Knowledge Base

Docs : ssh-config-export

→ Overview

SSH Config Export

RackPeek can generate a ready-to-use ~/.ssh/config file from your modeled infrastructure.

That means:

No manually editing SSH config
No memorizing IP addresses
Just ssh vm-name and go
RackPeek stays your single source of truth

Works natively on macOS and Linux.

1. Make a Resource SSH-Ready

A resource will be included in the SSH export if it has an address.

At minimum, define one of:

labels:
  ip: 192.168.1.20

labels:
  hostname: server01.local

If you already use Ansible:

labels:
  ansible_host: 192.168.1.20

If no address is found, the resource is skipped.

2. Optional SSH Settings

You can control how SSH connects using labels:

labels:
  ip: 192.168.1.20
  ssh_user: ubuntu
  ssh_port: 2222
  ssh_identity_file: ~/.ssh/id_rsa

If ssh_user or ssh_port are missing, RackPeek falls back to:

ansible_user
ansible_port
CLI defaults (if provided)

3. Example Resource

- kind: System
  type: vm
  name: vm-web01
  tags:
    - prod
    - linux
  labels:
    ip: 192.168.1.20
    ssh_user: ubuntu

4. What Gets Generated

Host vm-web01
  HostName 192.168.1.20
  User ubuntu
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Now you can connect with:

ssh vm-web01

No IP address needed.

5. Filtering by Tags

You can export only specific systems:

rpk export ssh --include-tags prod

Only resources tagged prod will be included.

6. CLI Example

rpk export ssh \
  --include-tags prod,linux \
  --default-user ubuntu \
  --default-port 22 \
  --default-identity ~/.ssh/id_rsa \
  --output ssh_config

7. Apply the Config

Append to your existing SSH config:

cat ssh_config >> ~/.ssh/config

Or replace it:

mv ssh_config ~/.ssh/config
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/config

Permissions must be 600, or SSH will ignore the file.

8. How Naming Works

By default, each host alias is the resource name:

Host vm-web01

RackPeek automatically:

Lowercases names
Replaces spaces with -
Removes unsupported characters

Example:

vm web 01

Becomes:

vm-web-01

9. Fallback Logic (Simple Version)

RackPeek resolves values in this order:

Address

ip
hostname
ansible_host

User

ssh_user
ansible_user
CLI default

Port

ssh_port
ansible_port
CLI default

Identity

ssh_identity_file
CLI default

10. Best Practices

Always define an ip or hostname
Prefer ssh_user over reusing unrelated labels
Use tags like prod, staging, linux for filtering
Keep resource names clean and predictable

11. Example Final Output

Host vm-db01
  HostName 192.168.1.30
  User postgres
  Port 2222
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Host vm-web01
  HostName 192.168.1.20
  User ubuntu
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

And that’s it:

ssh vm-db01
ssh vm-web01