HOW TO REDIRECT USB DONGLE IN HYPER-V
Accessing USB devices from virtual environments such as VMware and Hyper-V is useful in many situations. In this article, we are going to show you how to make a USB recognizable in Hyper-V either as a host or client.
The ability to access USB devices from within a virtual machine (VM) is known as USB passthrough. You can attach the USB device to the machine that is running the VM or you can implement USB passthrough at the Hyper-V host level.
- How to get Hyper-V recognise USB
- Software to access USB in Hyper-V
- Hyper-V Enhance session mode - access USB with RDP client
- The bottom line
How to get Hyper-V recognise USB
Hyper-V USB passthrough can be performed at the client level or at the host level if you are connecting to USB storage devices.
Server side USB passthrough in Hyper-V
It is not as easy to implement Hyper-V USB passthrough as it is to set it up in VMware. Let’s take a look at how it’s done in the following demonstration.
In this example, we will attach a 32GB USB drive into a Hyper-V server and designate it as Drive E. The host operating system immediately sees the drive as available system storage. A potential issue is that direct access to the USB device is limited to one operating system at a time. In order to make the device available to the Hyper-V clients we need to take it offline and remove the logical connection to the host OS.
We do this by opening the machine’s Run prompt and executing the DISKMGMT.MSC command. This starts the Disk Management console. Locate the entry for your USB disk and right-click on the disk. You need to use the actual disk, not the drive letter or volume name.
There is an Offline option in the shortcut menu which will be used to take the disk offline. The Disk Management Console might not offer the Offline option for small USB storage devices. If that is the case, passthrough for USB in Hyper-V will not be able to be implemented.
Open the Hyper-V Manager after you have successfully taken the USB device offline. Select the VM that requires access to the device. Right-click on it and select Settings from the shortcut menu which opens the VM settings screen. Next, you need to select the Hard Disk option for the SCSI controller and click the Add button. When the next screen displays, select the Physical Hard Disk option and use the drop-down menu to select your USB storage device.
The VM should now be able to recognize and access the USB device. You may need to use the VM’s Disk Management Console to add a drive letter if the device is not immediately visible.
Access USB dongle and HID devices in
Hyper V
Some software programs require a hardware USB dongle for correct functioning. But what if you decide to work with a program that requires a hardware key in virtual environment? As you perhaps know there is no full-blown mechanism of connecting USB devices to virtual machines in Hyper-V. When server is virtualized, all references to USB bus and devices connected to it are lost.
When working in Hyper-V, there are times when you need to know how to access a USB device. You might need to present security credentials and need to use Hyper-V with a USB dongle. Without obtaining access to the device you cannot perform your work. Another case is if you are in a virtual machine (VM) and need HID access. You either need to be physically connected to the machine or use Hyper-V USB passthrough on your Windows 10 computer hosting the virtual session.
The software to work with USB in Hyper-V
USB Network Gate is a client-server solution, meaning that its server side gives access to USB devices to other computers on the network or to Virtual Machines, and client side allows using them as local resources. You can use any computer connected to the network as a server, either Windows, Mac or Linux one.