USB HDD not showing in VMWare ESXi

Thymox · 06-03-2009, 03:29 AM

Hi all,

Running VMWare ESXi (VMkernel 3.5.0 #1 SMP Release build-153875) on the bare metal. The machine has 1TB in a RAID 5 (so around 750GB usable storage) and 2x1TB USB HDDs (for backing up onto).

When attached, the USB HDDs are shown in /var/log/messages (ESXi is so "streamlined" they even remove the dmesg tool!) and fdisk shows them:

Code:

Disk /dev/disks/vmhba32:0:0:0: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

                  Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/disks/vmhba32:0:0:1             1    121601 976760001   83  Linux

However, it doesn't show up in the vmhba32 (USB Storage Controller) entry under "Storage Adapters" on the Configuration page on the VMWare Infrastructure Client tool.

So, a couple of questions - does anyone know if it is possible to get USB devices passed to a guest OS (I'm running Windows SBS2008 and Debian Lenny as guests) with VMWare ESXi, or how to get USB HDDs recognised so I can use them either for extra storage in a guest or to script a backup of the ESXi server?

Cheers.
Grant.

)

Sm1ler · 06-03-2009, 07:47 AM

Isn't ESXI built off RH4? It's been a while since I looked into VMware since making the jump to Vbox - I am guessing if it's that far cut down even lsusb is missing? if not does it report anything?

Sm1ler · 06-03-2009, 07:54 AM

Just done some other checking and this is a real problem

But this guy found a cleaver work around !! Read it all before making any changes !!

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/162962

hope this helps....

Thymox · 06-03-2009, 08:58 AM

I have no idea what system ESXi is based on - I know ESX server (without the trailing "i" moniker) has a RedHat based guest OK that comes with it - the "Management Console". However, ESX is not available for free whereas ESXi is. Thank you for the link - I can see where that guy is going, but as with the "ouch" poster, the newly created datastore still fails to show up in the VIClient. Indeed, it is listed under /vmfs, but as a dead symlink.

Incidentally, I'm not sure this guy is right:
http://communities.vmware.com/message/1270994

Sm1ler · 06-04-2009, 07:53 AM

The only other things I have read in this regard seem to discuss a USB IP Hub as a work around - Again that's something I have never tried and not even sure if or how it would work for you.

Sorry I can't be of more help