Configuring Virtual Machine Access to Physical Devices

You can use ESXCLI to control access to USB passthrough devices.

By enabling or disabling USB passthrough, you affect all virtual machine access to the affected device.

The following examples show the syntax for listing USB devices and their passthrough status, enabling, and disabling USB passthrough. For enabling and disabling a USB device, you can obtain the required device information from the device's entry in the USB device list. Specify one of the options listed in Connection Options for ESXCLI Host Management Commands in place of <conn_options>.

• List USB devices and their passthrough status.

  esxcli <conn_options> hardware usb passthrough device list

• Enable USB passthrough.

  esxcli <conn_options> hardware usb passthrough device enable -d busId:dev:VendorID:ProductID

• Disable USB passthrough.

  esxcli <conn_options> hardware usb passthrough device disable -d busId:dev:VendorID:ProductID