Host USB online storage affected by VMWare Workstation 17.x

[kasper]

My setup:   AMD 8840U and various USB 4/3.2 NVME external drives on Win11 24h2

without VBS and without WD.   Latest drivers installed.

Without VMWare workstation installed I can transfer files on NVME and USB NVME

devices with minimal issues.   When Workstation is installed, it has 'hooks' into USB

storage devices.   And I am getting the sense that is causing a degradation in performance

and instability.   This is a really complex issue given all the different host OS's, enclosures,

and NVME storage devices.    But again, I am concerned about how the host USB device

interaction is being handled by VMWare workstation.   I may want to retro and go back

to pre-Broadcom days.    That would be a hoot.

[RaSystemlord]

Just some experiences for discussions sake:

That may be, but I have never find it feasible to let a virtual computer to access a Host USB disk device. It is there by default, but I disable it immediately.

I have many VMs open at any given time and if they would all argue, together with the Host, who has the rights to use the external USB devices as a disk storage, it would be nothing but a big mess.

Also, I want to archive everything important on the Host and thus I want to transfer stuff from a archive place into each VM separately. Thus, I typically just use drag and drop (or copy and paste which gives sometimes a better control of things). For other computers, than the host, I use just the regular OS file services (when using NAT, you can access all the computers in the Host network). VMware Sharing can also be used, but that I use very rarely.

Anyway, with that arrangement, I have never found any performance problems with external USB devices. I have always a couple of them attached for different purposes and typically 1-3 VMs open. 

The only problem with external USBs (I use mainly USB 3.2 Gen 3.2 from Asus ROG or TUF Gaming) is that Windows does not ALWAYS allow to release them when having yet another one attached for some temporary use. Not sure if this has anything to do with VMware, since this started with Win XP - in Win 2000 it always worked.

[kasper]

My apologies.   I did not mention that I am using USB in a specific context - to contain VMDK files for guests.   The 'USB Attached SCSI (UAS)' driver/protocol is more that capable to handle file I/O for VMDK files when all the drivers and firmware are ok.   In fact USB 4, when working correctly, is very fast for an external storage device.

[RaSystemlord]

OK, it was something else, not a problem.

As for performance: I use VM-computers from an external USB device all the time. I have used them since USB 2.0-HDDs - when they were slow devices. Asus devices are nowadays USB 3.2 Gen 3.2 (for SSD M.2 Nvme, PCI-e 4.0) and the performance leaves nothing to be desired.

As for using the VMware-external-SSD for something else at the same time when the VM is running ... I cannot give any comments on that since, within my workflows massive copies or moves don't happen at the same time.

As for unreliability: I have observed MANY reasons for that. That is why, I like to standardize what I use for VM-USB-external-SSDs and the computers I use (Asus ROG Strix motherboards and laptops and Asus ROG Strix/TUF Gaming external USB-devices).

Just some sources of unreliability:

- Dell Laptops have VERY unstable USB ports (talking now about the best Dells, but 5 years ago and before that).
- USB port might not work. You change to another port and it might work. After you reboot the computer, then it starts to work (actually after shutdown-power up). I know, this does not make any sense since we are talking about the same port, device and computer.
- with Dells, some of the ports NEVER worked for anything that required more power than a basic mouse or keyboard

- some external HDDs worked with their OWN (thick) cable. They did NOT work with some other cable bought from an IT shop

- you have USB port replicator devices. On a laptop, you NEVER have enough USB ports (mouse takes one, keyboard might take two, USB device takes permanently one and then you have backup devices and temporary USB stick use and USB camera and then you might have an USB soundcard). I NEVER attach a VMware-external-USB-disk into them, because they probably are not reliable for that kinds of use. Luckily, everything else than the disks, you can use native laptop ports

- anyway, I tried to use a VMware-usb-disk on a USB port replicator and that certainly was unreliable (didn't break my VM, because I tested that in a copy computer)

Having said that, I do not see problems of an USB-device somehow stopping/pausing/interrupting a VMware computer. 

- some external USB cases are just very, very bad

- some new cables from some IT shops, look good in all respects, but they just don't work

[kasper]

You mention some execellent points when using external USB storage for VMDK guests.   I failed by having 3 or more different types of enclosures and 3 or more different manufactorers of NVME drives.   Yesterday I spent 3 hours updating the firmware on all 6.   They all had updates.   The updates seem to have helped performance and increased reliability.   From now I am going to try to stick with one brand.   I also like that you mentioned cables.