USB in Hyper-V Child?

Published Wed, Jul 16 2008 17:24 | Charlie Russel

It's still early days yet, but I think I've found a simple and very satisfactory solution to the problem of no USB support in Hyper-V. FabulaTech's USB Over Network product is simple to install - you install the Server side of it on whatever physical machine will host the USB devices, and the Client side on whatever virtual machine needs access to the USB devices. You can install as many copies of the Client application as you want - it's only the Server that requires a license key.

Fabula claims to support 64-bit, and it does run in Windows Server 2008 x64 version. BUT. And it's a big but. Unsigned drivers!Sad I've already got a message in to them to find out what they're going to do about this, but in the mean time, it's a useful solution to test out, but isn't going on any production machines until they get that fixed.

Using the product is simple - install the server, start it up, configure the port (and set an exception in Windows Firewall).
Then, simply plug in a USB device to physical computer. USB over Network recognizes the device, and makes it available to clients.

On the client side, install the software, start it, configure for the same port and point to a server by name or IP address, configure Windows Firewall. Now, browse the list of USB devices on the server. Connect to the one you want, and it's recognized exactly as if it were local to the client computer. Even if it's a VM with no USB support!

So far, it works a champ for using a USB hard drive as my backup device in SBS 2008. Which is exactly what I wanted it for.

More when I've had it up and running a few days, and when I've heard back from FabulaTech about signed drivers.

Charlie.

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Comments

# SimonS Blog on SQL Server Stuff said on July 31, 2008 3:42 AM:

One of the few gripes I have with Microsofts virtualisation story is the lack of support for USB. Well

# x(perts)64 said on August 6, 2008 8:49 AM:

A few days ago, I wrote about FabulaTech's USB over Network solution . I'd just installed it

# jeremy said on September 7, 2008 2:29 AM:

any news on the unsigned drivers Charlie ?

# Charlie Russel said on September 7, 2008 7:47 AM:

There's still issues with the driver signing, but they're not fatal--The product works, and works well, it's just the two warnings you get during the installation of the client side software. No fix yet, but it hasn't stopped me from using USB over Network for enabling backups inside SBS 2008.

Charlie.

# Dale Unroe said on September 22, 2008 1:16 PM:

This is very clever and thanks for writing on the ease of this product.  I wonder is they might also develop a RJ45 port over product so that the SBS Fax Server can likewise be used.

As for as a backup device, machines with external  eSATA ports can be very useful and this is what I'm doing.

# Robin Human said on September 29, 2008 7:30 AM:

I Keep getting a server is unreachable error on the client (XP virtual) - host is server 2008std 64 - firewall is turned off on both machines; when I try to browse for the server, nothing is showing under windows network, although both machines are connected to the domain, and can map tp each other - any ideas?