What is SSH?
Secure Shell (SSH) is a cryptographic network protocol for secure data communication, remote shell services or command execution and other secure network services between two networked computers that connects, via a secure channel over an insecure network, a server and a client (running SSH server and SSH client programs, respectively). The protocol specification distinguishes between two major versions that are referred to as SSH-1 and SSH-2.
By default is SSH not enabled, so if you want to connect to an ESXi host using a SSH client (like Putty), you must first enable SSH.
Options for customising SSH
Via the ESXi Host
- Host > Configuration > Security Profile > Properties > Remote Tech Support
- Click Options and choose the Startup Policy
Via the DCUI
- Log into the host console directly
- Press F2
- Enter Username and Password
- Select Troubleshooting Options
- Select Modify Tech Support Timeout
Via the Firewall
- Host > Configuration > Firewall
- By choosing the “Only allow connections from the following networks”, you can limit traffic to the ESXI host using SSH.
