VMware and scanning

[Diabolus]

I have a business need to hook up a scanner to my Windows PC. When hard copies would be scanned, I need the image to be available in my VMware session.

Is this possible?

[Deadbolt]

if you can place the scanner on the network or RDP to the Windows PC w/ the scanner, you can access the scanner via the VMware via RDP to the pc

assuming there is no proprietary best practice for the situation your scanner has a network card (im assuming its a cheapy from office depot or something and not a corporate copy/fax/scanner standup model)

[Diabolus]

We use VMware for remote users on their home PC. The idea is I want them to hook up a Fujitsu mobile scanner to their PC via USB which would interface with the VMware session. The users would then scan in hard copies to generate a PDF which would be used for our electronic faxing.

I want to completely eliminate fax machines in these locations as they are creating a risk for our company.

[ibanezfoo]

I have a business need to hook up a scanner to my Windows PC. When hard copies would be scanned, I need the image to be available in my VMware session.

Is this possible?

Yes, just share the session's drive and mount it in your host system and scan to it. There might be more options for sharing a drive in VMware itself but I don't really use the workstation product (I'm assuming thats what you are using) so I don't know a whole lot about it.

[ibanezfoo]

We use VMware for remote users on their home PC. The idea is I want them to hook up a Fujitsu mobile scanner to their PC via USB which would interface with the VMware session. The users would then scan in hard copies to generate a PDF which would be used for our electronic faxing.

I want to completely eliminate fax machines in these locations as they are creating a risk for our company.

I know this can be done with Citrix virtual desktops but I'm not sure about VMware. Are you talking about a virtual desktop type environment?

[Diabolus]

Sorry for being a noob about this, but I just need this to be seamless for the user. If there is a way to have the user hook up their scanner via USB, and have some kind of Start Menu function on the VMware session to connect it, thats what I would be what I am looking for.

[ibanezfoo]

Sorry for being a noob about this, but I just need this to be seamless for the user. If there is a way to have the user hook up their scanner via USB, and have some kind of Start Menu function on the VMware session to connect it, thats what I would be what I am looking for.

Maybe. Are they using their local machine or are they connecting to a virtual desktop with their local machine? Depends on how you are actually using Vmware.

This might help: http://www.ehow.com/how_7809321_conn...-terminal.html

[Nose Nuggets]

you want to have a locally attached USB device to be usable in a remote VMWare session? i know you can do this with RDP. You might need to enable a USB passthrough option before local devices appear in the remote session.

[Akers]

Did you add the USB controller to the guest host?

Once you do you can go to

Edit virtual machine settings
Add... then choose USB device
Next you should get a list of available devices to choose from.
Select the one you want and Finish

[Akers]

Or something like remotescan may work.

[Diabolus]

The users use VMware to access a virtual desktop. They access VMware through a portal and they have zero access to modify their session.

I assume our admins would be able to set this up, I only want them to be able to scan, thats it.

[ibanezfoo]

The users use VMware to access a virtual desktop. They access VMware through a portal and they have zero access to modify their session.

I assume our admins would be able to set this up, I only want them to be able to scan, thats it.

Sure it can be done. Just need to setup USB passthrough and setup the drivers/software on the virtual desktop image.

[Coded-Dude]

Share the scanner on the network, and map the drive/folder it saves to on the remote VMWare machines. Are you using a VPN?

[JDay]

Sure it can be done. Just need to setup USB passthrough and setup the drivers/software on the virtual desktop image.

This! VMWare allows you to pass-through physical access to USB devices. It's an option in the drop down menu at the top center of the screen when you're in the VM.

[armygunsmith]

I work in the document management and scanning industry. Why even involve a computer? What about a network scanner that can upload the files directly to an FTP. That way, your documents get centralized immediately, and users are expanding their VM sessions with scanned documents. I'm not sure what your budget is, but take a look at the Canon ScanFront 300. If you want to really get into details, shoot me a PM and I'll be glad to answer any questions you might have.