Hello,

I have seen several postings about how USB ports on Sun Ray 2 clients 
connecting to a Virtual Machine running under VMWARE ESX (or ESXi) should work 
even if ESX doesn't support USB.  I recently setup a Sun Ray 4 system with a 
Sun Ray 2 client.  The Sun Ray 4 server and the Windows XP workstation are both 
installed on a ESXi server (they are both Virtual Machines running on a Sun 
x4100 M2 server with ESXi).  The Sun Ray is working and is able to connect to 
the Windows XP workstation with the Windows Connector.  I am having no issue 
with the performance of the system in my small lab.

I then started to test the USB connection between the Sun Ray 2 client and the 
Windows XP VM.  The USB ports on the Sun Ray 2 appear to do nothing when I am 
connected to my Windows XP VM.  I then noticed that the Windows XP VM running 
under VMWARE ESXi had no USB controller (USB Root Hub) because ESX does not 
support USB.  When installing Windows XP under ESX the USB files are not even 
copied over because it doesn't detect any USB hardware.

Several people commented in the past that USB should work with Sun Ray 2 
clients connecting to Windows XP workstations running on ESX because the USB is 
redirected via RDP and has nothing to do with ESX.  If a Windows XP VM running 
under ESX has no USB controller (USB Root Hub) how can local USB ports on the 
Sun Ray 2 client be redirected to the Virtual Machine? The funny thing is that 
the keyboard and mouse on the Sun Ray 2 are USB and they work fine.  The 
printer, scanner, and digital camera I attached to the Sun Ray 2 client didn't 
do anything (Windows does not see it).  Do I need to install anything on the 
Windows XP VM to make this work or is it not possible to redirect the USB ports 
to a VM running under ESX?  Am I correct that the Sun Ray 2 client redirects 
USB to the local Windows XP USB controller?

I should note that the Sun Solaris server (running the Sun Ray 4 Software) is 
also a VM under ESX.  Solaris being a VM under ESX means that the Solaris Sun 
Ray Server also has no USB hardware/drivers installed (as ESX does not support 
USB).

Thanks

Bryan

_______________________________________________
SunRay-Users mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.filibeto.org/mailman/listinfo/sunray-users

Reply via email to