How to ssh into docker-machine VirtualBox instance

Question

docker-machine version 0.2.0 docker version 1.6.2

I'm using docker-machine to create a machine using VirtualBox. Everything works fine but I'd like to ssh into the machine itself and I find no instructions on how to do this. I can connect to the ssh port:

ssh $(docker-machine ip dev)

But I've no idea what username / password / identity file to use.

Answer 1

If for some reason you'd rather use the ssh command rather than docker-machine ssh, you can do

ssh `docker-machine ip machine_name` -ldocker -i ~/.docker/machine/machines/machine_name/id_rsa

Answer 2

For the hackers out there, here is a script that will ssh into the 'active' docker-machine. This also gives you the values for the ssh_key, ssh_port, and the ssh_user, making it possible to do things like rsync between the localhost and the VM.

#!/bin/bash
docker_machine_name=$(docker-machine active)
docker_ssh_user=$(docker-machine inspect $docker_machine_name --format={{.Driver.SSHUser}})
docker_ssh_key=$(docker-machine inspect $docker_machine_name --format={{.Driver.SSHKeyPath}})
docker_ssh_port=$(docker-machine inspect $docker_machine_name --format={{.Driver.SSHPort}})

ssh -i $docker_ssh_key -p $docker_ssh_port $docker_ssh_user@localhost

You can copy and paste that into your terminal, line for line, and it will work. Or, make the script into a function, and feed it the name as an argument.

Answer 3

You can log into docker-machine hosts by just running

docker-machine ssh default

(Using the "default" host here)

The identity files should be stored under ~/.docker/machine/machines. If you want to log into a container (as opposed to the host), use docker exec as suggested by user2915097.

Answer 4

if you really need to do it via ssh, this is working with docker 1.8.2

init docker:

eval "$(docker-machine env default)"

get the IP from your default docker machine:

docker-machine ip default

this prints something like this out: 192.168.99.100

ssh docker@192.168.99.100

password is tcuser but you can also use the identity file, see other answer

Answer 5

For mac OX,the machine and its keys are located here (make sure you have the keys in there, something like the below:

~/project/dev/docker_notes za$ ls /Users/za/.docker/machine/machines/default/
.DS_Store        ca.pem           config.json      disk.vmdk        id_rsa.pub       server-key.pem
boot2docker.iso  cert.pem         default/         id_rsa           key.pem          server.pem

1) list available vms.

> ~/project/dev/docker_notes za$ docker-machine ls
>     NAME      ACTIVE   DRIVER       STATE     URL                         SWARM   DOCKER    ERRORS
>     default   -        virtualbox   Running   tcp://192.168.99.100:2376           v1.11.0

In my case, the name of the machine is default. So, just

~/project/dev/docker_notes za$ docker-machine ssh default


                        ##         .
                  ## ## ##        ==
               ## ## ## ## ##    ===
           /"""""""""""""""""\___/ ===
      ~~~ {~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~~~~ ~~~ ~ /  ===- ~~~
           \______ o           __/
             \    \         __/
              \____\_______/
 _                 _   ____     _            _
| |__   ___   ___ | |_|___ \ __| | ___   ___| | _____ _ __
| '_ \ / _ \ / _ \| __| __) / _` |/ _ \ / __| |/ / _ \ '__|
| |_) | (_) | (_) | |_ / __/ (_| | (_) | (__|   <  __/ |
|_.__/ \___/ \___/ \__|_____\__,_|\___/ \___|_|\_\___|_|
Boot2Docker version 1.11.0, build HEAD : 32ee7e9 - Wed Apr 13 20:06:49 UTC 2016
Docker version 1.11.0, build 4dc5990
docker@default:~$ vi 
.ash_history  .ashrc        .docker/      .local/       .profile      .ssh/         log.log
docker@default:~$ ls
log.log

As you can see, I am able to ssh into docker-machine/instance.

docker@default:~$ uname -a
Linux default 4.1.19-boot2docker #1 SMP Thu Apr 7 02:41:05 UTC 2016 x86_64 GNU/Linux

You can also follow this > howto - docker

Answer 6

Finally, I found an answer :

I'm on Windows with Docker Toolbox (Docker Machine).

If I docker-machine -D ssh default, I find that the SSH parameters should be :

Host : localhost
Port : 51701
User : docker
Key : .docker\machine\machines\default\id_rsa

When I change my Putty/MobaXterm settings to match, voila, I can SSH into the container.