Use of non-standard SSH port with Director   

IBM System Director uses the default port 22 for SSH. We use a non-
standard port of 500 for SSH on our AIX and VIOS LPARs. Our HMCs are on
their standard port of 22.

Because of this, Director can communicate with our HMCs but not to our
AIX or VIOS LPARs. There is no mechanism to configure communication
with the HMCs on port 22 simultaneously with our LPARs on port 500. The
local /etc/ssh/ssh_config file on the Director LPAR is not honoured by
IBM Director, port 22 appears to be coded into Director for SSH. As a result of
this, we cannot deploy IBM Director.

We cannot change the HMC port from 22 (without deviating from the
standard, IBM supported HMC configuration) and cannot change our port
500 so Director must made to be configurable to simultaneously
communicate as required to mixed SSH client ports.

Is there a workaround or something I don't know about?

Another option would be to upgrade your VIOS LPARs to 2.1.0.10 and use the IBM Systems Director Common Agent instead of Agentless (i.e. SSH) which is available at that level of VIOS code.

I would think that changing this port would also cause problems with the HMC->VIOS communication via "viosvrcmd". That would also reduce the capabilities in managing that type of environment with IBM Systems Director.

---

Glen Corneau
IBM Power Systems Advanced Technical Support