kter/docker-tunnel repository overview

⁠Tunnel

This is a simple ssh-tunnel container for easily connecting to other containers / servers elsewhere via a --link-ed tunnel container. This tunnel will use your local SSH-agent to connect to the endpoint thus no need to push your ~/.ssh/ files into the image.

⁠Usage

The full syntax for starting an image from this container:

docker run -d --name [$your_tunnel_name] -v $SSH_AUTH_SOCK:/ssh-agent kingsquare/tunnel *:[$exposed_port]:[$destination]:[$destination_port] [$user@][$server]

Mac support: Please be aware that with the launch of the Docker for Mac Beta⁠ this currently doesnt work on Mac. Please see this note⁠

⁠Examples

• you would like to have a tunnel port 3306 on server example.com locally exposed as 3306

  docker run -d --name tunnel_mysql -v $SSH_AUTH_SOCK:/ssh-agent kingsquare/tunnel *:3306:localhost:3306 [email protected]

• you would like to have a tunnel port 3306 on server example.com locally exposed on the host as 3308

  docker run -d -p 3308:3306 --name tunnel_mysql -v $SSH_AUTH_SOCK:/ssh-agent kingsquare/tunnel *:3306:localhost:3306 [email protected]

⁠Using as an Ambassador

This method allows for using this image as an ambassador to other (secure) servers:

docker stop staging-mongo;
docker rm staging-mongo;
docker run -d --name staging-mongo -v $SSH_AUTH_SOCK:/ssh-agent kingsquare/tunnel *:2222:127.0.0.1:27017 [email protected]

docker stop production-mongo;
docker rm production-mongo;
docker run -d --name production-mongo -v $SSH_AUTH_SOCK:/ssh-agent kingsquare/tunnel *:2222:127.0.0.1:27017 [email protected]

use the links in another container via exposed port 2222:

docker run --link staging-mongo:db.staging \
    --link production-mongo:db.production \
    my_app start

⁠Changelog

• 2017-01-27

  • Update image to use the alpine:3.5
  • Use autossh instead of simple ssh for extra stability of the tunnel
  • Provided sample Makefile to automate the build process -- on unix-like systems you can use make command to build docker image and container.

  SSH_CMD="*:6379:localhost:6379 [email protected]" make build-container

  • The assumption is, that local ssh-agent holds the required identity files. Another solution may be to generate new ssh key (ssh-keygen) and use the ssh -i option to provide the identity directly.

• 2016-09-13

  Thanks to @phlegx we now have a seperate tag for reversed tunnels (remote -> local) This adds the following tags to this repo:

  • kingsquare/tunnel:latest (the -L option)
  • kingsquare/tunnel:forward
  • kingsquare/tunnel:l

  and the reverse option: (the -R option)

  • kingsquare/tunnel:reverse
  • kingsquare/tunnel:r

  Thanks @ignar for bringing this container back to my attention :)

• 2015-11-10

  Thanks to @ignar I took another look at the dockerfile and have updated it to use AlpineLinux⁠ This results in a much smaller image (<8mb) and is still just as fast and functional. Thanks @ignar for bringing this container back to my attention :)