ESXi 4.1 missing SSH stuffs

[DataAssure]

Everything is working fine on this ESXi 4.1 host and I have created over a dozen of Windows 2008/Win 7/RHEL6 on this 8Gig HP Quadcore PC except I noticed all my SSH stuffs are missing. Already login as root and ls /etc but still no  SSH. How can I re-install those SSH files.

When I PuTTY to my ESXi host via SSH, I was able to login both local tech support mode and PuTTY.

TIA

[bshubinsky]

Have you enabled Remote Tech Support on your hosts? Select your host, go to Configuration -> Security Profile.

Click on the Properties button and enable Remote Tech Support (SSH).

[DataAssure]

Yes, I certainly did & double checked that many times.

[bshubinsky]

Are you able to putty in afterwards? Are you getting any sort of error message? I'm kind of confused on what the actual problem is.

[DSTAVERT]

If you are able to log in via ssh then ssh does appear to be enabled. ESXi uses dropbear for the ssh server. If you are expecting to use ssh from within ESXi then you will need to use the dropbear client. dbclient will enable you to ssh out from ESXi.

[DataAssure]

Where can I DL the dropbear client? What I don't understand is on another ESXi host, a Dell R710 w/ 2G w/ ESXi4.1, everything is there and I had no problem or error accessing SSH & modify any sshd_config and open firewall ports etc. Btw, tks for the quick reply.

[DataAssure]

Able to PuTTY but looks like a lot of folders & files are missing on this ESXi 4.1. Mainly want to enable a range of ports for replication. Tks for the continuous support!

[bshubinsky]

Are you sure the other host is actually running ESXi and not plain ol' ESX? ESXi Tech Support Mode is more stripped down than regular ESX.

Why use SSH? You can do pretty much everything you'd do via SSH using PowerCLI or the VMA - even if you were planning on running cron jobs, it's not recommended by VMware to use the Tech Support Mode for cron jobs.

[DataAssure]

I'm new to ESXi,so I'm still learning new tools like PowerCLI and VMA but I was given this instruction procedure to use SSH to open ports. I'll give both a try. Tks again!

[DSTAVERT · Accepted solution]

ESXi does not have a firewall so no ports are blocked. ESX does have a full Linux console whereas ESXi has a small posix like console based on busybox. dbclient is part of the standard ESXi install.

[DSTAVERT]

dropbear does not use openssh so there is no sshd_config file.

[DSTAVERT]

Perhaps you could share with us what you are trying to do. There may be things we can point you to.

[DataAssure]

I see. So, back to my original question. What ever happened to all  those SSH stuffs? How can I  get them back w/o re-installation. I did try to re-install unitl I reached the stage ESXi will zap all my VMs. So, I stopped.

[DataAssure]

I'm trying to export a W2K8R2 image directly into an ESXi 4.1 host and I was told I have open Port 9002. I was able to do that on the Dell but this HP is giving me this problem. When I SSH to / and /etc. many items are not there but available on the Dell. So, I incorrectly thought that was a SSH related problem and tks for pointing out no firewall in ESXi but why do I have to enable that port manually?

[bshubinsky]

You can't install the ESX SSH shell into ESXi. It was taken out for security purposes. It's recommended to use the PowerCLI or VMA now. You can get a poster for a quick PowerCLI guide here:

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=365406659&gid=1726417&type=member&item=43306289&...

[DSTAVERT]

The things you are looking for do NOT exist in ESXi and you can NOT add them. You will need to make do with dropbear. Dropbear is installed on ESXi which is why you can ssh to the ESXi host.

[DataAssure]

Good stuffs. Finally something familiar (<> PowerShell) ...will give that a try and back to more YouTube & VMware CBT. Tks guys!

[DSTAVERT]

I will guess that the Dell server has ESX installed rather than ESXi. If you are trying to copy files you can try using veeam fastscp to transfer files. http://veeam.com. SCP works on ESX or ESXi and is available at the command line.

[DSTAVERT]

You could also try the VMware standalone converter. http://vmware.com/go/converter

[DataAssure]

I'm positive the Dell has ESXi 4.1 installed.