Presenting a physical USB hard drive to a virtual machine

I have decided to attach a USB hard drive to my ESXi server at home to store backups.  This only involves a few configuration steps to add the USB controller first, then the drive itself.  Here’s how:

1. Plug the drive into a USB port on the host

2. Edit the properties of the VM

3. Click Add and choose USB Controller.  Click Next

4. Choose the controller type and click Next

5. Click Finish

6. Click Add

7. Choose USB Device and click Next

8. Select the USB hard drive from the list and click Next

9. Click Finish.

10.  Click OK to add the USB controller and hard drive, which should now be available to access in the guest Operating System