In order to connect a USB device to a Hyper-V guest you need to use a USB over IP solution. This means you plug the USB device into a real (physical) device(possibly even the Hyper-V host) and then attach it to the guest over a network (IP) connection.
For example, there are software packages which will share a USB device over an IP connection:
Example packages include:
- http://usbip.sourceforge.net/ (Free)
- http://www.virtualhere.com/home ($50)
- http://www.incentivespro.com/usb-redirector.html ($75)
- https://www.eltima.com/products/usb-over-ethernet/ ($179)
Note that the free solution may already be rolled into your Linux kernel (so you don’t need to install anything on the guest).
There are also commercial hardware products which will share a USB device over an IP connection:
Example devices include:
- https://www.coolgear.com/product/industrial-usb-2-0-ip-network-4-port-hub-share-usb-device-tcpip-network ($98)
- https://www.coolgear.com/product/usb-2-0-over-ip-network-4-port-hub-share-any-usb-device-over-tcpip-network ($115)
- https://cambrionix.com/products/ethersync-global-device-management-product/ ($575)
Some clients have used a Raspberry Pi to create a USB device server on their network for USB keys and other devices shared across their data center.
We try to avoid endorsing third party products unless we continually test their product with our dongles (which we do not at this time), but we have been told by customers that they have had success with a couple of the software packages above.
