Adding USB drive to physical server running ESXi
We have a server running ESXi. We have an external USB hard drive that we want to connect to it. We want the Win2K3 VM to be able to see the USB drive and backup to it.
Are there any issues with this? I seem to remember looking into this a while back and seeing that ESX had problems with sharing USB devices with VM's.
If this is possible. How do I let the VM see the drive?
Thanks for your help.
Are there any issues with this? I seem to remember looking into this a while back and seeing that ESX had problems with sharing USB devices with VM's.
If this is possible. How do I let the VM see the drive?
Thanks for your help.
a safer solution due to irq locking issues caused by native usb in esx servers is to get a usb to ip convertor, this looks like a kvm, you plug in usb devices into it and is is connected to the network, the server can then see the device as needed.
ASKER
>>>get a usb to ip convertor
Is there any make/model that is normally used for this kind of thing with ESXi?
Is there any make/model that is normally used for this kind of thing with ESXi?
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ESXi, as far as i understand, doesnt have support for USB, only some in ESX.
Also see this thread - https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/23752306/How-do-add-usb-drive-in-VMWARE-ESXI-3-5.html
Also see this thread - https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/23752306/How-do-add-usb-drive-in-VMWARE-ESXI-3-5.html
usb to ip is an external device - bypasses limitation of esxi and host hardware
Hi there,
is running ESXi on USB, does that involving risk of losing the data since USB got limited amount of read and write operation ?
is running ESXi on USB, does that involving risk of losing the data since USB got limited amount of read and write operation ?
Yes. You risk losing the esxi server however you can allways dd the usb stick to another one or backup the configuration files from it. The risk to vm's is the same as in a single server esx envrionment where the disks fail.
Hi Raj,
do you mean using this tool to copy the config file in case the USB stick failed ?
http://vmwaretips.com/wp/2009/10/12/before-host-profiles-there-was-vicfg-cfgbackuppl/
do you mean using this tool to copy the config file in case the USB stick failed ?
http://vmwaretips.com/wp/2009/10/12/before-host-profiles-there-was-vicfg-cfgbackuppl/
if you have enabled SSH on your ESXi, the vmrun command might help. You can share a mountpoint from the host-system, like the mountpoint of your USB stick with the VM, e.g:
vmrun -t esx -h https://<yourIP>/sdk -u <user> -p <password> addSharedFolder <Path to vmx file>
<Share name> <Host path>