I am trying to get USB pass through setup on an ESXi5.5 host. I have the USB drive connected to a server, and can see it when I go to the Removable Devices drop down menu on the Remote Console window. However when I Choose the option "Connect (Disconnect from Host) to enable it to be seen on the VM, it fails.
The VM is a Windows 2008 R2 server. It is a USB 3.0 device. I have tried it with both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 controllers installed on the VM. When I added the USB 3.0 controller to the VM there is the warning "This controller is not supported for this guest operating system". I have also tried on a Windows 2012 Server with both USB 2.0 and 3.0 controllers installed on it. When I added the USB3.0 controller to the Windows 2012 server I did not get the waring about it not being supported.
All of these permutations have failed to get the USB to connect properly. "Error connecting remote USB device: The device "Apricorn USB Mass Storage Device" disconnected: a connection error offered." is the message I get. Can someone please confirm for me that the issue is due to an compatibility issue between the USB drive and either the version of ESXi and/or the version of Windows on the server?
I have attached screen shots of the Error that I got when I attempt the attach, as well as screen shots of the properties of the USB and the warning when the USB3.0 controller is attached to the Windows 2008 server.
I hope someone can please confirm my suspicion that this is a compatibility issue.