SSH directly into a docker container

Question

i've got some docker conatiners and now I want to access into one with ssh. Thats working I got a connection via ssh to the docker container.

But now I have the problem I don't know with which user I can access into this container?

I've tried it with both users I have on the host machine (web & root). But they don't work. What to do know?

Answer 1

You can drop directly into a running container with:

$ docker exec -it myContainer /bin/bash

You can get a shell on a container that is not running with:

$ docker run -it myContainer /bin/bash

This is the preferred method of getting a shell on a container. Running an SSH server is considered not a good practice and, although there are some use cases out there, should be avoided when possible.

Answer 2

If you want to connect directly into a Docker Container, without connecting to the docker host, your Dockerfile should include the following:

# SSH login fix. Otherwise user is kicked off after login
RUN echo 'root:pass' | chpasswd
RUN mkdir /var/run/sshd
RUN sed 's@session\s*required\s*pam_loginuid.so@session optional pam_loginuid.so@g' -i /etc/pam.d/sshd

EXPOSE 22
CMD ["/usr/sbin/sshd", "-D"]

Then use docker run with -p and -d flags. Example:

docker run -p 8022:22 -d your-docker-image

You can connect with:

ssh root@your-host -p8022