HOWTO: ESXi and SSH

By default this isn’t possible. But there’s a way to get this working, just do the following:

1. Go to the ESXi console and press alt+F1
2. Type: unsupported (One thing to note here is that there is no prompt when you press Alt-F1. You just type “unsupported” blindly.)
   
3. Enter the root password
4. At the prompt type “vi /etc/inetd.conf”
5. Look for the line that starts with “#ssh” (you can search with pressing “/”)
6. Remove the “#” (press the “x” if the cursor is on the character)
7. Save “/etc/inetd.conf” by typing “:wq!”
8. Restart the management service “/sbin/services.sh restart”

9. Just do a kill -HUP `ps | grep inetd`

   
   

Done!