How to enable SSH and ESXi Shell from vSphere Client

Requirements:

• ESXi 5.5 or 6.0 (with root privileges)
• vSphere client version 6.0

Step 1: Login to your vSphere client.

Step 2: Click the ESXi server on the left panel, it is usually the IP of your server.

Step 3: Go to Configuration tab, click Security Profile under Software section, then click Properties in Services.

Step 4: Select SSH, then click Options.

Step 5: Select your desired Start-up Policy. For this example, let’s use Start and Stop manually, then click Start. Then click OK.

Step 6: Do the same for ESXi Shell, select it then click Options.

Step 7: Select your desired Start-up Policy. Again, for this example, let’s use Start and Stop manually, then click Start. Then click OK.

You can now login to your ESXi Shell via SSH.

Note: ESXi shell is disabled by default for security reasons. If you don’t need the ssh access, I would recommend to disable it.