Q. How do I enable Secure Shell (SSH) access to ESX?

A. To enable remote access to ESX via SSH, go to the ESX console, press Alt-F1, and log in. (To get back to the default ESX screen, press Alt-F11.)

1. Type the command
   

   vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

2. Modify the PermitRootLogin from no to yes. Use the Delete key to delete the no, press Insert, then type "yes."
3. Press the ESC key, enter
   

   :wq

   then press Enter.
4. Restart sshd using the command
   

   service sshd restart

If you're looking for a good SSH client for Windows, I recommend PuTTY.

Related Reading:

• Feature for Feature: VMware ESX Server versus Microsoft Hyper-V
• Q. What is ESX Server 3i?
• Q. What are the types of Virtual Switch available in VMware ESX?
• Q. I heard that VMware ESX allows you to overcommit memory, which means it pages out the memory of guests to a file, giving very poor performance. Is this true?

Check out hundreds more useful Q&As like this in John Savill's FAQ for Windows. Also, watch instructional videos made by John at ITTV.net.