Dependencies to connect to a remote docker container in VSCode?

Question

What are the dependencies and steps to connect to a remote docker container from VSCode ? So I can properly compile and run the code with the tools in my container environment?

I have tried to follow the instructions here without much luck:

• https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/containers-advanced#_developing-inside-a-container-on-a-remote-docker-host

My setup involves:

• Host with VSCode, no docker installed , ssh client installed, ssh keys are in place
• Server with VSCode, docker installed, ssh client and server installed
• Docker container already running on Server

Host can connect to Server , through VSCode using the Remote Development Version: 0.17.0 extension, through Remote - SSH Version: 0.47.2 extension Version: 0.47.2

Server can connect to Docker container , through VSCode using the Remote Development Version: 0.17.0 extension, through Remote - Containers Version: 0.83.1 extension.

How do I connect Host to a Running Docker container ?

UPDATE 1 Small advance

I have added this line to my ~/.config/Code/User/settings.json file. The option gets highlighed with a message unknown configuration setting

{
...
"docker.host":"tcp://localhost:23750",
...
}

Run this command in another terminal:

ssh -N -L localhost:23750:/var/run/docker.sock  <user>@<serveraddr>

And now I can see the running containers in Remote explorer > Containers > Other Containers . However, when trying to connect to it, I get the following error message.

Setting up container with bc1700db049858ba20f1c830bbeff6d6a4e04de58a2b35a61df1016788bc07db
Docker returned an error code 127, signal null, message: Command failed: docker system info
/bin/sh: docker: command not found

Answer 1

So, it appears that docker must be installed on the host machine to prevent the last mentioned error.

Note : docker service does not need to be running in the host ( systemctl disable docker )

With this in mind, these are the steps.

Host :

1. Install docker and ssh client
2. Add your user to docker group
3. Install VSCode
4. Configure Server
5. (After server config below): edit ~/.config/Code/User/settings.json with

"docker.host":"tcp://localhost:23750",

6. Configure your ssh keys for the Server
7. (After every reboot run on terminal: ssh -N -L localhost:23750:/var/run/docker.sock <user>@<serveraddr> )
8. Run VSCode and install Remote Development extension. Restart VSCode
9. Now you should see your running containers in VSCode Remote explorer > Containers > Other Containers

Server :

1. Install docker and ssh server
2. Install VSCode (this may not be a requirement on the server)
3. Add your user to docker group and start your container

Answer 2

I realize this was already answered, but I stumbled across this while trying to set this up myself today. I found an additional issue I had appeared to be that my local SSH key had not been added to the agent. I was following the instructions here .

I am running Windows 10 Version 1909 Build 18363.1082.

After doing an ssh-add $Env:USERPROFILE\\.ssh\\id_rsa and restarting the ssh-agent , I was able to connect to the remote container without having to employ the ssh tunneling method you show above.