Enable SSH on VMware ESX 3i

Like its venerable older brother ESX, ESX 3i verison 3.5 installs with SSH disabled by default. You may wish to enable this to troubleshoot various issues, but note that ESXi lacks many of the commands/programs available within ESX (including the simple, lightweight "Nano" text editor and sshd_config.

Perform the following steps to enable SSH:

• From the console press ALT-F1
• Type "unsupported" and press ENTER (note the characters will not be "echoed" on the screen). This is "tech support mode" oulined in VMware KB#1003677.
• Enter the root password
• Using the text editor vi enter the following command: vi /etc/inetd.conf
• Search for the line starting #SSH settings
• Remove the # from the SSH row
• Save and exit the config by using :wq!
• Type: ps grep inetd on the console
• Send a hangup signal by using the following command: kill -s HUP PID (process ID)
  

You can now SSH to your 3i server.

Thanks for any feedback and updates!

Enable SSH on ESXi, Enable SSH on 3i