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”

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

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

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

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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.

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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.