Working with USB Devices

Using the Anka CLI and API to setup and manage USB devices.

Using the Anka CLI to claim USB devices on a host machine

When connecting to the host, DO NOT trust the device (only trust when attaching to the VM). If you've already trusted the device on your host in the past, you'll need to Reset Network Settings on the device: Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings.

  1. List USB devices and find your device and note the name, vendor_id, and location.

    sh-3.2# anka usb list
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------+------------+--------------+-----------+
| name                               | vendor_id                                |   location |   is_claimed |   is_busy |
+====================================+==========================================+============+==============+===========+
| Device in Port 8                   | 05ac:8104                                | 2155872256 |            0 |         0 |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------+------------+--------------+-----------+
| Apple T2 Controller                | 05ac:8233                                | 2148532224 |            0 |         0 |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------+------------+--------------+-----------+
. . .
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------+------------+--------------+-----------+
| iPhone                             | 275a5e5f1313b22305c9beaffc4d58d985ebxxxx |  336675856 |            0 |         0 |
+------------------------------------+------------------------------------------+------------+--------------+-----------+

  2. You can now claim the device using the name, vendor_id, or location and optionally add it to a claim name group:

    anka usb claim -n iphones 275a5e5f1313b22305c9beaffc4d58d985ebxxxx

If you have more than one iPhone, using a claim name (--claim-name) to group them is usually good practice. This allows you to specify iphones when starting a VM. Be aware: If you've assigned multiple devices to the claim name, the VM will nondeterministically choose a non-busy device.

  1. Confirm that it's claimed (is_claimed = 1):

    sh-3.2# anka usb list | grep -E "name|iPhone"
| name                               | vendor_id                                |   location |   is_claimed |   is_busy |
| iPhone (iphones)                   | 275a5e5f1313b22305c9beaffc4d58d985ebxxxx |  336675856 |            1 |         0 |

  2. Now attach the device to a VM using the name, vendor_id, location, or claim_name (we'll use the claim name):

    sh-3.2# anka start --usb iphones 10.15.4
Downloading files  [####################################]  100%
vm pulled successfully with uuid: e56b4aaf-0797-42dd-9ebe-41908bf10a4d
+-----------------------+---------------------------------------------+
| uuid                  | e56b4aaf-0797-42dd-9ebe-41908bf10a4d        |

. . .

usb

+--------+------------------------------------------+------------+--------------+
| name   | vendor_id                                |   location | claim_name   |
+========+==========================================+============+==============+
| iPhone | 275a5e5f1313b22305c9beaffc4d58d985ebxxxx |  336675856 | iphones      |
+--------+------------------------------------------+------------+--------------+

Alternatively, the anka attach command is available if the VM is already running.

  1. Confirm that the device is available within the VM:
    sh-3.2# anka run 10.15.4 system_profiler SPUSBDataType
USB:

    USB 3.0 Bus:

      Host Controller Driver: AppleUSBXHCIPPT
      PCI Device ID: 0x1e31
      PCI Revision ID: 0x0000
      PCI Vendor ID: 0x8086

        iPhone:

          Product ID: 0x12a8
          Vendor ID: 0x05ac (Apple Inc.)
          Version: 8.02
          Serial Number: 275a5e5f1313b22305c9beaffc4d58d985ebxxxx
          Speed: Up to 480 Mb/s
          Manufacturer: Apple Inc.
          Location ID: 0x07a00000 / 3
          Current Available (mA): 500
          Current Required (mA): 500
          Extra Operating Current (mA): 0

Using the Controller API (Requires Enterprise or higher license)

  1. Perform steps outlined above to claim USB devices on the host machine.

  2. You can now request the USB device list from the Controller REST API. The body object will contain an unordered list of vendor_id OR claim group names.

    anka usb claim 275a5e5f1313b22305c9beaffc4d58d985ebxxxx
device claimed successfully

curl https://127.0.0.1:8080/api/v1/usb                                                
{"status":"OK","message":"","body":{"275a5e5f1313b22305c9beaffc4d58d985ebxxxx":{"busy":0,"available":1}}}

anka usb release 275a5e5f1313b22305c9beaffc4d58d985ebxxxx
device released successfully

anka usb claim --claim-name iphones 275a5e5f1313b22305c9beaffc4d58d985ebxxxx
device claimed successfully

curl https://127.0.0.1:8080/api/v1/usb
{"status":"OK","message":"","body":{"iphones":{"busy":0,"available":1}}}

  3. Finally, start a VM using /api/v1/vm and set the usb_device to the device name or claim name (support for vendor_id is pending):

    curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://127.0.0.1:8080/api/v1/vm \
-d '{"vmid": "e56b4aaf-0797-42dd-9ebe-41908bf10a4d", "tag": "clean", "usb_device": "iphones"}' | jq                                
{
  "status": "OK",
  "message": "",
  "body": [
    "43189649-99e3-458e-47ae-ce40fab2b676"
  ]
}

    • If certificate based authentication is enabled, you need to include the –cert, –key, and –cacert:

      curl https://127.0.0.1:8080/api/v1/usb --cert ~/node-crt.pem --key ~/node-key.pem --cacert ~/anka-ca-crt.pem
{"status":"OK","message":"","body":{"275a5e5f1313b22305c9beaffc4d58d985ebxxxx":{"busy":0,"available":1}}}

  4. Finally, confirm the Instance was created and started on your Controller Instances page.

You might see a delay in receiving a Trust prompt on your device after starting the VM.


Last modified September 24, 2020 : full option names (017f4db) by Nathan Pierce