Unable to add a USB device to a powered-on virtual machine with error "Device usb_xhci could not be hot-added."

Products

• VMware vCenter Server
• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

When adding a USB device to a powered-on virtual machine in the vSphere Client, the following error message appears:

Environment

VMware ESXi
VMware vCenter Server

Cause

The virtual machine is configured with hotplug disabled.

Resolution

Enabling hotplug allows you to add USB devices while the virtual machine is powered on.
See below for instructions.
* The virtual machine must be powered off to apply the following procedure.

Power off the virtual machine > Select the virtual machine > Action > Edit Settings > Advanced Parameters
・Attribute :  devices.hotplug
・Value : True

If you add USB devices to a virtual machine with hotplug disabled, the virtual machine must be powered off prior to that.