NAME

cloud-sandbox - launch a cloud instance and ssh directly into it, as a 'sandbox' system

SYNOPSIS

cloud-sandbox [instance-type [ubuntu-release]] [ec2-run-instance-options]

DESCRIPTION

cloud-sandbox is a program that launches a cloud instance (EC2 by default), automatically generates ssh host keys, ssh's into the launched system, and prompts the user for instance termination on exit.

cloud-sandbox does the following:
- conveniently supports simple parameters for instance-type and ubuntu-release, by passing those to ubuntu-ec2-run(1)
- generates ssh-host keys locally using ssh-keygen(1), and passes them to the instance
- automatically adds host key fingerprints to a local host keys file, $HOME/.ssh/known_hosts.cloud, which removes the interactive fingerprint prompt
- uses ssh-import-id(1) in the instance to import the user's public SSH key, if the environment variable $LAUNCHPAD_ID exists
- uses bootmail(1) to send the user email noting that the instance has booted, if the environment variable $BOOTMAIL exists and is a valid email address
- waits in a loop for sshd(8) to start on the cloud instance
- execs an ssh(1) session to the instance
- upon exit, interactively prompts the user if they want to immediately terminate the instance and remote the ssh known host key

EXAMPLE

cloud-sandbox

cloud-sandbox m1.large

cloud-sandbox t1.micro trusty

SEE ALSO

ubuntu-ec2-run(1), ssh-import-id(1), bootmail(1), ssh-keygen(1)

AUTHOR

This manpage and the utility was written by Dustin Kirkland <kirkland@ubuntu.com> for Ubuntu systems (but may be used by others). Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License, Version 3 published by the Free Software Foundation.

On Debian systems, the complete text of the GNU General Public License can be found in /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL, or on the web at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt.