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It's necessary to have remote access to the ESX server when we are managing virtual machines. By default SSH service will not be accessed by any user, not even root. As the ESX is a hypervisor for security reasons the SSH service is blocked and not enabled. When managing the ESX Server from PlateSpin Orchestrate we need to have remote access to the ESX Server to monitor or to do some tasks.

There are two ways to enable the SSH service for the root user.

Method 1:

1. Login to the service console.
2. Open the file /etc/ssh/sshd_config:
   

   vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

3. See the line PermitRootLogin and its value.

   By default the value will be "no".

   Change the value to "yes".

   It should be: PermitRootLogin yes.

4. Save the file and close it.
5. Now restart the service with the following command:
   

   /etc/init.d/sshd restart

6. If you can't remote login to the machine:

   Check whether the SSH service is blocked by the firewall or not.

   To find out use the following command:

   esxcfg-firewall -q | grep sshServer

   Check whether "sshServer" is in the output or not.

   If it's not there then enable the service with the following command:

   esxcfg-firewall -e sshServer

   Now we are able to login to the ESX Server remotely with the SSH service.

Method 2:

1. Install the VI Client in any Windows machine.
2. Login to the ESX Server using the VI Client.
3. Click on the host, go to the configuration tab.
   

   Click to view.

4. Now click on the properties link.
5. A list of services dialog will be shown, select the "ssh server" service and click ok.
   

   Click to view.

6. If there is a problem in logging remotely to the server then restart the machine.
7. Now you should be able to login to the ESX Server remotely.

Disclaimer: As with everything else at Cool Solutions, this content is definitely not supported by Novell (so don't even think of calling Support if you try something and it blows up).

It was contributed by a community member and is published "as is." It seems to have worked for at least one person, and might work for you. But please be sure to test, test, test before you do anything drastic with it.