public/private key authentication to ESXi

[nettech1]

Hi,

We are trying to configure SSH access to our ESXi hosts using public/private key authentication for some automation tasks with ansible .

On a Linux system running ansible we generated a key pair using ssh-keygen, then we copied the public key to our esxi host using

cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub | ssh root@esxihost1 'cat >> /etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys'

Public key has been verified inside the authorized_keys file

sshd_config had PermitRootLogin set to yes

When we try to SSH to our esxihost1 we are still being prompted for the password

VMware Knowledge Base​ shows the same process for ssh key authentication​

Any help is greatly appreciated

[Nawals]

make sure that the contents of authorized_keys is persistent. This ensures that contents gets saved and persists through reboots. To do this, ensure that there is a “T” bit in the permission as following.If it is not persistent for whatever reason, run the following command to make it so:

[root@esxi-01~] chmod +t /etc/ssh/keys-root/authorized_keys

[nettech1]

looks like the problem was related to the user name

I am not prompted for the password if I supply root user name before the host name

[Nawals]

So your original issue resolved right? however, while using root not prompted for password. It may you have to look your automation script if something define or is there any changes?

[nettech1]

yes, the original issue was resolved by supplying the user name.

[nettech1]

while we are on the same topic, is there an official VMWare KB on public / private key authentication to vCenter?

The only guide I found so far is this https://www.virten.net/2015/10/vcsa6-bash-and-ssh-key-authentication/