USB or firewire external HDD`s

[Amel]

Hello !!

I have one question about using external HDD drives within vmware esx 3.0 server.

I know that vmware does not support the SATA HDD`s(SATA Controllers), but since I have 5 SATA HDD`s containing a lot of data and different softwares, on my server, where I am running VMWare Server now, is it possible when I install the ESX server on one SCSI HDD I have, and than I install the Windows OS as virtual OS, is it possible than use the USB or Fireware External HDD`s ?? than I can copy all of my data on one External HDD 1 TB, than plug this as USB or via Fireware so access it from VMware virtual machines installed on ESX server ??

I hope someone can explain this to me,

Thank You

Best regards

[Bart_VK · Accepted solution]

Hi Amel,

On this moment it is not supported to pass through USB or firewire devices to virtual machines running on an ESX host. So I am afraid that the setup you have planned will not work. On the latest versions of VMware server and VMware workstation it is possible to pass through USB devices so I expect that this functionality will be added in the future with the release of a new sub version of ESX.

In the meanwhile I am afraid that you will need to copy all this data over the network to your SCSI disks in your server.

Kind regards

[christianZ]

That is my thought too.

[christianZ]

Another idea here could be mounting over nfs from another linux box.

[Amel]

hello Bart VK !!

Thank You very much for answer !

That is what I can never understand why ??? They can tell the users that SCSI is the only RECOMMANDED, but others can be used too. Because I am sure many people would use the ESX server within SATA drives for testing purposes in the labs etc.. therfore I can not understand why don`t make it possible.

Thank You for answer again !

Best regards

[Amel]

That is what I mean, let people use whatever they will, but tell them that SCSI IS THE ONLY RECCOMANDED and the most stable HDD`s !

So it is up to each to desire what to use: SATA, USB og SCSI. Because I know that all companies will listen to VMware Team and use the RECOMMANDED HDD`s, and other can use the SATA for testing labs, it is so easy theory, why purchase the expensive SCSI for testing purposes ??

Thank You all for reply !!

Best regards

Amel

[thomaskn]

Hi Amel,

1st Solution: Take a LSI Megaraid 4port SATA Controller... it´s booting like a SCSI Controller - we´ve ha it up and running.

2nd Solution: You can still connect a external hdd to the usb port and format it with ext2. So You can use it e.g. for backing up VMs. This we had up and running too!

Maybe äh.. probably you can install a NFS Server inside the service console and use the external USB-HDD with NFS-exports. But that´s a little bit tricky.

Don´t forget to open the firewall at the COS and don´t forget to establish a network connection from the vmkernel, so You can use the "Central NFS Storage" and don´t ask anything about performance...

Äh - surely - nothing supported from VMware....

[bertdb]

I expect that the USB functionality will not be added to ESX, unless they find a way to make it VMotion/DRS/HA compatible. With ESX, we really want to avoid connecting local-only resources to the VMs, because it blocks any of these cool features. VMotion/DRS/HA count on the fact that all servers can run all VMs, and that's only possible without local-only resources.

If you want USB in a VM, you can use USB-over-IP solutions (from companies like Digi). To the VM hardware, that's just networking, which is fully supported.