We’ve just released the ability for you to SSH into the host OS running on your resin.io device!
While you’ve always been able to SSH into your container, we had previously restricted SSH access to the host OS. This was mainly to protect users from accidentally losing access to their device or inadvertently degrading performance. We also figured that almost everything you might need to accomplish could be done via the container, so having access to the host was not as useful.
We heard from users, however, that they would still like to be able to SSH into the host OS on their devices, so we decided to add that capability, starting with resinOS version 2.7.5. This gives you access to logs and tools for services that operate outside the scope of your application container, such as NetworkManager, Docker, the VPN, and the supervisor.
To access the host from the CLI (from version 6.12.0), add the --host or -s option to the resin ssh command:
resin ssh <device-uuid> -s
To access the host from the dashboard, navigate to the device summary page, click “Select a target” in the terminal window in the lower righthand corner, and select “Host OS:”
Like container SSH access, host SSH access requires the VPN to be active and connected.
The same caveats still apply: making changes to running services and network configurations carries the risk of losing access to your device. Before making changes to the host OS of a remote device, it is best to test locally. Changes made to the host OS will not be maintained when the OS is updated, and some changes could break the updating process. When in doubt, please reach out to us for guidance.
Happy holidays!