The purpose of this repository and the two start_vscode.sh scripts is to enable you to run VSCode Remote safely on a worker node using the Sheffield University HPC clusters.
Following the instructions below, you will run some VScode Remote setup tasks on the cluster/s, then from your local machine you run the script/s to start a VSCode Remote server within a batch job and connect your local machine to it.
The access to the initiated Microsoft VSCode session on the cluster is made through your local machine's web browser. The script is inspired by the blog
https://medium.com/@isaiah.taylor/use-vs-code-on-a-supercomputer-15e4cbbb1bc2
This version has been forked from the (much appreciated) original at https://gitlab.ethz.ch/sfux/VSCode_remote_HPC
- Overview of the process
- Requirements
- Preparation Steps
- Usage instructions
- Known issues
- Main author
- Contributions
The script assumes that you have setup SSH keys for passwordless access to the cluster. Please find some instructions on how to create SSH keys below:
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-ssh-keys-on-ubuntu-22-04
Currently the scripts should run on Linux (tested on Ubuntu), Mac OS X (untested) and Windows (using WSL/WSL2 tested with Ubuntu or git bash (untested).
When using a Linux computer, please make sure that xdg-open is available. This package is used to automatically start your default browser. You can install it with the command
CentOS:
yum install xdg-utils binutils ssh
Ubuntu:
apt-get install xdg-utils binutils ssh
You can either use the -k option of the script to specify the location of the SSH key, or even better use an SSH config file with the IdentityFile option by adding the following lines in your $HOME/.ssh/config file:
Host sharc.shef.ac.uk
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_sharc
or
Host bessemer.shef.ac.uk
IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_bessemer
To install WSL/WSL2 on Windows 10 version 2004 and higher (Build 19041 and higher) or Windows 11 you can follow instructions here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install
If using WSL you may also need to set your DISPLAY variable prior to running the script in order to get X11 GUI forwarding working correctly (for automatic browser opening). e.g.
export DISPLAY=localhost:0
In addition, if you wish to leverage your existing Windows host machine's OpenSSH ssh-agent you can follow the instructions here: https://stuartleeks.com/posts/wsl-ssh-key-forward-to-windows/
ShARC preparation (see below for Bessemer preparation)
The preparation steps only need to be executed once. You need to carry out those steps to set up the basic configuration for your ShARC account with regards to the code-server.
Login to the ShARC cluster and start an interactive job with:
qrshx
Load the modules for one of the code-server installations:
module load apps/vscode-server/4.2.0/binary
Jump to step Initiate code-server
The preparation steps only need to be executed once. You need to carry out those steps to set up the basic configuration for your Bessemer account with regards to the code-server.
Login to the Bessemer cluster and start an interactive job with:
srun --pty bash -i
Load the modules for one of the code-server installations:
module load vscode-server/4.2.0/binary
Start the code-server once with the command code-server
[te1st@bessemer.shef.ac.uk ~]$ code-server
[2022-04-04T10:01:45.407Z] info code-server 4.2.0
[2022-04-04T10:01:45.409Z] info Using user-data-dir ~/.local/share/code-server
[2022-04-04T10:01:45.433Z] info Using config file ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml
[2022-04-04T10:01:45.433Z] info HTTP server listening on http://127.0.0.1:8080
[2022-04-04T10:01:45.433Z] info - Authentication is enabled
[2022-04-04T10:01:45.433Z] info - Using password from ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml
[2022-04-04T10:01:45.433Z] info - Not serving HTTPS
[te1st@bessemer.shef.ac.uk ~]$
This will setup the local configuration (including a password for you) and store it in your home directory in $HOME/.config/code-server/config.yaml
After the server has fully started, terminate it by pressing Ctrl+C .
Now you should generate your SSL certificates (these secure the communications between your local device and the endpoint worker node running the vscode server.)
setup_ssl_ca_server_client.sh
Download the repository with the command
git clone git@github.com:rcgsheffield/vscoderemote_sheffield_hpc.git
Starting VSCode Remote server using a batch job on ShARC (see below for Bessemer instructions)
The start_vscode_sharc.sh script needs to be executed on your local computer but will spawn the VS Code remote server on a ShARC worker node. Please find below the list of options that can be used with the script:
$ ./start_vscode_sharc.sh --help
./start_vscode_sharc.sh: Script to start a VSCode remote server on ShARC from a local computer
Usage: start_vscode_sharc.sh [options]
Options:
-u | --username USERNAME TUoS username for SSH connection to ShARC
-n | --numcores NUM_CPU Number of CPU cores to be used on the cluster
-W | --runtime RUN_TIME Run time limit for the code-server in hours and minutes HH:MM
-m | --memory MEM_PER_CORE Memory limit in MB per core
Optional arguments:
-c | --config CONFIG_FILE Configuration file for specifying options
-g | --numgpu NUM_GPU Number of GPUs to be used on the cluster
-h | --help Display help for this script and quit
-i | --interval INTERVAL Time interval for checking if the job on the cluster already started
-k | --key SSH_KEY_PATH Path to SSH key with non-standard name
-v | --version Display version of the script and exit
Examples:
./start_vscode_sharc.sh -u te1st -n 4 -W 04:00:00 -m 2048
./start_vscode_sharc.sh --username te1st --numcores 2 --runtime 01:30:00 --memory 2048
./start_vscode_sharc.sh -c /home/te1st/.vsc_config
Format of configuration file:
VSC_USERNAME="" # TUoS username for SSH connection to ShARC
VSC_NUM_CPU=1 # Number of CPU cores to be used on the cluster
VSC_NUM_GPU=0 # Number of GPUs to be used on the cluster
VSC_RUN_TIME="01:00:00" # Run time limit for the code-server in hours and minutes HH:MM:SS
VSC_MEM_PER_CPU_CORE=1024 # Memory limit in MB per core
VSC_WAITING_INTERVAL=60 # Time interval to check if the job on the cluster already started
VSC_SSH_KEY_PATH="" # Path to SSH key with non-standard name
Once a session starts the code-server password is randomly regenerated and the new password will be supplied to you in the terminal alongside the SSL certificate fingerprints. Before clicking past the SSL warning (as the generated certificates are not trusted by default) check the fingerprints match in browser and in terminal.
Jump to step - reconnect to a code server session
The start_vscode.sh script needs to be executed on your local computer but will spawn the VS Code remote server on a Bessemer worker node. Please find below the list of options that can be used with the script:
$ ./start_vscode_bessemer.sh --help
./start_vscode_bessemer.sh: Script to start a VSCode remote server on Bessemer from a local computer
Usage: start_vscode_bessemer.sh [options]
Options:
-u | --username USERNAME TUoS username for SSH connection to Bessemer
-W | --runtime RUN_TIME Run time limit for the code-server in hours and minutes HH:MM
-n | --numcpus NUM_CPUS_PER_TASK Number of CPU cores per task
-m | --memory MEM_PER_NODE Memory limit in GB per node. (RAM) Ex. 4 cores *4G = 16
Optional arguments:
-c | --config CONFIG_FILE Configuration file for specifying options
-g | --numgpu NUM_GPU Number of GPUs to be used on the cluster
-p | --partition PARTITION_ID Partition ID to be used (gpu or gpu-a100-tmp)
-h | --help Display help for this script and quit
-i | --interval INTERVAL Time interval for checking if the job on the cluster already started
-k | --key SSH_KEY_PATH Path to SSH key with non-standard name
-v | --version Display version of the script and exit
Examples:
./start_vscode_bessemer.sh -u te1st -n 4 -W 04:00:00 -m 4
./start_vscode_bessemer.sh --username te1st --numcpus 2 --runtime 01:30:00 --memory 2
./start_vscode_bessemer.sh -c $HOME/.vsc_config
Format of configuration file:
VSC_USERNAME="" # TUoS username for SSH connection to Bessemer
VSC_CPUS_PER_TASK=1 # Number of cpu cores per task
VSC_NUM_GPU=0 # Number of GPUs to be used on the cluster
VSC_RUN_TIME="01:00:00" # Run time limit for the code-server in hours and minutes HH:MM:SS
VSC_MEM_PER_NODE=2 # Memory limit in GB per node. (RAM) Ex. 4 cores *4G = 16
VSC_WAITING_INTERVAL=60 # Time interval to check if the job on the cluster already started
VSC_SSH_KEY_PATH="" # Path to SSH key with non-standard name
Once a session starts the code-server password is randomly regenerated and the new password will be supplied to you in the terminal alongside the SSL certificate fingerprints. Before clicking past the SSL warning (as the generated certificates are not trusted by default) check the fingerprints match in browser and in terminal
When running the script, it creates a local file called reconnect_info in the installation directory, which contains all information regarding the used ports, the remote ip address, the command for the SSH tunnel and the URL for the browser. This information should be sufficient to reconnect to a code-server session if connection was lost.
To view the contents of the reconnect_info file type:
cat reconnect_info
-
Try reconnecting by opening the URL in your browser
-
If the connection is not available then copy and paste the command from the 'SSH tunnel' line into the local terminal, then repeat step 1
Please note that when you finish working with the code-server, you need to terminate on the local machine by pressing the enter key so the script can terminate the job on the cluster as well as stop the SSH tunnel from your local machine.
Currently it is not possible to use the native Settings Sync functionality of VS code with code-server. You may wsih to install this extension. You can install by typing into the command line
code-server version
code-server --install-extension Shan.code-settings-sync
desktop version
code --install-extension Shan.code-settings-sync
- Samuel Fux
- Andreas Lugmayr
- James Moore
- Nicholas Musembi
- Carl Kennedy