. The ESX box initially boots to linux, which launches the vmkernel, and when that is loaded, it reloads the console as a VM.

Sorry for the off-topic.

[TheVDIguy]

If you want to redirect the parallel port, you probably want to use something like VDIworks Parallel over Network redirector. This capability is not natively a part of ESX or Hyper-V for that matter. You can do USB redirection with things like the PC-over-IP protocol, but not physical LPT port redirection. Check this URL out for more details:

http://www.vdiworks.com/products/parallel-over-network

This is an inexpensive solution and it should work with ESX or any other Hypervisor. It also works with Physical systems. I hope this helps.