SSH over gRPC or how Orchard simplifies accessing VMs in private networks
We started developing Orchard, an orchestrator for Tart, with the requirement that it should allow users to access virtual machines running on worker nodes in private networks that users might not have access to.
At the same time, we wanted to enable users to access VMs on these remote workers just as easily as they’d access network services on their local Tart VMs.
While these features sound great on paper, they pose a technical problem: how do we connect to the remote workers, let alone VMs running on these workers, if we can’t assume that these workers will be easily reachable? And how do we establish an SSH connection with a VM running on a remote worker through all these hoops?