{"id":38245,"date":"2010-08-05T16:38:41","date_gmt":"2010-08-05T16:38:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vmengine.net\/2010\/08\/05\/esxi-4-0-esxi-4-1-how-to-enable-cli-and-ssh-access\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T17:08:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T17:08:38","slug":"esxi-4-0-esxi-4-1-how-to-enable-cli-and-ssh-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/2010\/08\/05\/esxi-4-0-esxi-4-1-how-to-enable-cli-and-ssh-access\/","title":{"rendered":"ESXi 4.0 &#8211; ESXi 4.1 : How to Enable CLI and SSH Access"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--:it--><a href=\"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/vmware_esx1-1.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-735\" title=\"ESX\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.vmengine.net\/vmengineblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/vmware_esx1-300x183.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"183\" srcset=\"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/vmware_esx1-300x183.jpg 300w, http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/vmware_esx1.jpg 417w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi1.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-736\" title=\"ESXI\" src=\"https:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"212\" height=\"200\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As is known to operators in the sector, the fundamental difference between ESX and ESXi Hypervisors, in addition to the very convenient possibility of being able to use ESXi in free mode, is the lack of the Management Console.<\/p>\n<p>But in truth the CLI in ESXi is not missing, it is simply deactivated and here we describe the procedures to be able to reactivate it and be able to access via SSH remotely for particular administrations such as the installation of drivers not in the HCL of VMWare.<\/p>\n<p>It goes without saying that these operations are not supported by VMWare, so any malfunctions could cause the assistance to lapse.<\/p>\n<h3>ESXi 4.0<\/h3>\n<p>In the case of version 4.0 just press <strong><br \/>\n  <em>the Alt + F1<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong> keys and the console opens, at this point type <strong><br \/>\n  <em>unsupported <\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong>and <strong><br \/>\n  <em>Enter <\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong>and you will be asked for the root password. We have thus entered the CLI console. To allow remote SSH access we need to edit the <strong><br \/>\n  <em>\/etc\/inetd.conf<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong> file by uncommenting <strong><br \/>\n  <em>#<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong> on the <strong><br \/>\n  <em>#ssh<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong> line and save. In this case we must use the <strong><em>vi <\/em> command<\/p>\n<p><\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>Once this is done, we run the <strong><br \/>\n  <em>services.sh<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong> restart command to activate SSH access.<\/p>\n<p>If the <strong><br \/>\n  <em>unsupported <\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong>operation should give problems, it is advisable to take a look at the <strong><br \/>\n  <em>Advanced Settings<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong> via <strong><br \/>\n  <em>VI client<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong>, uncheck the <strong><br \/>\n  <em>VMkernel.boot.techSupportMode<\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong> and restart the hypervisor.<\/p>\n<h3>ESXi 4.1<\/h3>\n<p>The activation of the CLI and SSH access in this version is nicer, you should follow the screenshots below:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-011.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-739\" title=\"Troubleshooting options\" src=\"https:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-011.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"741\" height=\"417\" srcset=\"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-011.jpg 741w, http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-011-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-011-720x405.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 741px) 100vw, 741px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-031.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-740\" title=\"Local Tech Support\" src=\"https:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-031.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"722\" height=\"171\" srcset=\"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-031.jpg 722w, http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-031-300x71.jpg 300w, http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-031-720x171.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 722px) 100vw, 722px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-041.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-741\" title=\"Remote Tech Support\" src=\"https:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-041.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"714\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-041.jpg 714w, http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi4-041-300x71.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 714px) 100vw, 714px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now we can press the famous Alt + F1<!--:--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As is known to operators in the sector, the fundamental difference between ESX and ESXi Hypervisors, in addition to the very convenient possibility of being able to use ESXi in free mode, is the lack of the Management Console. But in truth the CLI in ESXi is not missing, it is simply deactivated and here [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[1784,1646,405,1725,1726,251,1785,1014,228,259,326],"class_list":["post-38245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-en","tag-cli-en","tag-esx-en","tag-esxi-en","tag-esxi-4-0-en","tag-esxi-4-1-en","tag-hypervisor-en","tag-remote-cli-en","tag-ssh-en","tag-technical-en","tag-virtualization-en","tag-vmware-en"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/esxi1-1-2.gif","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40974,"href":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38245\/revisions\/40974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/temp_new.vmenginelab.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}