Difference between USB device pass-through and VMDirectPath I/O Direct IO pass-through

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

This article contrasts USB device passthrough and VMDirectPath I/O, and provides additional information and suggested resources.

Environment

• VMware ESX 4.1.x
• VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
• VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable

Resolution

VMDirectPath

With this option, the VMkernel is configured without the respective device under its management, while it is passed through to a virtual machine.

 

This virtual machine takes full control of the device. As it has full control of this hardware component attached to the server, it cannot be vMotioned to a different server. In addition, other servers do not have the ability to remotely access the device or hardware.

• For more information on VMDirectPath, see Configuring VMDirectPath I/O pass-through devices on an ESX host (1010789).

USB device passthrough

This option allows you to redirect I/O to or from a USB device for virtual machines.

The device is managed by the VMkernel, allowing the attachment of USB devices to virtual machines live, and maintaining vMotion capability.

• For further information on USB device pass-through, see USB support for ESX/ESXi 4.1 (1022290).

Additional Information