Unsupported Console and SSH on ESXi 4

by bunchc on May 26, 2009

This will likely not generate as much fanfare as it did for the 3.5 release of ESXi, however I can confirm that it does indeed still work in vSphere ESXi 4. This is the procedure I used to get it up and running on my “Lab” box.

  1. alt-f1 (Note: As pointed out below, you will not see your typing on this screen, just trust us, it is there).
  2. unsupported
  3. root pw
  4. vi /etc/inetd.conf
  5. delete the “#” from ssh
  6. services.sh restart

I’ve also poked around a bit, and found that while scp works, sftp does not. Also note that some commenters had to do the following to get this to work: ps aux |grep inetd (getting the PID) and then kill -HUP PID

Tagged as: esxi, vSphere

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  • Ulugor

    Hello. It did work for me. Thanks!

  • RGB devel

    on the clientcomputer run ssh-keygen -t rsa

    ssh-keygen is used to generate that key pair for you. Here is a session where your own personal private/public key pair is created:

    cantin@sodium:~> ssh-keygen -t rsa
    Generating public/private rsa key pair.
    Enter file in which to save the key (/home/cantin/.ssh/id_rsa):
    Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
    Enter same passphrase again:
    Your identification has been saved in /home/cantin/.ssh/id_rsa.
    Your public key has been saved in /home/cantin/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
    The key fingerprint is:
    f6:61:a8:27:35:cf:4c:6d:13:22:70:cf:4c:c8:a0:23 cantin@sodium

    scp /home/cantin/.ssh/id_rsa.pub user@esxiserver:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/authorized_keys

    login to the esxiserver TSM propmt and add to /etc/rc.local

    mkdir /.ssh
    cp /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/authorized_keys /.ssh/
    chmod -R 600 /.ssh

  • george

    I’m using Esxi 4.0.0 Alt+F1 without problems. I can connect ssh to the esxi with no pass (key rsa) and poweroff it. The problem is that esxi erase .ssh directory where the authorized key was. Do you know a way to solve this issue?
    Thanks,
    George

  • http://twitter.com/doodkin Shimon Doodkin

    incorrect its for 4.1

  • http://twitter.com/doodkin Shimon Doodkin

    incorrect its for 4.1

  • guest

    I can’t seem to get out of unsupported mode no matter what I try; I can ssh so I know my changes to the inetd file are good but how do I get back to the VMware GUI? using ESXi 4.0

  • Stillno

    Alt + F2 to get out of unsupported mode

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  • http://www.madeinengland.co.nz Lewis

    Will services.sh cause a micro outage?

  • http://www.thepropertybrain.com Lewis

    dont think so, i’ve used it on 4.0… you just have to explicitly enable it

  • http://www.thepropertybrain.com Lewis

    dont think so, i’ve used it on 4.0… you just have to explicitly enable it

  • Kevin Durbin

    Wow!  VMWare really did not do anyone any favors with ESXi 4.0.0……………….I was fortunate to find this posting, as I may need to SCP some VM’s in the near future.  We have a single ESXi box and getting ready to add a 2nd (Will be 4.1 U1); pretty much standalone (free) though I yearn for a V-Center style of management.  This post “MADE MY DAY!”  I can now WinSCP – I did have to do the ps aux |grep inetd to get the PID, then kill it manually, but SCP now working so no complaints.  Cheers to ya!

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