How to connect to the remote Docker Engine

Problem

• The CreateProcess error=2, The system cannot find the file specified error is displayed on the attempt to perform any Docker action on the remote Docker Engine; for example, running one of the Docker Run configurations.
• There is no local Docker installation: no Docker Desktop or at least Docker CLI.

Cause

Since the 2023.3 release, it is necessary to have at least a local Docker CLI installed to connect to the remote Docker Engine via SSH or TCP. When connecting to the remote Docker, the docker --host <ssh/tcp>://<hostname> <command> CLI command is used; that's why the local Docker CLI is required.

Solution

Either

install Docker Desktop locally from the official site: please check the instructions and requirements here

or

install Docker CLI by performing the following steps:

• download the archive of the corresponding Docker executable version from this site (the final URL depends on the OS and architecture of your local PC);
• unpack it to the preferred directory;
• add the path to the executable file to the PATH environment variable so the executable could be found by performing the docker command in the terminal;
• install the Docker Buildx plugin using this instruction.

The Docker Buildx plugin is necessary for this particular case to build a Dockerfile because the legacy builder used before was deprecated since Docker 23.0, and since 2024.1, the Buildx plugin has been used for building all images.