Opening a command or shell prompt differs between operating systems. Refer to the section that matches the operating system you are using:
- Windows
- Linux
- Mac OS
Opening a command or shell prompt
To open a command prompt in Windows:
- Click Start > Run or press Windows + R key.
- Type
cmd
. - Click OK.
- To exit from the command prompt, type
exit
and press Enter.
Note: In windows 7 and later, click the Windows start button and in the search field, type cmd or command.
The exact method of doing this varies with the distribution and version of Linux operating system in use. If you are looking at a graphical screen, the most common method of getting to a shell prompt is to press Ctrl + Alt + F2. You may have to log in.
Note: To logout, type exit
and press Enter. To return to the graphical interface, press Alt + F7.
- Click Finder.
- Open the
/Applications/Utilities
folder by pressing Command + Shift + U. - Open the Terminal application.
Note: To exit from Terminal, type
exit,
press Enter then press Command + Q.
Using Secure Shell (SSH)
A Secure Shell (SSH) utility allows a computer to open an encrypted command or shell prompt on a remote system.
Note: Use this method when opening a shell prompt on a remote ESX host. To start an SSH session from Linux or Mac OS:
- Open a shell prompt as described earlier.
- Type
ssh username@server
and press Enter.Note: Replace
username
with a valid user on the remote system that is allowed to login remotely, and replaceserver
with either the hostname or IP address of the remote system.
Note: To start an SSH session from Windows, you must download an SSH client. You need to refer to the documentation for this client in order to determine how to use it. Launching an SSH session has these in common among all operating systems:
- The hostname or IP address of the remote system.
- A valid user on the remote system that is allowed to login remotely.
- The password for the user on the remote system.
- If an SSH connection is being established for the first time to the remote host, permission must be given to establish a connection to the system.
If you are unable to establish an SSH connection to an ESX server, see Unable to connect to an ESX host using Secure Shell (SSH) (1003807).