Mount a SSHFS volume into a Docker instance

Question

I use SSHFS to mount a remote filesystem on my host and I want to be able to access it from inside a Docker container.

I mount the remote filesystem

sshfs -o idmap=user,uid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g) user@remote:directory /path/to/sshfs

And, using Docker, I get the following errors depending on me using --mount:

docker run  -it -v /path/to/sshfs:/target myimage bash
docker: Error response from daemon: error while creating mount source path '/path/to/sshfs': mkdir /path/to/sshfs: file exists.

or -v:

docker run -it  --mount src=/path/to/sshfs,target=/target,type=bind  myimage bash
docker: Error response from daemon: invalid mount config for type "bind": bind source path does not exist: /path/to/sshfs.
See 'docker run --help'

Is it possible to mount a sshfs mountpoint into a container?

Answer 1

Requires the following steps:

1. uncomment user_allow_other in /etc/fuse.conf

2. unmount the FUSE filesystem

3. remount the FUSE filesystem with sshfs -o allow_other user@.... (making sure to include the -o allow_other option)

4. try starting the container again

Answer 2

Detailed step by step with external references:

1. Create and copy an SSH key to the remote server

Only need to do this the first time we make a SSHFS mount. Here's an example on how to do this in ubuntu.

2. Mount the Remote File System(s) Over SSHFS

Follow the steps from this tutorial.

3. Mount a SSHFS volume into the Docker instance

docker run -it -v /path/to/sshfs:/target myimage bash

Answer 3

I had the same issue but couldn't use "allow_other", as I have no root permission. But what I found out is, that you can mount the mount-point's parent.

So your example would work for me like this:

docker run  -it -v /path/to:/target myimage bash

Of course it's then not avalable as /target but only as /target/sshfs.