USB over IP on ESX?

[AllBlack]

Hi,

We have a few servers that require usb dongles. As ESX does not support USB pass through we have all those servers sitting on physical hardware.

This is a shame as they are underutilized.

I came accross a product called Anywhere USB and I was wondering if this could

solve our problem. Turns out vmware has a whitepaper on it

Anyone used this? Can you share your experience?

cheers

[chandlm]

I know many people have used the Digi product and it seems with good results. I haven't personally used that one but I've used a similar device with no issues:

[AllBlack]

Just read the Vmware whitepaper and it looks good indeed. Good to see their are alternatives too. Not too expensive either!

Cheers

[markvor]

I use the Digi Product for my customers. This box abolutely well without problems.

Read the Operating Instructions carefully because VM (windows, linux) under ESX does not install the usb drivers by default.

The only one negative thing is, when you want to use one box with more then one vm's.

Sometimes one vm takes control over all ports.

Hope that helps.

Markus

[AllBlack]

Can you work around that tho? Some VMs would only have one dongle and it seems silly to buy one hub for each VM

[chandlm]

Splitting up the device to multiple VMs is why we ended up testing the Keyspan device. You can assign by hostname so hostA will always get port1 on startup, hostB will get port2, etc...

At least at the time when I got in the Keyspan device, Digi didn't support that at all but they might now.

[markvor]

Not for now. I got an open support request with Digi. The told me that they trying to fix this problem.

Markus

[doubleH]

I also use the Keyspan device for the same exact reason and it works flawlessly

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[TCronin]

We also use the Keyspan device for security dongles and tested the Digi product. We went with the Keyspan because it could handle more than one VM attaching to it and could be set to get the correct dongle. I have not tested it yet, but the newest device from Keyspan supports USB 2.0. I do not think Digi has an equivalent, but I could be wrong.