I will admit that I am very new to UnRaid.  I bit the bullet and my first attempt is a very big machine that I have had up and running exactly 2 days.  Space Invader's videos are amazing and I am going to give him a nice donation soon.

 

I actually am running UnRAID as a trial still.  I have a very nice Win10 Pro VM up and running and so far I am very impressed.  I have searched thru the forum but, so far, none of my searches revealed anything.  How do I connect a USB printer thru to the VM.  I have USB support enabled... drivers updated using the virtio cd image.

 

All of that worked.  What now?  This second, I have no clue what the next step is.

 

I appreciate any guidance someone might offer.

I don't have a printer plugged into my unRaid box but, I do have a hard drive plugged in via USB. You should presumably see a USB listing when you edit the VM - does your printer show up there?

Thanks for the reply.  Well, that raises another question.  When I insert a USB flash drive, the VM doesn't seem to know it.

 

It looks to me like I have the USB set up correctly.  Thoughts?

 

Do I have to manually pass the USB flash drive thru somehow with "unassigned devices" (or something)?

 

For the best VM experience, you want to passthrough an entire USB controller vs individual devices. Then you can plug and play any device. SIO has videos explaining it in depth. Do you plan on running multiple VM's simultaneously ?

Option 2 is to install the CUPS docker. Then your printer will be shared to your whole network, available to all VMs and mobile devices. I can AirPrint to my 1995 HP laserjet 4

Edited December 6, 20187 yr by WashingtonMatt

Another option would be the "Libvirt Hotplug USB" plugin. You should be able to attach any connected USB device on the VM page to a running VM. Didn't tried it with a printer myself, but all my USB devices like a external CD drive, USB sticks and even a smartphone works. 

Thanks guys for the responses.

Which of the three options presented in the previous two posts do you "vote" for as the best and why?  I have had this server up for only 5 days.  I can't wait to be comfortable with it because it seems to be ridiculously powerful.

 

Again, thanks for the help!  I will participate and give help as well as soon as I am able.  Been doing this stuff for a long time - just not with UnRaid.

Oh and... is Space Invader the SIO you refer to? 

Passing through a USB controller is the best option if you want to get as close as you can to a bare metal feel. Problem is, you may need to buy another USB card.

Just now, jonathanm said:

Passing through a USB controller is the best option if you want to get as close as you can to a bare metal feel. Problem is, you may need to buy another USB card.

Thanks for the quick response!

When the idea of passing thru the USB controller was mentioned above, I was thinking that the only logical way to do that was to add a card.  Is there one you would recommend?  Also, and I know that this next question would technically be in the wrong place but... I want to add another SATA card.  The information in this forum is a bit overwhelming with about 60 choices.  I realize that there are some simple ways to narrow it down a bunch such as 6GBps and card slot interface but I think I might have selected this: SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8I with a breakout cable.  Any thoughts?

I cant speak for others experiences, but this is the SATA card I use and I have had no issues with it.  

https://amazon.com/gp/product/B00AZ9T41M/

Thanks

50 minutes ago, mattekure said:

I cant speak for others experiences, but this is the SATA card I use and I have had no issues with it.  

https://amazon.com/gp/product/B00AZ9T41M/

Does it handle big drives?

I'm not sure what you mean, but its a SATA III card, so it should support any drive that uses SATA III.

I guess there are some cards that have problems with drives bigger than 2.2TB.  I will only be adding much bigger drives than that.  Currently my cache is 8 and my data drives are 6

The largest drive I have used with it is a 4TB, so I dont know beyond that.

Then it should be fine.  Thanks.  I'll order it.

You should be able to pass through some of your USB ports without an additional USB PCI card. It depends on your motherboard and IMMO groupings. Yes, SIO = SpaceInvaderOne.

 

I can recommend the Inateck kt4006 USB PCI Card. Works with Windows and MacOS, out of box.

Marvell controller based HBA's are generally not recommended, as are RAID only cards. LSI based plain HBA are best.

33 minutes ago, WashingtonMatt said:

You should be able to pass through some of your USB ports without an additional USB PCI card. It depends on your motherboard and IMMO groupings. Yes, SIO = SpaceInvaderOne.

 

I can recommend the Inateck kt4006 USB PCI Card. Works with Windows and MacOS, out of box.

I am going to go watch the videos again on IOMMU "management".  Thanks!!!!