How to activate root SSH access in ESX 4.0
In ESX 4.0 SSH is blocked by default for the root user so you need to activate the root login on the console of the ESX server. Otherwise you will not be able to use PuTTy or or VEEAM FastSCP. Way ago I wrote an article about how-to activate SSH for the rooin ESX 3 and ESX 3.5 here. With ESX 4.0 it is the same way.
So I’ll try to repeat the steps here for the new people which does not have much experience and coming to learn some more about ESX Virtualization. I suppose that you’re already installed your ESX Server correctly and you don’t need help with this.
01.) First you must login as a root at the console of your ESX 4 Server.
02.) Then you must navigate to the /etc/ssh directory. Just type in: cd /etc/ssh

03.) Open nano (text editor, easy to use…) type: nano sshd_config
Navigate to the line saying PermitRootLogin no and change it to Yes.

04.) Type then CTRL+X to exit. On the prompt answer Y (as Yes to save the modified file).

05.) Then you’ll need to restart the sshd service typing: service sshd restart.
06.) While you are in the cosole just type in the following two commands to open firewall ports:
esxcfg-firewall -e sshServer
esxcfg-firewall -e sshClient

Related Posts :
Some basic CLI commands for configuring the network, vSwitches and portgroups from command line. ...
Enable remote SSH root user console access When you first install VMWare ESX Server you don't ...
I was checking my stats for the last 3 months and I was just wondering which posts are most popu ...
SSH is blocked by default for the root user. To enable the root access You'll need to edit t ...
When you can't delete snapshot. What to do? You know that one of the great features of VMware E ...
Other posts from Server Virtualization
- Disable web access on VMware vCenter
- VMware ESX - Configuration of Service console via CLI
- Basic VMware ESX CLI networking commands
- How to change the default location of updates in vCenter
- Did you know that ESX 3.5 general support will end in less than 90 days?
- Starwind iSCSI HA Connection to ESX Server
- See a list of Storage Array Type Plugins on ESX Server
- New whitepaper released on PVSCSI
- Enable Jumbo Frames in ESXi 4
- How-to troubleshoot iSCSI connection to your SAN
- Starwind with ISCSI SAN Software can do High Availability for you...
- Overview Video from the new vSphere Pro video training from Train Signal
- New upgrade webpage for ESXi 4 pushes us to the right direction?
- You know how to collect diag information when your ESXi does PSOD?
- Use PVSCSI or not for lower intensive workloads
- Hardening guides for vSphere 4
- NTLDR missing - silly but can happend
- How To Shrink VMware Virtual Disk Files and disable shrinking
- vSphere Quick Start guide bonus download..
- ESXi - the past, the present and the future
- Farm commander - management tool for VI and TS or Citrix Farms
- How to collect log information from vCenter Server 4
- How to know where is my VM if vCenter is down?
- New patches for ESX 4 and ESXi 4
- Use VMware Converter to import 3rd party VMs, for example Virtual Iron's VMs
- Windows XP installation as a VM - trouble to see the disk or not?
- Vmware HCL for ESXi 4
- Time keeping for Windows VM's best practices
- Virtu-Al releasing 3rd update of PowerPack
- Not even tried Appspeed and new version is already available!



















No, DO NOT DO THIS!
Root account should not be used for SSH access.
What you should do is to create an personal user account into service console and set permissions on datastores so that you can write onto those with our account.
Tomi,
The way that your are describing doing this ist that it might be the right way to do it in production environements. Why not? I’m not saying trying to do on your production servers. But after all, what do you risk. It’s like the admin password for your domain….. Not to give it into everybody’s hands….. -:)
My way of doing it.
When log in to server
type: nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config
change allow root login to yes
close nano
then type: /etc/init.d/sshd restart
to be honest, I do not think to enable root is require for test, development or production. You can always do a su – when you had SSH to your ESX host. At the same time, you may execute most of the stuff from vCenter rather than command prompt. Should try to avoid enable root on SSH.
Thanks for your comments guys.
Dizel247: This how-to tutorial is ment to be for a newbie….
Craig: You’re right doing su – does that. -:)