Migrating from Digi AnywhereUSB to Digi AnywhereUSB Plus

The Digi AnywhereUSB® products have been manufactured for over 15 years and have reached their end of life.  The AnywhereUSB Plus® family of USB over IP Remote Hubs are newer products which are similar in core functionality, but which offer enhanced performance, better security, better manageability, customization options, and additional features important in the modern device connectivity environment.  There are some important differences between the two product families.  This document describes some of the most important considerations in transitioning from AnywhereUSB to AnywhereUSB Plus.
                       

Existing AnywhereUSB Products:			Recommended Replacement AnywhereUSB Plus products:
AW-USB-2	AnywhereUSB/2		AW02-G300	AnywhereUSB 2 Plus
			76000965 (Recommended Power supply for AnywhereUSB 2 Plus)	AC Power Supply – Ext Temperature, Universal plugs (US,EU, UK, AU) to 5vDC 2.5mm locking barrel plug
AW-USB-5; AW-USB-5M	AnywhereUSB/5; AnywhereUSB/5M		AW08-G300	AnywhereUSB 8 Plus
AW-USB-14	AnywhereUSB/14		AW24-G300	AnywhereUSB 24 Plus
Existing AnywhereUSB Products:			Recommended Replacement AnywhereUSB Plus products:
AW-TS-44	AnywhereUSB TS 44		AW08-G300 (closest replacement – has 8 USB interfaces instead of 4 USB and 4 EIA-232)	AnywhereUSB 8 Plus

 
Driver differences:
The AnywhereUSB Plus product uses a different driver than the previous AnywhereUSB products, the new driver provides enhanced security, additional device support and greater flexibility than the previous driver.  The new driver provides support for the latest Microsoft Windows operating systems and for use in virtualized environments.  Customers can have both the old and new drivers installed on the same computer and operating concurrently.   The old AnywhereUSB products were managed with a tool called AnywhereUSB Configuration Utility the new products are managed with a tool called AnywhereUSB Manager.
 
Device discovery differences:
The old AnywhereUSB products could be discovered on the network using the Digi device discovery utility.   The new AnywhereUSB Plus products can be securely discovered and configured all within the AnywhereUSB Manager utility.
 
Hardware differences:

• The new products have different dimensions than the previous products.
  • AnywhereUSB 2 Plus 
    • 4.6 in x 2.9 in x 1.2 in (118 mm x 74 mm x 30 mm)  
    • Requires additional accessory power supply (recommended is PN: 76000965)
    • Optional DIN rail mounting bracket available separately (PN: 76000682 - Mounting Bracket – DIN Rail mounting kit)
  • AnywhereUSB 8 Plus
    • 10 in x 6 in x 1.75 in (260mm x 160 mm x 44.45 mm)
    • Includes external power supply in box with main unit
    • Includes Rack mount extension ears to allow mounting in 19” rack
  • AnywhereUSB 24 Plus 
    • 17.75 in x 10 in x 1.75 in (450.85 mm x 255 mm x 44.45 mm)
    • Product has dual internal power supplies
    • Includes rack mount ears for mounting in 19” rack

• The AnywhereUSB Plus products provide faster connectivity; offering Gigabit Ethernet or faster (the AnywhereUSB 8 Plus and AnywhereUSB 24 Plus support 10 Gigabit Ethernet connections and SFP+ modules)  and support for connecting USB 3.1 devices compared to the earlier product which only supported 10/100 Ethernet and support for USB 2.0 devices.

 
Additional Hardware features.

• Dedicated console port on the AnywhereUSB 8 Plus and 24 Plus
• LEDs on each port to indicate data activity, USB connection, and USB device type
• The AnywhereUSB 8 Plus and AnywhereUSB 24 Plus provide hardware support for use of Digi’s LTE Cellular CORE modules, which will be supported starting with the firmware release currently scheduled for December 2019.
• The product data sheet for AnywhereUSB Plus is available on the Digi web site.

https://www.digi.com/products/networking/usb-connectivity/usb-over-ip/anywhereusb
 
Firmware and Driver Capabilities:

• Client ID
  • Each computer that will connect to an AnywhereUSB Plus needs to have a defined Client ID that is used to control device and USB groups.  Client IDs are verified through certificate pairs generated by the device and the manager.

• Certificate management
  • With the December 2019 Firmware release, device administrators will be able to manually load certificates into the AnywhereUSB Plus devices

 
Enhanced Multihost/Multiuser flexibility:

• All of the new AnywhereUSB Plus products support multihost capability, where different ports can be controlled by different groups and each group can be accessed concurrently by systems with different Client IDs.  With each AnywhereUSB Plus, a specific Client ID system can also access one or more groups at the same time, and select which groups it wishes to access dynamically.
• Both the AnywhereUSB and AnywhereUSB Plus products can be managed from within Digi Remote Manager.  

Device Discovery and Initial Configuration of the IP address:

• The IP address of the AnywhereUSB Plus can be discovered via the AnywhereUSB Manager tool which provides a similar capability to the previous Digi Device Discovery Utility, but is fully integrated with the driver configuration.  
• AnywhereUSB Plus products can also be provisioned into Digi Remote Manager and configured centrally.

 
Configuring AnywhereUSB Plus for the most typical applications

• The recommended process for configuring an AnywhereUSB Plus is defined in detail the user manual under getting started:
• At a high level, the AnywhereUSB Manager is used to locate an AnywhereUSB Plus on a local LAN, and to launch a connection to the web page of the AnywhereUSB Plus.   
• Once connected to the AnywhereUSB Plus, the administrator will initiate pairing or load certificates to authenticate each Client ID that will communicate with that device.
• While connected to the AnywhereUSB Plus web interface, the administrator can also configure the Port Groups, defining which Client IDs can connect to each group, and which USB Ports are associated to each Port Group.

 
Additional information:
 
AnywhereUSB Plus product Support Page and AnywhereUSB Manager download page:
https://www.digi.com/support/identifyfamily?family=723
 
AnywhereUSB Plus User Manual and Getting Started Guide
https://www.digi.com/resources/documentation/digidocs/90002294/default.htm
 
Digi Remote Manager
https://www.digi.com/products/iot-software-services/digi-remote-manager