ESXi SSH service automatically stops after 60 minutes, even though 'Start and stop with host' startup policy is enabled.

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• ESXi ssh access times out after 60 mins.
• SSH Service Startup for policy ESXi in vCenter Client is set to 'Start and stop with host'.
• Below log entries observed in /var/run/log/shell.log,

          yyyy-mm-ddT01:53:09.559Z No(13) SSH[7090690]: SSH login enabled 
          yyyy-mm-ddT02:53:10.021Z No(13) SSH[7097125]: SSH login disabled 
          yyyy-mm-ddT02:57:49.783Z No(13) SSH[7097612]: SSH login enabled 
          yyyy-mm-ddT03:57:50.265Z No(13) SSH[7103897]: SSH login disabled 

Environment

ESXi 8.x

Cause

This issue occurs because the ESXi advanced setting ESXiShellTimeOut is currently set to an integer value of 3600.

Resolution

• To resolve this issue and prevent the SSH service from automatically stopping, you must configure the timeout value to 0 (which disables the automated timeout).
• Follow these steps to update the configuration:

            Login to vSphere Client.
            Navigate to the ESXi Host in the inventory.
            Click the Configure tab.
            Under the System section, select Advanced System Settings >> Using filter icon for column Key search for ESXiShellTimeOut set the value to 0. 

• Additionally, ensure the SSH service is set to 'start and stop with the host' under Services as mentioned in Using ESXi Shell in ESXi.