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After installing VMWare ESX 3.5 hypervisor host server I would like to manage this system with SSH remotely. Server is manufactured by Dell and the DRAC mgmt card interface is available but I prefer to use SSH. SSH is enabled by default but disallows access for root.

See my work log and screenshots how to enable this feature:

• Login with root from the console
• Change directory with “cd /etc/ssh”
• Open sshd_config with “vi sshd_config”

• Locate Authentication section and change “PermitRootLogin no” to “PermitRootLogin yes”; for going into edit mode type i; press ESC to exit

• Type “:wq!” to save and exit the file
• Restart the SSH deamon with “service sshd restart”

• Start putty.exe or any of you favorite SSH remote management tools to connect to your ESX 3.5 server.

This procedure also applies to version 3.x. With this procedure I achieved to manage my ESX server remotely so I don’t need to use my remote management access card. SSH daemon also support secure file copy protocol which can be used to connect with WinSCP and download or upload any file/virtual machine to your VMFS file system.

Please be aware of any security implications! I enabled this kind of access because the management interface is sitting in a different VLAN than the vSwitch networks within virtual machine which are trunked amongst different networks.