Expose VMWare ESXi SSH connectivity.

VMWare ESXi server is the latest addition to VMWare's server virtualization hypervisor platforms.  Surprisingly being the having a vast majority of the market control in server based virtualization VMWare decided to offer the ESXi platform for free.  Usually you hear free and a company name like VMWare and you're like you have to be absolutely shitting me that they are going to let a product that they have been historically charging $1500+ per license for.  You're immediate thought goes into what CAN'T I do opposed to the full blown ESX 3.5 server? 

Here is a direct link to the VMWare KB article with the detailed information on the differences: http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd...

Anyways, since you're here you already have ESXi installed and you're like I need to access SSH on the machine!

If you are physically infront of your machine:

1) At the console of the ESXi host, press ALT-F1 to access the console window.
2) Enter unsupported in the console and then press Enter. You will not see the text you type in.
3) If you typed in unsupported correctly, you will see the Tech Support Mode warning and a password prompt. Enter the password for the root login.
4) You should then see the prompt of ~ #. Edit the file inetd.conf (enter the command vi /etc/inetd.conf).
5) Find the line that begins with #ssh and remove the #. Then save the file. If you're new to using vi, then move the cursor down to #ssh line and then press the Insert key. Move the cursor over one space and then hit backspace to delete the #. Then press ESC and type in :wq to save the file and exit vi. If you make a mistake, you can press the ESC key and then type it :q! to quit vi without saving the file.
6) Once you've closed the vi editor, run the command /sbin/services.sh restart to restart the management services. You'll now be able to connect to the ESXi host with a SSH client.

Update for ESXi 3.5 Update 2 - With Update 2 the service.sh command no longer restarts the inetd process which enables SSH access. You can either restart your host or run ps | grep inetd to determine the process ID for the inetd process. The output of the command will be something like 1299 1299 busybox      inetd, and the process ID is 1299. Then run kill -HUP <process_id> (kill -HUP 1299 in this example) and you'll then be able to access the host via SSH.

Using Virtual Infrastructure Client

1.) Open the VI client, click onto the ESXi server you want to manage and go to Configuration TAB

2.) Advanced Settings

3.) Uncheck the VMkernel.boot.techSupportMode

4.) Reboot the ESXi Server. Before restarting the host, you should shut down virtual machines on that host

This is a great way to migrate those VM's from Workstation and VM Server 2.0 to a little more robust platform that is designed for a better server load.