Here are the instructions for enabling SSH for ESXi host:
To enable SSH access in ESXi:
1. From the main screen on the ESXi host press Alt + F1.
2. At the next screen type:
unsupported
and give the root password when prompted.
3. Use a text editor to uncomment (that is, remove the hash symbol #) from the following line in the /etc/inetd.conf file, then save your changes:
# ssh stream tcp nowait root /sbin/dropbearmulti dropbear –I
4. Restart the inetd process by running:
# cat /var/run/inetd.pid
# kill -HUP <pid>
5. Verify that the ESXi host is accessible by SSH. To do this from the SSH client, log in to the ESX host:
~ # dbclient root@server
The output appears similar to:
Host '<server>' is not in the trusted hosts file.
(fingerprint md5 c8:28:e8:2b:97:0d:36:79:b2:62:03:5c:95:f4:b9:10)
Do you want to continue connecting? (y/n) y
root@server password:
Tech Support Mode successfully accessed.
