docker-compose with remote host not working with ssh

Question

I'm working with DigitalOcean, specicially the 1-click Docker droplet.

Docker is running on the droplet, and the socket file is at /var/run/docker.sock on the droplet.

I have docker and docker-compose also installed locally on my machine.

I have a docker-compose.yml that works locally on my machine.

I have the public-key on the droplet and the private key added to ssh-add on my local machine. My ssh-key has a passphrase.

I can ssh into my DigitalOcean droplet from my local machine without any problem or password prompts.

Port 22 is open on the droplet.

Edit: docker-compose on both machines is > 1.28

Given these facts, this should work, according to all of the tutorials and documentation that I've read:

docker-compose -H "ssh://root@<my-digital-ocean-droplet-ip-here>" up -d

But it does not work. I get this:

ssh: connect to host <my-digital-ocean-droplet-ip-here> port 22: Connection timed out
ERROR: Couldn't connect to Docker daemon at http+docker://ssh - is it running?

I can't figure it out. I've tried using docker contexts, environment variables for the host, nothing is working. Is there anything I'm missing?

Edit- one more detail. I haven't seen anything to suggest that this would be important, but the end of my public-key says "azuread/ ". Again, this doesn't interfere with normal ssh.

Edit- Here's the docker-compose.yml:

version: '3.9'
 
services:
  db:
    image: mysql:5.7
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: myhardrootpassword
      MYSQL_DATABASE: wordpress
      MYSQL_USER: wordpress_admin_guy
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: myhardpassword
    volumes:
      - db_data:/var/lib/mysql
      
  phpmyadmin:
    image: phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin
    container_name: pma
    environment:
      PMA_HOST: db
      PMA_PORT: 3306
    restart: always
    ports:
      - 8080:80

  wordpress:
    depends_on:
      - db
    image: wordpress:latest
    ports:
      - 8000:80
    restart: always
    environment:
      WORDPRESS_DB_HOST: db:3306
      WORDPRESS_DB_USER: wordpress_admin_guy
      WORDPRESS_DB_PASSWORD: myhardpassword
      WORDPRESS_DB_NAME: wordpress
    working_dir: /var/www/html
    volumes:
      - ./wp-content:/var/www/html/wp-content
      - ./uploads.ini:/usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/uploads.ini

volumes:
  db_data: {}

Edit: Here's the version numbers:

Local: docker --version Docker version 20.10.6, build 370c289

Local: docker-compose --version docker-compose version 1.29.1, build c34c88b2

Server: docker-compose --version docker-compose version 1.27.4, build 40524192

Server: docker --version Docker version 19.03.13, build 4484c46d9d

Server: ssh -V OpenSSH_8.2p1 Ubuntu-4ubuntu0.2, OpenSSL 1.1.1f 31 Mar 2020

https://docs.docker.com/engine/reference/commandline/dockerd/ https://www.docker.com/blog/how-to-deploy-on-remote-docker-hosts-with-docker-compose/ https://github.com/docker/compose/issues/4181 https://blog.mikesir87.io/2019/08/using-ssh-connections-in-docker- How to run docker-compose on remote host?

Answer 1

ERROR: Couldn't connect to Docker daemon at http+docker://ssh - is it running?

I had this issue a while back and it was auth related. My remote user was not root and did not have access to the docker group / daemon but I see you are using root here but it could be worth a check.

This is where I found my solution

Note that there’s no way to pass sudo via this syntax, so you’ll need to ensure that the user you specify on the command line has the ability to run docker commands without privilege escalation. (You could add them to the “docker” group on the remote system, for example.)

I know you are using key-based auth with a passphrase and not password based auth but... it is already acknowledged that password based does not work and there are some ongoing issues related such as this one where a user also mentions a similar scenario where docker -H ssh://user@docker.host ps in fact works for them despite docker-compose throwing them issues.