Installing ContainerSSH

ContainerSSH is provided on the Downloads page. You can install it in a containerized environment or as a standalone software on Windows, Linux, and MacOS.

StandaloneDockerKubernetes

ContainerSSH can be deployed outside of a container. On our downloads page we provide binaries for Linux, Windows, and MacOS. We also provide DEB and RPM packages.

Before running ContainerSSH you will need to create a config.yaml file that tells ContainerSSH where to find the SSH host key and the authentication server. The minimum configuration file looks like this:

ssh:
  hostkeys:
    - /path/to/your/host.key
auth:
  url: http://your-auth-server/

Please generate your host key by running openssl genrsa > /path/to/your/host.key.

ContainerSSH can then be started by running ./containerssh --config /path/to/your/config.yaml

When deploying in Docker you must first prepare a configuration file that tells ContainerSSH where to find the SSH host key and the authentication server. The minimum configuration file looks like this:

ssh:
  hostkeys:
    - /var/run/secrets/host.key
auth:
  url: http://your-auth-server/

Please generate your host key by running openssl genrsa > /path/to/your/host.key. You can then run ContainerSSH with the following command line:

docker run -d \
  -v /srv/containerssh/config.yaml:/etc/containerssh/config.yaml \
  -v /srv/containerssh/host.key:/var/run/secrets/host.key \
  -p 2222:2222 \
  containerssh/containerssh:0.4

In this example we will deploy ContainerSSH into the containerssh namespace, and the pods for the connections in the containerssh-guests namespace. To do that we will first create the containerssh namespace:

kubectl create ns containerssh

We will then create a secret containing the host key:

openssl genrsa | kubectl create secret generic -n  containerssh-hostkey --from-file=host.key=/dev/stdin

Finally, we will deploy ContainerSSH. Please customize as needed, especially the ContainerSSH configuration.

# Create a namespace to put ContainerSSH guest pods in
apiVersion: v1
kind: Namespace
metadata:
  name: containerssh-guests
---
# Create a service account ContainerSSH can use
apiVersion: v1
kind: ServiceAccount
automountServiceAccountToken: true
metadata:
  name: containerssh
  namespace: containerssh
---
# Create a role ContainerSSH can use
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: Role
metadata:
  name: containerssh
  namespace: containerssh-guests
rules:
- apiGroups:
  - ""
  resources:
  - pods
  - pods/logs
  - pods/exec
  verbs:
  - '*'
---
# Bind the role to the service account
apiVersion: rbac.authorization.k8s.io/v1
kind: RoleBinding
metadata:
  name: containerssh
  namespace: containerssh-guests
roleRef:
  apiGroup: rbac.authorization.k8s.io
  kind: Role
  name: containerssh
subjects:
- kind: ServiceAccount
  name: containerssh
  namespace: containerssh
---
# Create a ContainerSSH config to use the service account in the pod itself.
apiVersion: v1
data:
  config.yaml: |
    ssh:
      hostkeys:
        - /etc/containerssh/host.key
    auth:
      url: http://authconfig:8080
    log:
      level: debug
    backend: kubernetes
    kubernetes:
      connection:
        host: kubernetes.default.svc
        cacertFile: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/ca.crt
        bearerTokenFile: /var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
      pod:
        metadata:
          namespace: containerssh
        spec:
          containers:
            - name: shell
              image: containerssh/containerssh-guest-image
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
  name: containerssh-config
  namespace: containerssh
---
# Deploy ContainerSSH with the service account and configmap applied.
apiVersion: apps/v1
kind: Deployment
metadata:
  labels:
    app: containerssh
  name: containerssh
  namespace: containerssh
spec:
  replicas: 1
  selector:
    matchLabels:
      app: containerssh
  template:
    metadata:
      labels:
        app: containerssh
    spec:
      automountServiceAccountToken: true
      securityContext:
        runAsNonRoot: true
        readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
      containers:
      - image: containerssh/containerssh:0.4.1
        imagePullPolicy: IfNotPresent
        name: containerssh
        ports:
        - containerPort: 2222
          protocol: TCP
        volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: /etc/containerssh/host.key
          name: hostkey
          readOnly: true
          subPath: host.key
        - mountPath: /etc/containerssh/config.yaml
          name: config
          readOnly: true
          subPath: config.yaml
      restartPolicy: Always
      serviceAccount: containerssh
      serviceAccountName: containerssh
      volumes:
      - name: hostkey
        secret:
          secretName: containerssh-hostkey
      - configMap:
          name: containerssh-config
        name: config

Finally, you will want to expose the ContainerSSH service to the outside world. You can do this either with a NodePort or a Loadbalancer-type resource:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  labels:
    app: containerssh
  name: containerssh
  namespace: containerssh
spec:
  ipFamilies:
  - IPv4
  - IPv6
  ipFamilyPolicy: PreferDualStack
  ports:
  - port: 2222
    protocol: TCP
    targetPort: 2222
  selector:
    app: containerssh
  type: NodePort