VMWare: ESX or 3i? Do I need the COS?

Solution 1:

You mean the service console? If you've got vCenter then you don't need it. It's as simple as that. I'm using the VI Client with a single ESXi host, I've enabled ssh access but I'm not using it. Occasionally will use the RCLI but the GUI does most of what we need.

Solution 2:

You can easily enable hidden console on 3i (prior to update 2):

1. On the VMware ESXi host, press ALT-F1.
2. Print **unsupported** (text will not be visible), you enter the Tech Support Mode, and you will be prompted for a password. Enter a password for the user root.
3. You should see command prompt ~ #.
4. Open the file inetd.conf using vi /etc/inetd.conf
5. Find the line, starting with #ssh and remove the #character.
6. Press ESC and type: wq, to save your changes and exit back into the console.
7. Restart the management services using the command `/sbin /services.sh restart`.
8. Now you can connect to SSH, using any ssh-client (eg, Putty).

Starting with the VMware ESXi Update 2, this method of enabling SSH access is not working, servises.sh no longer restarts the daemon inet.d, which is supposed to enable SSH. To restart, do the following:

 * Type ps | grep inetd
   The result will be something like 1299 1299 busybox inetd. 
   Process ID for inetd - 1299.
 * Now enter the kill-HUP process_id, where process_id in this case 1299.

After that SSH should work.

Solution 3:

We still haven't made the jump to ESXi because we're not ready to move to CIM-based management yet. We still use the COS-hosted WBEM agents. We'll revisit this with the vSphere 4 implementation.