# Control ESXi SSH service via VMware API

**URL:** https://community.royalapps.com/t/control-esxi-ssh-service-via-vmware-api/2385
**Category:** Royal TS (for Windows)
**Created:** [September 21, 2026, 1:19pm UTC](https://community.royalapps.com/t/control-esxi-ssh-service-via-vmware-api/2385 "2026-09-21T13:19:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![ThuegaSmartService](https://community.royalapps.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@ThuegaSmartService](https://community.royalapps.com/u/ThuegaSmartService)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2026, 1:19pm UTC](https://community.royalapps.com/t/control-esxi-ssh-service-via-vmware-api/2385/1 "2026-09-21T13:19:26Z")

</div>

Royal TS already allows connections of the type “VMware” to be configured. After a successful login, these can be used to retrieve status information about the VMs running on the host via the VMware API and, with the appropriate licensing for write access, to perform actions on those VMs. This raises the question of whether the same mechanism could also be used to control the SSH service on an ESXi host.

The SSH connection to the ESXi host can already be set up in Royal TS. However, in many environments the SSH service is disabled by default for security reasons, so it currently has to be started manually via the ESXi web interface before each session.

It would therefore be helpful if Royal TS could automatically issue an API call to start the SSH service before establishing a connection of the type “VMware Host (SSH)”. Alternatively, separate actions such as “Enable SSH service on host” and “Disable SSH service on host” would also be useful. The option to disable the service after finishing work would be particularly valuable to us, as it otherwise remains active until the host is rebooted.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![stefan\_koell](https://community.royalapps.com/user_avatar/community.royalapps.com/stefan_koell/32/9_2.png) [@stefan\_koell](https://community.royalapps.com/u/stefan_koell)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2026, 1:50pm UTC](https://community.royalapps.com/t/control-esxi-ssh-service-via-vmware-api/2385/2 "2026-09-25T13:50:16Z")

</div>

Thanks for the suggestion. The VMware API supports starting and stopping the SSH service on an ESXi host, and we’ve added explicit **Start SSH** and **Stop SSH** actions to Royal TS for Windows.

The VMware connection now has a Hosts panel below the VM list. It shows each host’s SSH status and offers **Connect via SSH** when the service is running. Stopping SSH requires confirmation because it can disconnect active sessions.

We haven’t added automatic start and stop. The VMware plugin cannot reliably tell when the SSH terminal session has closed, so the explicit actions give you control over when the service runs.

This will be included in the next v26 beta release, stay tuned…