Hello,
in my cloud environment I would like to dedicate 1x ESXi (running v5.1) to host multiple windows machine (BPC) each connected to a specific USB device (ie: wifi, 3g-dongle, 4g-dongle, android phone, ...). The idea is to allow RDP session toward those BPC (ie: win7-01, win7-02, win7-03, ...) while their default route would go through the connected usb device.
So far I've been succesfully on allowing the wifi dongle (Sitecom Europe B.V). The other devices even if present in the lssub are not selectable neither from vsphere client nor from web client.
~ # lsusb
Bus 02 Device 13: ID 04e8:6876 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd (<= Galaxy S3)
Bus 02 Device 12: ID 04e8:6876 Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd (<= Galaxy S3)
Bus 02 Device 11: ID 0df6:006c Sitecom Europe B.V. (<= wifi)
Bus 02 Device 0f: ID 0df6:006c Sitecom Europe B.V.(<= wifi)
Bus 02 Device 0a: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB [Hama]
Bus 02 Device 09: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB [Hama]
Bus 02 Device 08: ID 19d2:2000 ONDA Communication S.p.A. ZTE MF627/MF628/MF628+ HSDPA (<== 3G-Dongle)
Bus 02 Device 06: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB [Hama]
Bus 02 Device 05: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB [Hama]
Bus 02 Device 04: ID 04b4:6560 Cypress Semiconductor Corp. CY7C65640 USB-2.0 "TetraHub"
Bus 02 Device 03: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB [Hama]
Bus 02 Device 02: ID 05e3:0608 Genesys Logic, Inc. USB-2.0 4-Port HUB [Hama]
Bus 02 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 04 Device 02: ID 0624:0248 Avocent Corp.
Bus 04 Device 01: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 01 Device 03: ID 0624:0249 Avocent Corp.
[...]
~ #
I tried with the usb-passwthrough but on 5.1 seems not working so I rolled back on 5.0 but still with no luck (moreover it is unclear to me if usb passthrough allow direct access to each single usb device or if it give access to usb-hub only).
I also tried to use vmware Workstation on a win8 host OS. Here it was possible to connect more devices to the win7 guest OS:
However it is not practical to automate and to guarantee that all VMs and USB devices will be always available when using vmware Workstation.
So I would appreciate any indication or suggestion on having a ESXi 5.1 hosting multiple guest OS each one controlling 1x USB device.
Thx,
Andrea