Service sshd commands fail to execute with error 'Unit sshd.service not found'

Products

• VMware NSX

Issue/Introduction

Symptoms:

• Commands like "service sshd status/restart" fail to execute in NSX manager appliance with error as shown below
  
  Failed to restart sshd.service. Unit sshd.service not found.

Unit sshd.service could not be found.
  
  
• Reboot of the appliance does not fix the issue.
• Service restart commands for SSH will work.

Environment

VMware NSX-T Data Center

Cause

This error is usually seen if sshd.service is missing under /etc/systemd/system folder in the respective appliance for reasons unknown.

Resolution

Workaround:

• Check if sshd.service file is present under /etc/systemd/system folder
  
  ls -lth /etc/systemd/system/ | grep sshd
  
  You should see output similar to the following:
  
  lrwxrwxrws 1 root root   31 Mar  4 05:20 sshd.service -> /lib/systemd/ssystem/ssh.service
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4.0k Jul 18 2023  [email protected]
  
  
• If not present, fetch the file from a working manager node in the cluster and upload it under the same path.
• Change the file permissions as below
  
  chmod 777 /etc/systemd/system/sshd.service
  
  
• Reboot the manager node once the file is uploaded.

Additional Information

Impact/Risks:

This would restrict the ability to restart the sshd service.