# How to pass SSH key to custom node driver **URL:** \ **Category:** SUSE Rancher Prime\ **Created:** [March 19, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/how-to-pass-ssh-key-to-custom-node-driver/37325 "2022-03-19T17:59:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![blackwood821](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@blackwood821](https://forums.suse.com/u/blackwood821)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2022, 5:59pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/how-to-pass-ssh-key-to-custom-node-driver/37325/1 "2022-03-19T17:59:33Z")
I’m testing out a custom node driver and am running into an issue where I don’t know how to pass an SSH key to my driver. The custom node driver accepts either a path to a SSH key or the fingerprint of a SSH key that is loaded in the SSH agent. I’m able to set either of these parameters in my node template via the Rancher UI but I don’t know how to get my node driver access to this SSH key. I’m running rancher in a docker container on an Ubuntu VM. I tried copying my SSH key inside the rancher docker container. When I `exec` into the rancher docker container I can see my SSH key but the node driver still can’t access the key because rancher creates a jail when running the node driver and the jail doesn’t contain the key. I also tried adding the SSH key to the SSH agent in the Ubuntu VM that hosts the rancher docker container and recreated the rancher docker container with the following arguments: `-v $SSH_AUTH_SOCK:$SSH_AUTH_SOCK -e SSH_AUTH_SOCK=$SSH_AUTH_SOCK` This allows me to see the SSH key when I run `ssh-add -l` from inside the rancher docker container and I can also `echo $SSH_AUTH_SOCK` and see that it’s set but `$SSH_AUTH_SOCK` is still not accessible to my node driver since it’s in a jail. I’ve also tried setting `ssh_agent_auth: true` with no luck. Here’s where I see it creating a jail in the rancher docker container log: ```auto 2022/03/19 01:27:45 [INFO] Creating jail for c-9dfx6 2022/03/19 01:27:45 [INFO] Provisioning node k8s-worker-1 ``` How can one go about giving the node driver jail access to a SSH key? ---
**Author:** ![Beckham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/838e76/32.png) [@Beckham](https://forums.suse.com/u/Beckham)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2022, 3:43pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/how-to-pass-ssh-key-to-custom-node-driver/37325/2 "2022-11-09T15:43:34Z")
1. You need to add your private key if you want to authenticate via SSH, not your public key. In your case, that’s probably the file `id_rsa`. The public key is used by the server to verify your identity. 2. The `Dockerfile` is only used for the build, so there is no way to use it to do anything at runtime. I think your approach with the environment variable is reasonable… 3. You can connect to the container via `docker exec`, open the bash and interact with the filesystem like you normally would . docker exec -it imagename /bin/bash This assumes that you are running a system with a bash. Otherwise, try `/bin/sh`. If you still far to pass this custom driver Then I have a better option for you with best example [True Paintballer](https://truepaintballer.com/best-paintball-mask/). ---
**Author:** ![blackwood821](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@blackwood821](https://forums.suse.com/u/blackwood821)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2022, 9:59pm UTC](https://forums.suse.com/t/how-to-pass-ssh-key-to-custom-node-driver/37325/3 "2022-11-10T21:59:09Z")
@Beckham To reiterate, I was able to give the Docker rancher container access to my SSH key from the Ubuntu VM hosting the Docker Rancher VM but the issue is that Rancher machine creates a jail when running my custom node driver code and that jail doesn’t have access to the SSH key even though the Docker container does. I ended up modifying the custom node driver so that it accepts the SSH key as a base-64 encoded string rather than a file path so that it can be stored directly in the node template. It worked out well.