The generic SCSI feature gives the guest operating system direct access to SCSI devices that are connected to the host system, including scanners, tape drives, and other data storage devices. A virtual machine can use the generic SCSI driver to run any SCSI device that is supported by the guest operating system.
To use SCSI devices in a virtual machine running on a Windows host system, you must run Workstation Player as a user who has administrator access.
On Linux host systems, you must have read and write permissions on a given generic SCSI device to use that device in a virtual machine, even if the device is a read-only device, such as a CD-ROM drive. These devices typically default to root-only permissions. A Linux administrator can create a group that has read and write access to these devices and add the appropriate users to that group.
Although generic SCSI is device independent, it can be sensitive to the guest operating system, device class, and specific SCSI hardware.
