ESXi: Pass through an USB device to a VM

Hi,

ESXi has an option to pass through an host attached USB device to a VM. VMware provides a list of supported USB Devices.

USB devices with of class CCID, smartcards for example, cannot redirected out of the box. When you try to add the device an error: “Cannot connect ‘path:0/1/6/1’ to this virtual machine. The device was not found.”

Here are my troubleshooting steps:

Logon to the ESXi console via ssh or ESXi shell and look if the device is recognized

root@myESXiHost~ # lsusb
...
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 04f1:9816 Smartcard ExampleDevice, Inc.
...

Get more details on the device

root@myESXiHost~ # lsusb -d 04f1:9816 -v
...
iConfiguration          3 CCID Class
...
bInterfaceClass        11 Chip/SmartCard
...
iInterface              4 CCID Interface
...

If it is identified as a CCID device are redirected is possible. Shutdown your VM.

Add an virtual USB Controller

Add USB Controller

USB Controller
USB Controller

Add usb.generic.allowCCID to the VM’s advanced setting

usb.generic.allowCCID = "TRUE"

Add Avanced setting
Add Avanced setting

Avanced setting usb.generic.allowCCID
Avanced setting usb.generic.allowCCID

Start the VM and check the Windows Device Manager

Windows Device Manager
Windows Device Manager

Michael

Advertisment to support michlstechblog.info

One thought on “ESXi: Pass through an USB device to a VM”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.