You may need to access the hypervisor through SSH for troubleshooting, or to perform some actions using command-line interface (CLI) commands. To access the ESXi host through SSH, you must enable the SSH protocol first, because it is disabled by default. For security reasons, it is suggested that you keep the SSH protocol disabled if it is not used. A warning message advises you that the SSH protocol is enabled, as shown in the following screenshot:
To enable SSH from the web console, log in to ESXi, and right-click the host. Select Services | Enable Secure Shell (SSH).
To enable SSH from the DCUI, perform the following steps:
- From System Customization, select the Troubleshooting option and press Enter.
- Select Enable SSH and press Enter to change. SSH is now enabled.
- The same procedure must be performed if you want to enable the ESXi Shell.
- Press Esc to exit.
Based on VMware best practices and security hardening (which will be discussed in Chapter 16, Securing and Protecting Your Environment), I prefer to keep SSH running all the time. If there is an issue that needs to be troubleshot, I prefer to connect directly to the system without additional configuration steps.
If you don't like the warning notification that is displayed when the SSH service is enabled, you can alter the behavior with advanced configuration parameters. To configure the advanced parameters, perform the following steps:
- From Navigator, select Manage, then from the System tab, select the Advanced settings option
- Find the User.Vars.SuppressShellWarning variable
- Edit the value of the property and change it to 1