Your submission was sent successfully! Close

You have successfully unsubscribed! Close

HOWTO: Automatically import your public SSH keys into LXD Instances

This article was last updated 6 years ago.


Just another reason why LXD is so awesome…

You can easily configure your own cloud-init configuration into your LXD instance profile.

In my case, I want cloud-init to automatically ssh-import-id kirkland, to fetch my keys from Launchpad.  Alternatively, I could use gh:dustinkirkland to fetch my keys from Github.

Here’s how!

First, edit your default LXD profile (or any other, for that matter):

$ lxc profile edit default

Then, add the config snippet, like this:

config:
user.vendor-data: |
#cloud-config
users:
- name: root
ssh-import-id: gh:dustinkirkland
shell: /bin/bash
description: Default LXD profile
devices:
eth0:
name: eth0
nictype: bridged
parent: lxdbr0
type: nic
name: default

Save and quit in your interactive editor, and then launch a new instance:

$ lxc launch ubuntu:x
Creating amazed-manatee
Starting amazed-manatee

Find your instance’s IP address:

$ lxc list
+----------------+---------+----------------------+----------------------------------------------+------------+-----------+
| NAME | STATE | IPV4 | IPV6 | TYPE | SNAPSHOTS |
+----------------+---------+----------------------+----------------------------------------------+------------+-----------+
| amazed-manatee | RUNNING | 10.163.22.135 (eth0) | fdce:be5e:b787:f7d2:216:3eff:fe1c:773 (eth0) | PERSISTENT | 0 |
+----------------+---------+----------------------+----------------------------------------------+------------+-----------+

And now SSH in!

$ ssh ubuntu@10.163.22.135
$ ssh -6 ubuntu@fdce:be5e:b787:f7d2:216:3eff:fe1c:773

Enjoy!

:-Dustin

Ubuntu cloud

Ubuntu offers all the training, software infrastructure, tools, services and support you need for your public and private clouds.

Newsletter signup

Select topics you're
interested in

In submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to Canonical's Privacy Notice and Privacy Policy.

Related posts

Containerization vs. Virtualization : understand the differences

Containerization vs. Virtualization : understand the differences and benefits of each approach, as well as connections to cloud computing.

What are Linux containers?

This blog explains what are Linux containers, how they differ from application containers, and when should you use them.

Docker container security: demystifying FIPS-enabled containers with Ubuntu Pro

In today’s rapidly changing digital environment, the significance of robust Docker container security measures cannot be overstated. Even the containerised...