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USB is not supported yet in either ESX or ESXi....kind of. VMware has provided a way *if* your server supports IOMMU. You can see if you can enable VMDirectPath...see here:<br />
<a href="http://www.petri.co.il/vmware-esxi4-vmdirectpath.htm" rel="ugc">http://www.petri.co.il/vmware-esxi4-vmdirectpath.htm</a><br />
<br />
Regards,<br />
~coolsport00
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USB is not supported yet in either ESX or ESXi....kind of. VMware has provided a way *if* your server supports IOMMU. You can see if you can enable VMDirectPath...see here:
http://www.petri.co.il/vmware-esxi4-vmdirectpath.htm [http://www.petri.co.il/vmware-esxi4-vmdirectpath.htm]

Regards,
~coolsport00

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I have this same problem with a flex license server and ended up using a USB over IP device by DIGI.com. Mattymotas has it right.
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I have this same problem with a flex license server and ended up using a USB over IP device by DIGI.com. Mattymotas has it right.

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And one other thing to note...VMDiectPath is only possible with ESXi4...no prior versions.
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And one other thing to note...VMDiectPath is only possible with ESXi4...no prior versions.

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Hi..i have seen this question in a no of places in EE but have yet to see an answer i like!!!!<br />
<br />
<br />
is there any way way i can simply plug into a usb drive and have the local VM see it without using usb to ip converters??? &nbsp;can the usb ports be &quot;mapped&quot; through...<br />
<br />
<br />
i will be adding a vm to this server soon which will have a piece of software on it which uses a usb dongle for security....can this be done???<br />
<br />
<br />
ger
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Hi..i have seen this question in a no of places in EE but have yet to see an answer i like!!!!


is there any way way i can simply plug into a usb drive and have the local VM see it without using usb to ip converters???  can the usb ports be "mapped" through...


i will be adding a vm to this server soon which will have a piece of software on it which uses a usb dongle for security....can this be done???


ger

using usb hard drives with VMware Esxi

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.