VMware ESX Server Question

USB Edgeport
1

Hey,
I just purchased and successfully setup my AnyWhere USB device on my network. I have one ESX 2.5.2 server with one 2003 server VM accessing a test usb drive that is ultimately plugged in the usb concentrator. That is working just fine. My questions are:

  1. Is there a way to mount the usb drive from the ESX host? I would like to use this space to push isos and stuff from the ESX console. This would save me some $$$ from adding some more U’s to my colocated space costing me more $$$ per month

  2. Since I currently have 1 2003 server VM accessing the drive successfully, If I create another 2003 server VM, can someone clear up what will happen if I install the concetrator utility and try to access the same drive?

My purpose is to use a large usb drive attached to the concentrator as a file / backup repository that can be accessed by all VM’s and ESX host (command line). Any help is greatly appreciated. Sorry if I did not explain clearly.

2

Hello craigloosenth,

  1. Since we only offer Windows drivers for the AnywhereUSB, an ESX host is not supported.

  2. One computer (whether physical or virtual) can connect to an AnywhereUSB at one point in time. The first VM would have to disconnect before the second VM could connect.

3

Does USB anywhere appliance in VMWare infrastructure support VMOtion feature ?
Can I move a VM from server to USB device using VMotion ?

4

sverbist,

According to the VMotion data sheet, VMotion supports “shared storage such as Fibre Channel or iSCSI Storage Area Network (SAN) or Network Attached Storage (NAS).”

It does not appear that USB devices are supported (i.e. USB flash drive or USB hard drive), therefore I’m doubtful this would work with the AnywhereUSB.

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vmotion_datasheet.pdf