I needed to connect an UMTS Stick (O2 Surfstick) to an VM Machine which should serve as "Router".
No problem - ESXi does support "USB Direct Through" - so you can easily connect an USB Stick to your VM...
At least, thats "normally" the Case:
With UMTS Sticks, this feature doesn't work.
Why?
UMTS Sticks start up with an U3 Partition with all that needed, nice connection software....
And therefor, ESXi does see an CD Rom - which doesn't show up within USB.
And... how to solve that?
Luckily I found this post: https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=26045
Which does contain the secret sauce:
Just connect your USB Stick to an already installed System... (your Laptop with the Connection Software and Drivers i.e.)
Look up your UMTS Stick within the Device Manager, get the COM Port.
Open Putty (9600 Baud worked for me, the Original Author does think of: 115200 kbps, 8 data bits, parity none, stop bits 1, Flow control None) with that Com Port.
Type in: AT+ZOPRT=5 and AT+ZCDRUN=8
Thats it!
Now the U3 doesn't show up anymore, and it works!!
To reenable the feature, enter AT+ZCDRUN=9
For Huawei E160G / T-Mobile Surfstick V / Essential:
CD – Rom Funktion deaktivieren at^u2diag=0
CD – Rom Funktion aktivieren at^u2diag=1
Additional Links:
http://3g-modem.wetpaint.com/page/ZTE+AT-commands
http://3g-modem.wetpaint.com/page/Huawei+AT-commands
No meu caso do zte m190 só resolveu com o AT+ZCDRUN=E para desativar e AT+ZCDRUN=F para reativar