To allow root access to logon through ssh in ESX:

• Logon to console as root
• Edit sshd_config: nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config and change “PermitRootLogin” from “no” to “yes”
• Restart ssh: service sshd restart

To allow root access to logon through ssh in ESXi:

• Open console and press Alt+F1
• Type “unsupported” and enter root password to log on
• Open inetd.conf in vi: vi /etc/inetd.conf
• Find the line that starts with #ssh, uncomment, save and close the file, and then restart services on your ESXi server: /sbin/services.sh restart

To allow non-root access to logon through ssh in ESXi:

• Log on to console: press Alt-F1 (or through root ssh)
• Edit inetd.conf: vi /etc/inetd.conf
• Find this line: “ssh stream tcp nowait root /sbin/dropbearmulti dropbear ++min=0,swap,group=shell -i” and add -w to the end. Save and close the file.
• Create the new users and home directory: useradd -d /home/username -P username
• Reboot

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