6.5.1

Table Of Contents
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
n
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.
n
Verify that you know the virtual machine requirements for USB devices. See Connecting USB
Devices to an ESXi Host.
n
Verify that the ESXi host is powered off before you add USB CD/DVD-ROM devices.
n
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.
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