"Failed to connect. Is Docker running?" in all docker views using a remote docker context

[beirtipol]

Issue: All Docker views except "Contexts" display the message "Failed to connect. Is Docker running?". This issue has presented after running VSCode for multiple months over multiple projects, both local and remote, without issue.

My remote docker context is to a linux machine, defined as: "ssh://myusername@myremotedockerhost". Passwordless ssh is set up between my local machine and myremotedockerhost.

Troubleshooting steps:

• Verified that the local docker context works in VSCode
• Verified that command line docker works on the local docker context
• Verified that command line docker works on the remote docker context
• Verified that other IDEs (e.g. IntelliJ) can use the remote docker context
• Verified that I can passwordless ssh from my command line to the machine which the remote docker context points to
• Verified that I can create a remote SSH development session to the same machine
• Verified that the old and deprecated "Docker Explorer" extension does work
• Check all VSCode logs. The only error is a vague one reported in the 'Window' log every few seconds:
  [2022-07-25 18:12:20.031] [renderer1] [error] read ECONNRESET: Error: read ECONNRESET at TCP.onStreamRead (node:internal/stream_base_commons:220:20)
• Verified that rebooting my PC has no effect
• Uninstalled and reinstalled Docker extension: same issue persists
• Installed an earlier version of the Docker extension: same issue persists
• Uninstalled VSCode completely, using Revo Uninstaller to find all registry entries and folders left behind. Then reinstalled and just added the Docker extension - same error persists.

Other people in my organisation have not reported this issue, suggesting there is something different about my remote docker context or SSH configuration which is causing issue.

Version: 1.22.0
OS: win32
OS Release: 10.0.17763
Product: Visual Studio Code
Product Version: 1.69.0
Language: en
Extensions installed:

• Docker (Official Microsoft)

[beirtipol]

Further to above:

• Remote SSH docker contexts work when I run VSCode on a different Windows machine
• Restarting the remote SSH machine running the remote docker context had no effect
• Completely deleting my local windows profile on my local machine and reinstalling all software and reconfiguring Docker, I still get a request timeout in VS Code!

[beirtipol]

Stopping the OpenSSH Authentication Agent service and restarting VSCode causes it to pop up with the message

In order to use an SSH DOCKER_HOST, you must configure an ssh-agent.

The OpenSSH executables on this machine are identical to another machine I have tested on.

[bwateratmsft]

Thank you for the very thorough investigation! It sounds like you do indeed have the OpenSSH Authentication Agent service configured to start automatically. I'm guessing you have, but did you do ssh-add <keyfile> to add the correct private key?

Another potential possibility is that the remote host has changed, and the fingerprint is not recognized. If you do ssh ssh://myusername@myremotedockerhost in a terminal window, does it prompt you to trust the server's fingerprint?

For what it's worth, we're working on #3263 which should hopefully be released soon, which will change the extension to only ever use the Docker CLI--so if the CLI is working (which it is, in your case), then the extension should work too. No more dockerode which has this ssh-agent requirement.

[beirtipol]

Hi, Yes I added the private key after regenerating my keypair but still hit the same issue. It doesn't prompt me to recognise the fingerprint as it's already in the known_hosts file.

Something strange that I am seeing when sshing is this warning. However, I do get the same warning message when ssh'ing from a VM where VSCode works correctly on the remote docker context

C:\Users\myusername>ssh myusername@myremotedockerhost
warning: agent returned different signature type ssh-rsa (expected rsa-sha2-512)

FYI, The SSH key was generated on both the broken and working machines with ssh-keygen -t rsa-sha2-512

Using the docker cli would be a massive help. Hopefully that will come soon! Thanks

[beirtipol]

Following up to previous, I've gone the whole hog and splatted all of my keypairs on all machines which has sorted the 'signature' warning above but still VSCode refuses to connect.

[bwateratmsft]

Good to know, thanks. I'll keep this issue open but hopefully #3263 will solve it.

[VerdonTrigance]

Same problem here. I have two windows users. One works fine. Second can not connect. Using console like powershell for connecting works fine.

[beirtipol]

I don't think this fix has actually been released yet?

[bwateratmsft]

That's correct, the release is tentatively planned for 28 November.

[bwateratmsft]

This has now been released in Docker extension version 1.23.0.