USB passthrough on Azure HCI Stack

Question

We have a software licensing USB key that we need to pass through to one of our VMs on our Azure HCI stack. I am struggling to get anywhere with this - 1st problem - It looks like the USB ports may be disabled via Dells Lockdown protocol and secondly, there is no where in the Windows Admin Centre to set up USB passthrough, Ive tried with Failover Cluster manager and with HyperV manager - HyperV manager wont let me connect. Is this possible with Azure HCI?

Answer 1

Hello, @Adminmattb !

How do I use a proprietary USB dongle for license enforcement within a Hyper-V virtual machine on Windows Server/Azure Stack HCI?

(Edit: Updated) This currently is not supported as USB ports were not designed to be virtualized however there are USB over IP solutions you can use:

USB ports were not designed to be virtualized. If we mapped a physical USB port to a VM, access to the device would fail when the virtual machine Live Migrated or failed over in the case of unplanned downtime. The solution is to use a USB over IP solution. There are several options on the market which provide access to USB devices over TCP/IP. Here are a few examples:

 

• https://www.amazon.com/Coolgear-2-Port-Ethernet-Device-Server/dp/B08372NQZQ?ref_=ast_sto_dp

• https://www.amazon.com/Coolgear-4-Port-Ethernet-Device-Server/dp/B08373BZSJ?ref_=ast_sto_dp

 

Below is a picture of the Coolgear Anyplace 4-port USB server product. It fits in the palm of your hand and supports up to 4 USB devices. With a solution like this, it provides dongle access within a VM without sacrificing VM Mobility. One additional benefit to USB over IP devices like this below, is that it is easy to track all of your (expensive) licensing dongles because they are all kept in a single location, and you can easily secure them. You can learn more about these products here.

Hopefully this saves you from additional headache!

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