ssh2incus is a specialised SSH server that provides direct access to Incus containers and virtual machines. It runs on the Incus host and communicates with the Incus API, allowing incoming SSH connections to be routed to the appropriate instance without requiring a separate SSH daemon inside every guest.
The software is intended for administrators and developers working with containerised or virtualised Linux environments. It makes existing SSH tools useful for accessing guest systems while also providing facilities for creating and managing instances through specially formatted connection requests.
Its integration with Incus makes it particularly useful for temporary development environments, remote administration and workflows involving frequently created or destroyed instances.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Connects to Incus containers and virtual machines through the host’s Incus API, avoiding the need to install and maintain SSH servers inside guests.
- Supports on-demand creation of persistent and ephemeral instances, with connection parameters for selecting images, resources and instance configuration.
- Provides public-key and password authentication, instance-specific key authentication and configurable authentication method chains.
- Supports interactive terminals, remote command execution and SCP and SFTP file transfers.
- Implements local, reverse and dynamic SSH port forwarding, together with SSH agent forwarding.
- Allows connections to instances hosted on configured Incus remotes and supports different Incus projects.
- Provides persistent terminal sessions using tmux or screen, allowing users to reconnect after an SSH disconnection.
- Includes management commands for instance creation and removal, with configurable defaults for provisioning new guests.
- Supports master-process and daemon operation models, together with integration into development and automation workflows.
Website: github.com/mobydeck/ssh2incus
Support:
Developer: mobydeck
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
ssh2incus is written in Go. Learn Go with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| SSH Servers | |
|---|---|
| OpenSSH | Comprehensive SSH server for secure remote access and file transfers |
| Teleport | Infrastructure access platform with SSH authentication and auditing |
| ssh3 | Faster and rich secure shell using HTTP/3 |
| TinySSH | Minimalistic SSH server |
| Dropbear | Lightweight SSH server for embedded and resource-limited systems |
| quicssh-rs | Simple ssh server |
| ssh2incus | SSH access to Incus instances without running SSH servers inside them |
| Russh | Low-level Tokio SSH2 client and server implementation |
| wolfSSH | Embeddable SSH server implementation with SCP and SFTP support |
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