USB Passthrough ESXi 5.1

Hi all,

Just upgraded to 5.1 vSphere server and ESXi and now the USB passthrough is having some strange problems.

One of the virtual machines is a file server and I pass a USB RDX drive through for backups, but its started disconnecting of its own accord, not fully but enough to stop it reading the contents of the disk. I get a strange disconnect error on the client (and yet it can still see all the hosts and virtuals and edit them) then on the USB menu in the console it says no usb devices.

Close the client and restart and it lets me add it again but then before the backup is finished the drive vanishes off the virtual.

Seems like a fault with the client somewhere.

I've tried reinstalling the client, vSphere server, even Windows Server 2008 and yet the problem still remains.

Any ideas? It worked fine before updating to 5.1.

If I put the 5.1 client on a Windows 7 laptop, and connect directly to the host rather than the vSphere server, the usb drive works fine when passed through. I have tried putting the client on a fresh server too and it still fails. Is it a 2008 issue?

Anyone else had this?

Thanks

Maybe the USB port on the ESXi server got broken. Make sure your VM tools are up to date. Try and purchase a USB over ethernet device.

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Originally Posted by adrian_costea

Maybe the USB port on the ESXi server got broken. Make sure your VM tools are up to date. Try and purchase a USB over ethernet device.

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It's isnt plugged in to the ESXi server, the server in question doesnt support direct I/O, so the controller isnt passed through, its just the USB device from another server with a VMWare client. Tried it on 2 servers and has the same problem, tried it on a windows 7 client and its fine.

Vmware tools, hardware versions, esxi version and patches all up to date and 100% compliant.

Usb over ethernet? Got an example?

Thanks