Cannot get esxi host to see USB drive.

Hi all,

I have just built an esxi server from an HP Proliant ML350G5 server. I have a virtual machine that I copied down to a USB hard drive that I want to upload to the datastore on the host but I've run into a problem.

The host machine cannot see the USB drive.

No matter what I do I cannot get the host machine to connect to the USB drive for me to upload the VM to the local datastore. I don't want to build a VM in order to see the drive because the drive contains the Vm and I'm not even certain that would work anyway because I've had problems in the past with VM's not being able to see USB devices connected to the host.

I have to be missing something somewhere but can't find anyone that has had a similar problem.

Can anyone help me?

Andy

My head is starting to get sore from all the banging it against a brick wall that I've been doing, and the dizzyness brought on by going round in circles is starting to make me feel sick.

 

Hello,
I can say that I have absolutely no experience with your problem but I did a quick search and found this.

http://serverfault.com/questions/61644/can-you-use-a-usb-hard-drive-in-esxi

 

Thanks for the link but thats not the same as what I'm trying to do. I'm not trying to increase storage but simply use the device as a way to transport data between hosts. There is a whole chapter on USB connection in the manual http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vsphere4/r41/vsp_41_vm_admin_guide.pdf but none of it addresses my issue.

According to the manual you plug it in, give it a minute to find it and then you can add it to the virtual machine but in my case that isn't working