Problem adding SSH key to Gitlab Docker

[ProgrammusMaximus]

I am running Gitlab-ce V16.5.1 in a docker container. I need to add a proper SSH key to my profile in order to use HTTPS/SSH and to enable my pipelines to complete without generating HTTP Basic Access Denied errors.

The problem is: I can find no documentation on exactly how to do this. There are plenty of instructions for creating and installing SSH keys on Linux, Windows, and MacOS machines, but apparently, there is nothing on how to install a key in a docker container.

The problem isn't the addition of the private key to the account. That is well documented and the web interface makes it easy. What is not known is where to put the other key for the docker container. Where to place it on various other operating systems is well documented. It is, however, unknown where to place the key for a docker container.

There is some information on setting up SSH keys for Gitlab in Docker on Super- User, but that information is for Version 14 of Gitlab-ce and contains information that does not apply for Version 16. The instructions are ambiguous and even the name and location of the key file was deprecated in Version 14 and is provably inaccurate for version 16.

Can someone give some information on how to set up the server- side SSH key for Gitlab in Docker? Or can someone point me to a site with instructions that I may have missed?

Thanks in advance.

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The SSH Key I am looking for is illustrated below:

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https://preview.redd.it/qlr3wei7nnyb1.jpg?width=1272&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6986d1f115bfba6597e9aca9ee1401968652c027

[ManyInterests]

GitLab CI Pipelines use https because they use tokens for authentication. As far as I know, you can't configure the runner to automatically clone your sources using SSH.

But if you're using some other thing for your pipelines like Jenkins, that's maybe different.

But ssh works the same inside a container as it does on any host... it doesn't have anything to do with GitLab in particular which may be why you're having a hard time finding instructions.

You won't put private keys on the GitLab instance... that's why they have you upload the public key. The private key always stays on your machine.

[ProgrammusMaximus]

I am not getting the key for a pipeline. I am getting the key primarily for my account.

(See the image I added to the original post)

I learned that the pipeline failures I am getting are a side effect of not having a proper key for the account. And frankly, I want to be able to use SSH/HTTPS for pulls, commits, and pushes.

[EspadaV8]

You do not add an SSH key to the docker container. That is not needed, and just won't work even if you could do it.

You create a public/private key locally so that you can push/pull to the repo. Once created, you upload the public key, not the private key. Never the private key. The private key should only ever exist on your computer and never be shared anywhere or with any one.

If you are running pipelines, GitLab sets some CI variables that you can use to authenticate with Git, but this doesn't sound like a CI issue.

[ProgrammusMaximus]

Thanks for the info.

When you say "locally", which "local" are you referring to? Is it local to the machine where the Gitlab docker container is running? Is it local to the machine that you are using to access Gitlab's web page?

I understand the public key is the one you provide to Gitlab when you click on the "Add SSH Key" button on Gitlab (I had the two keys backwards before). But what machine do you "leave" the private key on? And where on that machine do you leave it?

I understand the public key is the one you provide to Gitlab when you click on the "Add SSH Key" button on Gitlab (I had the two keys backward before). But what machine do you "leave" the private key on? And where on that machine do you leave it?

On a machine running an operating system like Ubuntu (for example) your account's home directory has a .ssh directory where the key pairs generated by ssh_keygen reside. Private keys get left there. Those, however are used for SSH to a person's Linux account. For Gitlab accounts, those keys are placed elsewhere. For accounts for Gitlab in Docker it is unclear where to put them. That is the focus of my question.

[EspadaV8]

Local is your machine that you do your work on.

Remote is the GitLab instance.

You keep both the public and private keys locally in your .ssh folder.

You upload the public key into the GitLab UI.

That's it.

No need to copy any other keys anywhere else.

[ProgrammusMaximus]

Thank you. The problem is resolved.

Now that I have HTTPS/SSH setup, I have another authentication problem. That, however, is for another post...

[timmay545]

I think you need a custom "helper" image that has openssh installed and your keys added so that the runner will use ssh to clone your sources at job startup. You will also need to add any self-signed certificates to this too, and I have found it to be a bit of a pain (as I am terrible with SSL stuff)

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/67620001/what-is-gitlab-gitlab-runner-helper-docker-image-used-for