vSphere Client into the ESX host. click on the Configuration tab Then select Security Profile click on Properties in the Services area. Select the SSH service from the list and press the Options button. Choose a startup policy (i.e. start with host) and click OK
Now you can ssh into your vmware esx server
vmware esx 4.1 (vsphere)
First of all, best practice is to create another user account (e.g. not an easy brute force user name?) and make it an administrator/sudo, and give it SSH / administrator access...
Logging in with the above with your "root" user and pass allows you to configure/modify basic stuff but not the "Service Console" ... this is a better/safer interface but sometimes...
Note that ESXi (free) has read only for SSH / script access "tech support mode" should only be used when VMWare Support says so...
F1 on the physical machine to enter Console nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config PermitRootLogon = yes
control x to save and quit nano
/etc/init.d/sshd reload /etc/init.d/sshd restart (or just "service sshd restart")
now you can ssh into your vmware esx server ip
Note, if you have vCLI access you can inject SSH access but it's a bit of a pain?
1) backup host with vicfg-cfgbackup 2) inject your desired inetd.conf file into the backup 3) restore the backup and reboot.
some other details that might help: perl scripts from vcli, gzip and tar.
http://10.10.10.3 (aka your vmware server ip address) Prompts you to download "vSphereClient"
virtual machines are stored in a datastore, usually VOLUMES are stored in vmfs
(right click from Inventory) to Edit Machine Settings -> Options -> Boot Options (If you have the Settings from one machine open you can't click on another popout console)
Power On Boot Delay (set it to 10,000 ms = 10 seconds) Start the VM, click on Console
Now you will have 10 seconds to see the Boot Screen F2 = Bios Setup F12 = Network Boot ESC key = Boot Device Menu (so you can select CDRom aka .iso)
Control + Alt to get mouse control back in the Host