How to enable & disable ESXi Host SSH via the vSphere Client in vSphere 5

Here’s a really quick post to show you how to enable or disable SSH connectivity on an ESXi 5 host from within the vSphere Client.  Please note, you can do the same on an ESXi 4.1 host.  Of course you can also do this from the console of the ESXi host but for most using the vSphere Client this is a far more convenient method.

First of all from within the vSphere Client select the ESXi host you want to enable/disable SSH on.  Then click on the ‘Configuration’ tab in the right pane.

Once you have selected the ‘Configuration’ tab then select ‘Security Profile’ from the ‘Software’ area on the left hand side of the screen to view the status of the services and the open firewall ports.

Next click on ‘Properties’ in the ‘Services’ area.  It is from here we enable and disable the SSH service.

In the ‘Services Properties’ pop-up box you can see various services available on the ESXi host including the SSH service.  Select the ‘SSH’ service from the list and then press the ‘Options’ button.

Another pop-up box will open from which you can start, stop and restart the SSH service.  Also take a look at the ‘Startup Policy’ which determines how the service will start or stop upon a restart of the ESXi host.

Once you’ve finished then press the ‘OK’ button and exit out of the previous screens.  It’s a simple as that! 

Credit:  Thanks to Jase McCarty, who I have the pleasure of working with, for pointing this method out, I had always just used the console method.