6.0.1

USB Compound Devices
For compound devices, the virtualization process filters out the USB hub so that it is not visible to the virtual
machine. The remaining USB devices in the compound appear to the virtual machine as separate devices.
You can add each device to the same virtual machine or to different virtual machines if they run on the same
host.
For example, the Aladdin HASP HL Drive USB dongle package contains three devices (0529:0001 HASP
dongle, 13fe:1a00 Hub, 13fe:1d00 Kingston Drive). The virtualization process filters out the USB hub. The
remaining Aladdin HASP HL Drive USB dongle devices (one Aladdin HASP dongle and one Kingston
Drive) appear to the virtual machine as individual devices. You must add each device separately to make it
accessible to the virtual machine.
Add USB Devices to an ESXi Host
You can connect multiple USB devices to ESXi hosts so that virtual machines that run on the hosts can access
the devices. The number of devices that you can connect depends on several factors, such as how the
devices and hubs chain together and the device type.
Each ESXi host has several USB ports. The number of ports on each host depends on the physical setup of
the host. When you calculate the depth of hub chaining, remember that on a typical server the front ports
connect to an internal hub.
The USB arbitrator can monitor a maximum of 15 USB controllers. If your system includes controllers that
exceed the 15 controller limit and you connect USB devices to them, the devices are not available to the
virtual machine.
The host treats USB CD/DVD-ROM devices as SCSI devices. Hot adding and removing these devices is not
supported.
Prerequisites
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If a host has attached USB devices and resides in a DRS cluster with DPM enabled, disable DPM for that
host. See the vSphere Resource Management documentation for instructions about overriding the default
DPM setting for an individual host.
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Verify that you know the virtual machine requirements for USB devices. See “Connecting USB Devices
to an ESXi Host,” on page 142.
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Verify that the ESXi host is powered off before you add USB CD/DVD-ROM devices.
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Verify that the current version of your ESXi host is 6.0 or later for adding eight virtual xHCI controller
to the ESXi host.
Procedure
u
To add a USB device to an ESXi host, connect the device to an available port or hub.
What to do next
You can now add the device to the virtual machine. See “Add USB Devices from an ESXi Host to a Virtual
Machine,” on page 145.
Add a USB Controller to a Virtual Machine
USB controllers are available to add to virtual machines to support USB passthrough from an ESXi host or
from a client computer to a virtual machine.
You can add one virtual xHCI controller, one virtual EHCI controller, and one virtual UHCI controller per
virtual machine. With Hardware Version 11, the supported number of root hub ports per xHCI controller is
eight (four logical USB 3.0 ports and four logical USB 2.0 ports).
Chapter 6 Configuring Virtual Machine Hardware
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