Where to find SSH keys for multipass? #913

garethr · 2019-07-12T09:25:47Z

I'm able to access a multipass VM using the built-in shell command, but would like to also be able to access directly using SSH, mainly to use multipass with automation tools which connect via SSH. Where can I find the SSH key to connect to the VM?

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

ricab · 2019-07-12T10:08:13Z

Hi @garethr, if you installed via snap, it should be in /var/snap/multipass/common/data/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa.

garethr · 2019-07-12T10:55:36Z

@ricab apologies, this was on macOS and installed via Homebrew.

gerboland · 2019-07-12T13:34:59Z

Keys are located in /var/root/Library/Application Support/multipassd/ssh-keys on MacOS

garethr · 2019-07-13T13:44:32Z

Mmm, interesting. I don't find that directory, but I have found: ~/Library/Application Support/multipass/client-certificate

This contains multipass_cert.pem and multipass_cert_key.pem.

However, trying to use the key doesn't appear to work:

$ multipass ls
Name                    State             IPv4             Release
aroused-grebe           RUNNING           192.168.64.3     Ubuntu 18.04 LT
$ ssh [email protected] -i ~/Library/Application\ Support/multipass/client-certificate/multipass_cert_key.pem
[email protected]: Permission denied (publickey).

Saviq · 2019-07-15T10:01:57Z

@garethr instead of using Multipass's keys, it's better to bootstrap your instances with cloud-init (see their docs) with whatever users/keys you need.

Also see our docs for a suggestion on how to use launch with --cloud-init. We plan to have a better write-up on this, soon.

I'll close this issue for now.

aemadrid · 2019-08-13T23:56:02Z

I've been trying to use cloud init files but you still need to pass an ssh_authorized_keys for multipass so you can run multipass info node_name. Otherwise it cannot communicate with the machines it created. Right now I have it hardcoded in my cloud-init file but it would be better to dynamically create the cloud init file with the right multipass cert.

felipecruz91 · 2020-02-02T12:31:46Z

I am having the same issue - There is no way to access a Multipass VM directly using SSH?

setrar · 2020-02-15T16:25:02Z

@gerboland is right, keys are located under /var/root/Library/Application Support/multipassd/ssh-keys

I was able to access the VM using the private key.

% sudo ssh -i /var/root/Library/Application\ Support/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa [email protected]
Welcome to Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-76-generic x86_64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage

  System information as of Sat Feb 15 11:05:08 EST 2020

  System load:  0.0               Processes:             102
  Usage of /:   24.1% of 4.67GB   Users logged in:       0
  Memory usage: 12%               IP address for enp0s2: 192.168.64.7
  Swap usage:   0%


28 packages can be updated.
11 updates are security updates.


Last login: Sat Feb 15 11:04:53 2020 from 192.168.64.1
To run a command as administrator (user "root"), use "sudo <command>".
See "man sudo_root" for details.

multipass@holy-halibut:~$

That allowed me to use multipass VMs with docker-machine using the generic driver

% sudo docker-machine create --driver generic \
   --generic-ip-address=192.168.64.7 \
   --generic-ssh-user=multipass \
   --generic-ssh-key /var/root/Library/Application\ Support/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa \
   MY-VM

Running pre-create checks...
Creating machine...
(MY-VM) Importing SSH key...
(MY-VM) Couldn't copy SSH public key : unable to copy ssh key: open /var/root/Library/Application Support/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa.pub: no such file or directory
Waiting for machine to be running, this may take a few minutes...
Detecting operating system of created instance...
Waiting for SSH to be available...
Detecting the provisioner...
Provisioning with ubuntu(systemd)...
Installing Docker...
Copying certs to the local machine directory...
Copying certs to the remote machine...
Setting Docker configuration on the remote daemon...
Checking connection to Docker...
Docker is up and running!
To see how to connect your Docker Client to the Docker Engine running on this virtual machine, run: docker-machine env MY-VM

The only issue is to manage root rights for the private key (i.e. sudo)

Hailong · 2020-03-01T03:54:11Z

Actually instead of finding out the public key that recognized by multipass instance, we could simply append the public key of local user (e.g. ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to the file ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on multipass instance. They we can login to the instance with ssh command: ssh [email protected] (use the multipass info to find the right IP address of the instance).

tekumara · 2020-04-25T01:21:49Z

The ubuntu user works for me using the keys in /var/root which require sudo, eg:

sudo ssh -i /var/root/Library/Application\ Support/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa [email protected]

oleg-andreyev · 2020-09-23T09:05:06Z

JFYI location of id_rsa on Windows: ./System32/config/systemprofile/AppData/Roaming/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa

novicevative · 2021-02-05T23:14:11Z

Hi
May be this method will be helpful to someone searching for id_rsa or other files in future. Although there are many methods in Linux to achieve same end result.
Hence posting the method I could think of instantly.
I was running ubuntu 18.4 then decided to run multipass with 20.4 LTS
couldn't login using ssh bcz of key.
I ran command
cd /
tree >tree-slash.txt
once completed
searched the file for id_rsa and traced the path back in reverse order.
So the full path for multipass's id_rsa is
/var/snap/multipass/common/data/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa."
to find the ip address of multipass ubuntu instance use command
multipass list

then used
ssh [email protected] -i /var/snap/multipass/common/data/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa
and login was successful.

Later found a comment above suggesting
"if you installed via snap, it should be in /var/snap/multipass/common/data/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa."

Thanks

pcgeek86 · 2021-06-16T18:43:33Z

On the Windows 10 platform, using PowerShell:

Install scoop package manager: iwr -useb get.scoop.sh | iex
Use the scoop to install the sudo utility scoop install sudo
Retrieve the private key sudo Get-Content -Path "$env:windir\System32\config/systemprofile/AppData/Roaming/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa"

To SSH directly into a Multipass virtual machine:

Find the VM's IPv4 addresses multipass info animating-seahorse
If multiple IP addresses, ping each one to find accessible interface. My VM had 3 IPv4 addresses, but only one of them was routable from my host system.
Use this command to SSH directly into the correct IP address: sudo ssh -i "$env:windir\System32\config/systemprofile/AppData/Roaming/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa" [email protected]

Here's a screenshot of Microsoft Terminal showing it in action:

pcgeek86 · 2021-06-17T14:23:03Z

I created a PowerShell module to simplify this for Windows 10 users. You will need to run PowerShell "As Administrator" in order to use this, since the SSH key is in a protected area of the Windows filesystem.

Find Module on PowerShell Gallery

Find-Module -Name Multipass

Install Module On Your System

Install-Module -Name Multipass -Scope CurrentUser -Force

Use Command to Establish SSH Session

Connect-MultipassVM -VMName animating-seahorse

NOTE: The -VMName parameter can be tab-completed in PowerShell.

shahidcodes · 2021-06-29T11:50:58Z

For future readers -
You can create a cloud-init.yaml and paste you host ssh public key.
i.e.

cloud-init.yaml

ssh_authorized_keys:
  - <your_ssh_key>

and create a vm using this config

multipass launch --cloud-init cloud-init.yaml

Once launched, you can get the ip using multipass list and ssh ssh ubuntu@ip

yyin-dev · 2022-01-07T18:02:10Z

The ubuntu user works for me using the keys in /var/root which require sudo, eg:
sudo ssh -i /var/root/Library/Application\ Support/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa [email protected]

For me, I must have sudo for it to work on Mac M1.

chee-chyuan · 2022-01-24T10:00:51Z

The ubuntu user works for me using the keys in /var/root which require sudo, eg:
sudo ssh -i /var/root/Library/Application\ Support/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa [email protected]
For me, I must have sudo for it to work on Mac M1.

this was helpful. thanks!

adding this. in case we want to copy id_rsa to other files, ensure that it has wheel sudo chown -R $USER:wheel id_rsa

iancleary · 2022-07-13T18:48:53Z

JFYI location of id_rsa on Windows: ./System32/config/systemprofile/AppData/Roaming/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa

@oleg-andreyev FYI: This location appears to have changed with 1.10.0:

C:\Windows\ProgramData\Multipass\data\ssh-keys\id_rsa or
/c/Windows/ProgramData/Multipass/data/ssh-keys

sed-i · 2022-11-16T10:15:11Z

fwiw, sshuttle could be used like so:

sudo sshuttle -r ubuntu@$(multipass list --format yaml | yq '.charm-dev[0].ipv4[0]') 0/0 \
  --ssh-cmd 'ssh -o "UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null" -o "StrictHostKeyChecking no" -i /var/snap/multipass/common/data/multipassd/ssh-keys/id_rsa'

pythoninthegrass · 2023-02-23T01:55:10Z

Thanks to @sed-i's comment and this page , was able to do something similar with vanilla ssh

ssh -i user_key ubuntu@$(multipass list --format yaml | yq '.testvm[0].ipv4[0]') -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no

What tripped me up was the ssh_authorized_keys wasn't working when nested under the users block.

The relevant snippet looks like this

#cloud-config
# vim: syntax=yaml

groups:
  - docker

users:
  - name: ubuntu
    sudo: ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL
    gecos: Default User
    groups: users,admin,wheel,docker
    shell: /bin/bash
    ssh_import_id:
      - gh:pythoninthegrass

ssh_authorized_keys:
  - ssh-rsa AAAAB3Nza<SNIP>= ubuntu

kiprasmel · 2024-03-09T23:58:40Z

To append the ssh key post-factum:

INSTANCE="primary"
PUBKEY="$(cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub)"
multipass exec -n "$INSTANCE" -- bash -c "printf '%s\n' '$PUBKEY' >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys"

nikelborm · 2024-03-19T04:25:25Z

For those who installed multipass on arch from AUR:
ssh private key stored here: /var/lib/multipassd/.local/share/multipassd/ssh-keys

jcrben · 2024-05-26T22:21:06Z

On Windows this is now at: C:\ProgramData\Multipass\data\ssh-keys

ricab added the question label Jul 12, 2019

Saviq closed this as completed Jul 15, 2019

setempler mentioned this issue Jul 21, 2019

Port forwarding #309

Open

Saviq mentioned this issue Aug 14, 2019

ssh_authorized_keys in --cloud-init breaks Multipass communicating with the instance #965

Closed

JonTheNiceGuy mentioned this issue Feb 3, 2020

Port Forwarding with VirtualBox on Windows #1333

Closed

iancleary mentioned this issue Jul 13, 2022

Update WINDOWS_MULTIPASS_DEFAULT_ID_RSA for multipass 1.10.0 iancleary/local-ssh-config#12

Merged

1 task

AlanHohn mentioned this issue Sep 20, 2022

Set up for M1 Mac book-of-kubernetes/examples#8

Closed

nikelborm mentioned this issue Mar 20, 2024

Add integration with SSH #1957

Open

martinpaljak mentioned this issue Aug 27, 2024

Instructions needed for secretive to work with Multipass on Mac M1 maxgoedjen/secretive#322

Open

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Where to find SSH keys for multipass? #913

Where to find SSH keys for multipass? #913

garethr commented Jul 12, 2019

ricab commented Jul 12, 2019

garethr commented Jul 12, 2019

gerboland commented Jul 12, 2019

garethr commented Jul 13, 2019

Saviq commented Jul 15, 2019 •

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aemadrid commented Aug 13, 2019

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tekumara commented Apr 25, 2020

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pcgeek86 commented Jun 17, 2021

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yyin-dev commented Jan 7, 2022

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iancleary commented Jul 13, 2022

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nikelborm commented Mar 19, 2024

jcrben commented May 26, 2024

Where to find SSH keys for multipass? #913

Where to find SSH keys for multipass? #913

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garethr commented Jul 12, 2019

ricab commented Jul 12, 2019

garethr commented Jul 12, 2019

gerboland commented Jul 12, 2019

garethr commented Jul 13, 2019

Saviq commented Jul 15, 2019 • edited Loading

aemadrid commented Aug 13, 2019

felipecruz91 commented Feb 2, 2020

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tekumara commented Apr 25, 2020

oleg-andreyev commented Sep 23, 2020

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pcgeek86 commented Jun 17, 2021

Find Module on PowerShell Gallery

Install Module On Your System

Use Command to Establish SSH Session

shahidcodes commented Jun 29, 2021

yyin-dev commented Jan 7, 2022

chee-chyuan commented Jan 24, 2022 • edited Loading

iancleary commented Jul 13, 2022

sed-i commented Nov 16, 2022

pythoninthegrass commented Feb 23, 2023

kiprasmel commented Mar 9, 2024 • edited Loading

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setrar commented Feb 15, 2020 •

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