Hi,

I had the same issue and I was able to fix it by

logging into the vCenter console and modifying the passwd file

~# vi /etc/passwd

and change the appliancesh to /bin/bash

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash

Also make sure that ssh access for root is enabled from /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Regards,

Naveen

Technical Support Engineer

VMware, INC