Enabling SSH on Dell PowerConnect Switches

Because I had so much trouble finding this information.

If you’ve already got telnet set up, and your config includes a line like

username admin password 123487123458134789561278561927845 level 15 encrypted

Then you’re already very close. Only two steps remain between you and SSH console access.

1. crypto key generate dsa (or rsa)
2. ip ssh server

That’s it! Don’t bother with the instructions that you might find in the user guide for “configuring an initial SSH console password” that have you mess with aaa authentication default line and the like. They’re red herrings.