VMware: SSH Access to ESX Server 3.0

Direct root user ssh connections are disabled by default in fresh installations of VMware ESX 3.0 (VI3). Two options:

1) The recommended way to access the system is to ssh to the server as a non-root user and then use the su command to switch to the root account; this leaves an audit trail for accountability purposes.

2) An alternative way to allow root access is to configure ssh to allow the root user to log in.

Edit the ssh configuration file:

* vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config
* Find PermitRootLogin and change to yes (use ESC, then Insert)
* Save the changes (ESC then :wq!)
* Restart the ssh daemon: service sshd restart

3) You can download Veeam RootAccess Wizard from http://www.veeam.com
Veeam RootAccess Wizard helps you to enable or disable remote root access, or create a regular non-root user account. The newly created non-root user will belong to the default ‘users’ group and will be automatically granted remote ssh access. Su or sudo commands can then be used to elevate to the root account for privileged operations.