The Advisers Group

ESXi 4.1 

SSH is now built into ESXi 4.1

1. From the console enter <F2> and then enter your ESXi password. You will now be in the system customization area.
2. Scroll down to "Troubleshooting Options" and hit <Enter>
3. Here you can enable
   • Local Console access
   • SSH access
4. Simply select the option(s) you wish to enable and hit <Enter>

ESXi 4.1 Alternate Method 

1. Select the host and click the Configuration tab.
2. Click Security profile > Properties.
3. Click Local Tech Support or Remote Tech Support (SSH) and click Options.
4. Choose the desired startup policy and click Start, then click OK.
5. Verify that the daemon selected in step 3 shows as running in the Services Properties window.

ESXi 4.0 and Lower

Enabeling SSH on ESXi is not supported but it is possible, just do the following:

1. Go to the ESXi console and press alt+F1
2. Type: unsupported
3. Enter the root password
4. At the prompt type “vi /etc/inetd.conf”
5. Look for the line that starts with “#ssh” (you can search with pressing “/#ssh”)
6. Remove the “#” (Move teh cursor under the # character, press the Esx key twice then press the “x” key)
7. Save “/etc/inetd.conf”  (Hold down the SHIFT key and Press the colon key at the same time. Then type “wq!” )
8. Restart the management service “/sbin/services.sh restart”

With Update 2 and later the service.sh command will no longer restart the inetd process. To complete the SSH configuration you can restart your host or run ps | grep inetd to determine the process ID for the inetd process. The output of the command will be something like 1365 1365 busybox inetd, and the process ID is 1385. Then run kill -HUP <process_id>. The inetd process will restart and you'll then be able to access the host via SSH.