Posts Tagged ‘ESXi Shell’

HOW TO: Suppress Configuration Issues and Warnings Alert displayed in Summary status for ESXi 4.1 U2 or ESXi 5.0 after enabling SSH or ESXi Shell

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

In vSphere 4 1 and 5.0, you can enable both Remote SSH and the ESXi Shell for management of hosts from the vSphere Client and from the Direct Console User Interface.

You may have noticed that on enabling both Remote SSH and the ESXi Shell for management of hosts from the vSphere Client and from the Direct Console User Interface that a Configuration Issues warning yellow box appears on the Summary page of the host ESXi server.

This Configuration Issues warning yellow box only appears when Remote SSH and/or ESXi shell has been enabled.

Configuration Issues, SSH and ESXi shell enabled

Configuration Issues, SSH and ESXi shell enabled

If you are also connected to a Windows vCenter Server using the vSphere Client, you will also notice there is also a yellow/orange warning triangle displayed on the host server.

vCenter Configuration Issue

vCenter Configuration Issue

There is no vSphere ESXi configuration issue, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) and VMware vSphere vCenter server are indicating there is a possible security issue with your installation, you may not be aware that SSH and ESXi shell have been enabled.

VMware state “This message is a proactive security measure designed to ensure that administrators are aware that remote access has been enabled for the server.”

The only issue, is that the Warning triangle displayed in VMware vSphere vCenter can mask real warning events.

These configuration issues and warnings alert triangle, can be suppressed as follows

1

Connect to the VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) or VMware vSphere vCenter Server

Using the VMware vSphere Client, Login and Connect to the ESXi server, using IP address or hostname of the ESXi server, using root username and password credentials. If you have a VMware vSphere vCenter server, you could also specify IP address or hostname of the vCenter server.

Using the VMware vSphere Client, Login and Connect to the ESXi server

Using the VMware vSphere Client, Login and Connect to the ESXi server

2

Select the Configuration Tab

Once you are logged into and connected to the host ESXi or vCenter server, Select the host ESXi server, followed by the Configuration Tab.

Configuration Tab

Configuration Tab

3

Select the Advanced Settings option

Click the Advanced Settings option at the bottom of the list.

Advanced Settings

Advanced Settings

After Clicking Advanced Settings the following Advanced Settings dialogue box will open as shown in the following screenshot.

UserVars

UserVars

4

Navigate to the UserVars variable

Navigate to and Click the UserVars section.

Set the value of  UserVars.SuppressShellWarning from 0 to 1.

Set the value of UserVars.SuppressShellWarning from 0 to 1.

Set the value of UserVars.SuppressShellWarning from 0 to 1.

UserVars.SuppressShellWarning set to 1

UserVars.SuppressShellWarning set to 1

Click OK.

The Configuration Issues yellow box in the Summary Page and Warning Triangle will disappear immediately.

Please note: the variable UserVars.SuppressShellWarning is only available in ESXi 4.1 U2, ESXi 5.0 and vCenter Server 4.1 U2 and 5.0 only.

Post to Twitter