Unable to mount USB devices

[efacecse]

I'm trying the new ESXi 5.0 on a HP DL370 G6, and just hit 2 nagging issues:

-     though ESXi is configured with a fixed IP,  upon reboot there's no network access unless I unplug and re-plug the network cable

-     I'm unable to mount USB devices (pen drives; external HDD) into the Host, nor into the Guests.

Following this note: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1036340, there's no USB volumes showing up on the Host (though the drive is identified through lsusb). And on vSphere Client, there's no USB devices available which may be added to the Guests

Any ideas?!

[Virtualinfra]

Can you reseat the NIC adapter on the server and try changing the cable for testing.

with help of network admin do shut and noshut on the switch port connecting to ESXi host.

The KB you have tried is not applicable for ESXI 5.

Try the belwo kb for ESXI to use USB drive:

http://kb.vmware.com/kb/2004510

[efacecse]

The issue is not how to install ESXi5.0 from a USB device, ESXi is already installed.

My problem is that we have a 100Mb LAN, and I need to transfer more than a dozen VMs to this new server, which will be quite slow. So, I would like to attach a external USB drive with all those VMs to the Host, and directly copy the VMs onto. However the USB drive does is not showing up on the Host, neither on any VM already on this Host.

[Virtualinfra]

ESXi dont support USB drive as datastore.

Possible option is to add the usb to your system where vsphere client is installed and connected to host or vcenter.

browse the datastore of the host and copy the vmdk to usb drive.(if you want that data in USB drive)

[ItsMeHere]

This is just simply not true.

Please have a look at http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1036340.

While this article states it was for 4.1 only, it still applies to 5.0. I just added a 1TB USB disk to an ESXi 5.0 VM in Workstation, and it was correctly detected after stopping usbarbitrator. Of course, ESXi is not able to operate the NTFS filesystem on my device, but if you make sure to use a supported filesystem like FAT32, I don't see why it should not work.

Regarding daemonchild's posting: There are always devices that do not work, while others definitely do. Unfortunately, VMware's official support for USB devices is rather limited: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1021345.

Edit: Just noticed: You first need to add the USB controller to the VM, and then in a second step add the USB device :smileylaugh:

[Virtualinfra]

Have you added any usb drive as datastore with VMFS partition (like we add a SAN lun) to a physical ESXI 5 server and used for virtual machine hosting(i.e for the purpose of creating VMDKs under that datastore.

I havent mentioned that virtual machine running in the ESXi doesnt support usb drive. i was creally mentioned that adding a USB drive as a datastore is not possible for ESXi directly

Please correct me if i am worng, i will take this opurtunity to learn.

If you say that you will be able to add a usb as a datastore directly to ESXi, i wonder and i would be much happy to use if yyou show me some screen shots where you created those datastore with VMFS to ESXi 5..

[Virtualinfra]

Please look at this discussion

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/222023

[efacecse]

Has I said, I just want to attach a USB drive to the Host in order to copy some VMs from the drive to the Host internal datastore, since it will be faster by USB 2.0 than through our 100Mbps LAN.

Like I initially stated, and reiterated by ItsMeHere, I assumed http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1036340 would also apply to ESXi 5.0. I tryed with several USB drives but none of them will automatically mount on /vmfs/volumes/<USB drive>... for instance, with a Sony 8GB pen drive, either formated in FAT or FAT32.

However, following http://www.vm-help.com/esx40i/VMDirectPath/USB_Setup.php , I indeed managed to passthrough the USB drive (attached to the Host) to a Windows VM...

Perhaps this's a 5.0 bug...

[ItsMeHere]

I just had a few disappointing attempts to attach USB disk devices to an ESXi 4.1-433742 VM...

All of them were detected, i.e. new vmhba3x were created, and I was able to hexdump the devices, but no matter whether the device was partitioned or Large Floppy formatted, FAT32 or not, no mount was possible. Seems I need to dig a little deeper into that, even more as VMware states in http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1016911 that <quote>USB flash drives and disk drives are supported in ESX/ESXi 4.x and later and enable the transfer of files to or from the service console.</quote>

[psoy]

Hi ItsMeHere,

Were you somehow able to mount locally attached USB storage to ESXi host? I have ESXi 5.0 and USB device is not mounted as described here - http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1036340

mount command was removed in ESXi 5.0 so it's not even possible to try to manually mount USB drive.

[daemonchild]

I totally understand what you're trying to do. I've got the same issue.

I'm using an HP Microserver, but the principal is the same.

I've got ESXi running off a flash drive on the motherboard. And now I've plugged a couple of USB devices in and they appear in the lsusb output:

~ # lsusb

Bus 04 Device 05: ID 1130:660c Tenx Technology, Inc.    <--- here

Bus 04 Device 04: ID 1130:660c Tenx Technology, Inc.    <--- here

Bus 04 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 02 Device 02: ID 090c:1000 Feiya Technology Corp. Flash Drive <--- ESXi installed on this flash drive

Bus 02 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 06 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 05 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Bus 03 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 01 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

In the vSphere client, I don't see any USB devices that I can add to my VMs.

Anyone know what's up?

Cheers,

Tom

[WonderingWhy]

I think that it's worth checking that you have added a USB Controller to the virtual machine before plugging in the physical USB device to the Host.

The screenshot by daemonchild shows that the controller is available for him to add to the virtual machine (which means that it's not already added).

Once the controller is added, the physical usb device can be plugged in to the host, and then the virtual "USB Device" can be added to a virtual machine.

These are the steps required, although I have also found that USB device passthough doesn't always work as you'd expect.

[HellMind]

This is so stupid, in the usb 3.0 times, you cant use a pendrive in esxi

Not because I hard to implement or something.

Just to make sure you dont do strange things it got disabled.