Attaching USB storage via XOA

kevnich2

@olivierlambert
If there's a way to capture the commands being sent, I would be happy to undo the USB pass-through and then go through it again under Center? I just started XCP-NG and XOA in the past few months so I'm definitely new.

olivierlambert

That's exactly what I wrote originally. You need to setup https://github.com/vatesfr/xapi-inspector and connect your XCP-ng Center to it. This will intercept all calls

rlyons20

@olivierlambert I actually have this need too, but it's not for USB storage. I'm running HomeAssistant on a VM, and I'd like to passthrough my Zigbee and Zwave USB devices.

Here is the xenserver doc on the topic: https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX235042

I think it actually includes the cli commands.

Hopefully that's helpful!

olivierlambert

We need the XAPI commands Again, if you want this to be done at some point, we need more spec (because it means less time to actually develop)

rlyons20

@olivierlambert unfortunately, I can't get the xe pusb-list command to return my USB devices, even though I see them with dmesg.

So, I may have bigger problems here...

rlyons20

@rlyons20 soooo... xe pusb-list only exposes STORAGE devices. I verified by plugging in a USB thumb drive, and that shows up.

So, my use case of running HomeAssistant as a VM with Zigbee/Zwave USB devices is probably dead in the water.

That's disappointing...

olivierlambert

You might modify the filter to get your dongle detected

gpoole

I wrote a script to set up USB device passthrough for a specific device by name to a specific VM by name in the same basic way the XCP-ng Centre UI does it when you follow the steps described in the original post. Here's the script: https://gist.github.com/gpoole/c89807e9de9cb5c87bbcc2da27e0c3e4

Are those the commands you're looking for @olivierlambert?

Either way hopefully useful to anyone who wants to do this without using XCP-ng Centre. I've found it needs to be done every boot, so the script is intended to be something I can quickly SSH in and run. I'm sure it could be automated properly but works for me.

olivierlambert

Thanks for the commands. I just find it weird you need to do it at each boot, I don't remember having to do it here

EyesUnclouded

@gpoole Thank you! I'm sure this will be quite useful in my homelab, but maybe not at work just yet... particularly because I am hopeful Olivier and Vates are able to integrate this into XOA.

This is because I am looking into integrating at least one HSM into our xcp-ng infrastructure, and the $650 USB-A YubiHSM2 is quite attractive. It would be great to be able to reliably pass this through via XOA to a Windows Server VM. I could imagine this use case being potentially important for small-medium sized companies looking for alternatives to typical expensive HSMs.

cyrus104

@xenoNfluX @olivierlambert

I would agree this would be great for the Z-wave/Zigbee dongles in Home Automation.

Right now I'm working on a small homelab that can pass through the intel Quicksync to a Plex server and the USB to support HA.

Having this in XOA/XOCE, even XO-lite (understandably not really a "lite" feature).

Ethan6123

I am also interested in this feature.

We use XCP-NG to run the virtual hosts in our DMZ. As you can imagine, the DMZ is completely separated from our internal network and the only way to transfer a file to a virtual server is to physically connect a usb drive to a host.

We use Xen Orchestra for everything except this. When we need to mount a USB drive we have to physically connect a laptop to the DMZ network and then attach the USB drive with XCP-NG Center.

SpoonyLove

@cyrus104 @olivierlambert I'm also interested in USB support, and specifically USB dongle connectivity for HomeAsssistant.

@olivierlambert , you mentioned filter modification. is that at the xen level? Similar to many, i'm at the beginner level- I'm willing to tackle a problem or provide specification for further development, but i'm not sure where to start.

SpoonyLove

@SpoonyLove

Found some resources that answered my own question. For the sake of future google searches, please redirect my question to:

https://psychogun.github.io/docs/xcp-ng/USB-passthrough/

gn_ro

@SpoonyLove @olivierlambert
For usb passthrough we are using USB redirector over network
For anything storage related we use something like this:

mkdir /adm/passSR

passUUID=`xe sr-create name-label="Direct access SR" name-description="Direct acces to hdd with simlink" type=udev content-type=disk device-config:location=/adm/passSR`

ln -s /dev/sdb /adm/passSR/sdb

xe sr-scan uuid=$passUUID
xe vdi-list sr-uuid=$passUUID

Remember to replace /dev/sdb with your device.