No upload button available in Datastore Browsers

[WSP_Andy]

Greetings all -

I have a number of datastore volumes setup in my ESX environment and I can't upload to any of them. The user I'm logged on as has Administrator rights to the entire datacenter and there is plenty of available space. Unfortunately, when I open up a Datastore Browser to any of them, I don't have any upload buttons to be able to send things up.

What am I missing here? This is a brand new installation of ESX and its practically 'stock' configuration. Is there something I need to configure to get upload capability to the datastores?

Thanks!

Andy

[virtualdud3]

I'm not sure that ESX 3.0.2 has the capability to upload to datastores via the VI client.

Try either WinSCP or Veeam Fast SCP:

http://winscp.net/eng/index.php

http://www.veeam.com/veeam_fast_scp.asp

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[WSP_Andy]

I thought it was entirely the opposite... I thought that in VI 3 the MUI was gone and you no longer used WinSCP to access stores. I thought everything was done via the VI client now. I'm almost positive that's right...

[ejward]

Were you ever able to in the past? I didn't think that was something you could do. I can't do it either and I don't think I ever could. I don't even have the icon. I do believe that feature is in the next release.

[sbeaver]

You can not upload via the VI client and you are still going to need the tools like putty and winscp ect

Steve Beaver

VMTN Forum Moderator

*Virtualization is a journey, not a project.*

[WSP_Andy]

I've never been at the Infrastructure 3 level before. I've always been at 2.5.4 and everything there was using WinSCP. I read a lot of articles and saw a lot of screenshots that show the "upload" button so I thought it was supposed to be there. I just assumed something was misconfigured so no, I can't say I was ever able to do it before.

That being said, if I try to connect with WinSCP using the 'root' credentials, it doesn't let me connect. It claims my username and password are incorrect which they are not. So I figured they stopped allowing WinSCP connections when the did away with the MUI. Maybe I'm wrong there too.

Can you connect to your ESX 3i server using WinSCP? Maybe I need to open it up in the firewall?

[virtualdud3]

Yep, the MUI is gone (now it is called Web Access, and it only gives you the ability to manage VMs, you can't manage the ESX host at all). And, pretty much everything is done via the VI client.

But, that doesn't mean that you can upload to datastores from the VI client. You have to use SCP/WinSCP/FastSCP, or a related client.

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[WSP_Andy]

So I just verified that in the "Security Profile" area that I have the right ports opened up for WinSCP to work and when I go to logon I get "Access Denied" and it prompts me for the password again.

I am using the correct root username "root" and the proper password. Is there something I'm missing here?

[sbeaver]

The reason you got access denied is because root is not allowed to access via SSH by default. You will need to either create another non root account to connect with or edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config to allow root access via ssh

[sbeaver]

Yes you need to allow root access for ssh /etc/ssh/sshd_config or create another account to connect with. By default root is not allowed access via SSH

[virtualdud3]

Unlike ESX 2.x, VI3 disables root login via ssh by default. You have a couple of options -

1. Create a non-root user (this is the recommended option)

2. Enable root login by editing the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file and changing "PermitRootLogin" from "yes" to "no". Then, restart the ssh daemon via #service sshd restart

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[ejward · Accepted solution]

Yes, this is a "Feature" in VI3. You can't login as Root anymore. The fact that they don't give you the chance to create an alternate ID during the setup never entered into the minds of the engineers that thought this would be a good idea kind of stinks too. There's a way around it. From the console, you've got to edit the /etc/ssh/sshd_config file. A couple of pages down in that file there's a line that says "Allow root access = no" change that to yes. Save the file then restart the sshd service (service sshd restart).

[WSP_Andy]

You guys are rockin' my world so far. Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.

So if you could, tell my goofy self where I need to go to create a new account? Can I do that via the VI client or is there a local util on the host for that? Pardon my 3i ignorance.

[sbeaver]

You can do it via the VI client or using the command useradd from the ESX shell