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KubeSSH

KubeSSH brings an SSH-like experience to running commands on Kubernetes pods.

On one hand, SSH is the venerable tool to execute commands securely on remote nodes, which requires a remote server like OpenSSH's sshd to run on the remote host.

On the other hand, Kubernetes admins can use kubectl exec to run commands on Kubernetes pod. However, this has a few issues:

  • Its syntax is rather cumbersome
  • It doesn't have simple defaults for interactive use
  • It is not a drop-in ssh replacement, so it can't function with tools like git or rsync.

KubeSSH wraps kubectl exec and makes it a drop-in replacement for SSH. In other words it makes it appear and function as a replacement for the OpenSSH client, by making it support a compatible syntax and most commonly-used command-line arguments.

In fact, you can even use it as your everyday ssh tool, to exec into remote hosts and Kubernetes containers seamlessly, with a single, simple syntax. For more details, see section Use as ssh below.

IMPORTANT: This still uses kubectl exec underneath, so it doesn't expose any extra services to the network [e.g., sshd]. It just connects to the Kubernetes API server directly, and uses the exact same authorization mechanism, Kubernetes RBAC.

Interactive use

KubeSSH simplifies interactively executing into a container. For example:

  • Start a shell.
    With kubectl:

    $ kubectl exec -it mypod -- /bin/sh

    With KubeSSH:

    $ kubessh mypod

  • Get a shell in a specific container of a pod in a non-default namespace.
    With kubectl:

    $ kubectl exec -c mycontainer -n myspace mypod -- /bin/bash

    With KubeSSH:

    $ kubessh mycontainer@mypod.myspace

  • Run a more complex command pipeline on the container.
    With kubectl:

    $ kubectl exec mypod -- /bin/bash -c 'mkdir /a/dir && touch /a/dir/file'

    With KubeSSH:

    $ kubessh mypod 'mkdir /a/dir && touch /a/dir/file'

Cool hacks

KubeSSH enables a set of cool hacks when combined with tools that already know h ow to exec into a remote location using SSH. For example:

  • Push your git branch into a remote container, using just git, no server required.
  • Push whole directory trees into remote containers efficiently, using rsync.
  • Debug processes running in remote containers using gdb, no other tools required.

Design

KubeSSH mimics standard ssh behavior and implements a set of heuristics by default to simplify its use, especially in interactive scenarios:

  • It passes standard input to the remote process by default, so you don't have to specify -i manually every single time.
  • It allocates a TTY automatically when it makes sense to do so, so you don't have to specify -t manually every single time.
  • It implements an intuitive syntax to define the destination in a format similar to SSH. For example, all of the following work: pod, pod.namespace, container@pod.namespace, svc/service.namespace, container@sts/statefulset1.namespace, and do the expected thing.
  • It parses its command line similarly to ssh and stops when it finds the name of the command to run on the remote, so you don't need to specify -- all the time.
  • It spawns a shell in the container to run your command, similarly to SSH, so you can run pretty complex pipelines directly from the command prompt, but you can disable this behavior if you need to have fine-grained control over the actual argument list, see the --no-shell argument.

Install

KubeSSH is currently under heavy development. This section describes how to install it in development mode, so you can make changes to the code and see it run immediately.

  1. Clone this repository: 
    $ git clone https://github.com/...
  2. Create a new virtualenv for development: 
    $ mkvirtualenv -p python3 kubessh
  3. Install the code in development mode: 
    $ python setup.py develop
  4. Confirm the kubessh script is now available: 
    $ kubessh --help
usage: kubessh [-h] [-v] [-V] [-l CONTAINER_NAME] [-n] [-p PORT] [-t | -T]
               [--no-shell]
               destination [command] ...

Run tests

This section describes how to run coding style and unit tests for KubeSSH.

  1. Install the flake8 and pytest packages:

    $ pip install flake8 pytest

  2. Run coding style tests:

    $ flake8

  3. Run unit tests:

    $ pytest

Use as ssh

KubeSSH supports being your single 'ssh' executable via the --ssh-passthrough argument. In SSH passthrough mode, KubeSSH will exec the standard 'ssh' executable in your $PATH, and pass the full command line to it, excluding KubeSSH-specific arguments [--no-shell, --ssh-passthrough].

KubeSSH will only activate if the hostname starts with the magic prefix k8s_. This enables using KubeSSH as your everyday ssh tool for all kinds of remote connections, both for standard SSH and for exec-int into Kubernetes pods via kubectl exec.

There are at least two ways to enable this mode:

  • Option 1: Shell alias. You wil need to set an alias in your shell.
  • Option 2: Two symbolic links. You will need to configure two symbolic links, ssh, ssh.real in a directory that lives in your $PATH before the current location of ssh.

Option 2 enables git, rsync or any other tool to work directly with your Kubernetes pods, without any extra configuration.

Option 1: Shell alias

For this option, you will define a new shell alias, ssh pointing to KubeSSH. How to define a new alias depends on your shell. The following instructions work for Bash, instructions for other shells are more than welcome.

Bash: Edit .bashrc and add a line to configure ssh as an alias, pointing to kubessh --ssh-passthrough:

alias ssh='kubessh --ssh-passthrough'

Restart your shell, and verify the alias is there:

$ type ssh
ssh is aliased to `kubessh --ssh-passthrough'

Finally, confirm everything is working properly:

$ ssh -V
$ ssh --ssh-test user@host
KubeSSH version 0.0.1 [location: /home/user/venvs/py38/bin/kubessh]. About to execute: /usr/bin/ssh
OpenSSH_8.2p1 Ubuntu-4ubuntu0.5, OpenSSL 1.1.1f  31 Mar 2020

Option 2: Two symbolic links

For this option, you'll create two new symbolic links in a directory which exists in your $PATH, before the current location of your ssh binary.

First, confirm the current location of ssh:

$ which ssh
/usr/bin/ssh

In this example, it lives under /usr/bin, so you must create any symbolic links in a directory which lives before /usr/bin in your $PATH.

Inspect the value of $PATH to decide on a directory. A good choice would be $HOME/bin, or $VIRTUAL_ENV/bin, if using a Python virtual environment.

Decide on a choice and set $BINDIR accordingly:

$ echo $PATH
$ ls -ld $VIRTUAL_ENV/bin
$ ls -ld $HOME/bin
$ BINDIR=$HOME/bin

Finally, create a symbolic link called ssh.real pointing to the location of your original ssh, and a symbolic link called ssh pointing to kubessh:

$ cd $BINDIR
$ which ssh
$ ln -s $(which ssh) ssh.real
$ ln -s $(which kubessh) ssh
$ hash -r

It should look similar to this:

$ ls -l ssh*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user user 42 Jan 29 00:48 ssh -> /home/user/venvs/py38/bin/kubessh*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 user user 12 Jan 29 00:48 ssh.real -> /usr/bin/ssh*

Finally, confirm everything is working properly:

$ ssh -V
$ ssh --ssh-test user@host
KubeSSH version 0.0.1 [location: /home/user/venvs/py38/bin/kubessh]. About to execute: /usr/bin/ssh
OpenSSH_8.2p1 Ubuntu-4ubuntu0.5, OpenSSL 1.1.1f  31 Mar 2020