Adding USB Controller

[MAHC]

I am trying to add a USB controller to my virtual guest ( Windows 2003 Standard with updates) by going into the infrastructure client, edit settings on that device, and selecting ADD so I can select the type of device I want to add. Unfortunately i don't see USB controller there. How do I get it to show so I can add it. The esx Server (ESX 3.5) (HP DL380 G5) does have USB on its hardware. Any and all help on this would be greatly helpful.

[demz]

MAHC,

USB is not supported by ESX, so your VMs cannot see USB peripherals...

You can (but still not supported) mount USB drives in the ESX COS but that's all.

[weinstein5 · Accepted solution]

That is because USB is not supported by ESX - the easiest way to do this is get a network based USB hub like this one from digi -

[MAHC]

I have came across this same answer for older versions of ESX but I didnt for the 3.5. So is there any other methods out there that I can use to get my USB device (hardware license) to work. I have looked into software apps like USB over Network ( didn't see the license key) and my ESX server didn't see the USB device when i had plugged it in. Do I need to restart the ESX server for it to see this device?

[weinstein5]

even if the ESX does not pass the USB to the VM so even if it did see it the VM would still not get access to it -

[MAHC]

I was looking for a hope that there would be a way around that. Thanks for your help on this and it looks like I am putting in an order to my hardware vendor.

Thanks,

[weinstein5]

if its any consolidation by using a network based USB hub you will be able to vmotion the vm -

[MAHC]

That is a very good point that if the mounting would work it would be static to that ESX server.