Looking to transport USB over Ethernet

Hardware
1

I run HA as a VM on Proxmox and have passed through USB ports connected to a Zigbee Coordinator and a BLE dongle. I now have a second Proxmox server, have successfully tried VM migration with other VMs and would like to try it with HA to have redundancy.

Has anyone found a Ethernet device in which one can plug USB devices and have them still present to HA as USB devices but transported over Ethernet? I do know that I could buy an Ethernet based Zigbee Coordinator but am wondering if there is a general solution that could be used for other things like a LoRa radio dongle and so on.

Thanks

2

Look into esphome

3

You can install the USBIP server on just about anything and serve the attached USB device to HA.

According to reddit it handles live migration:

4

I've used this successfully if it's what you're looking for:

5

I use esphome for BLE proxies but how does it work for this use case?

6

Since I have several Linux servers, I can try this out easily

Thanks

7

Very interesting! So you buy a pair of these and it forms a transparent bridge with native USB drivers on the client side?

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Note: I am pretty sure this ONLY uses the cable--it is NOT on an Ethernet network.

2 Likes
9

Thanks, that is an important distinction!

10

Yes - I use something similar to connect a mouse to my NVR. The NVR is in the data rack and the CCTV monitor and mouse are about six metres away across a hallway. The monitor also connects to the NVR via an HDMI to Ethernet adapter.

They do not through the LAN switch. They just use the ethernet cable like an extension cord.

11

Correct - the Amazon link I posted just uses cat5/6 cabling for transport, it doesn’t use ethernet networking. Not sure if that helps.

I used it to put usb PiAware antennas in my attic and bring them down to my server closet. Worked well for that.

12

I've used these for customers at work: https://www.virtualhere.com/ and had no complaints. You use a Raspberry Pi as the USB server, and a driver on the client, and it creates a virtual USB port.

It works wherever you have IP connectivity between the client and the server, the client and the server do not have to be in the same location (or even city)