VSCode in interactive node

Description

These are the instructions to use Visual Studio Code to run and debug scripts/notebooks within an interactive node from the cluster.

Requirements

• Conda or Mamba installed
• Have an account on ngrok

Create a conda environment

The conda environment must include the packages code-server, pyngrok and screen

conda create -n vsc_node -c conda-forge code-server screen pyngrok -y
conda activate vsc_node

Run code server in a screen (inside login01)

screen -S vscode

Right after creating the screen, create an interactive session and remember on which node you are allocated.

interactive
conda activate vsc_node
code-server

Exit the screen with Ctrl + A + D

Run a Ngrok tunnel in a screen (inside login01)

Note

If this is your first time doing this step, you'll first need to setup your authentification token for ngrok.

1. Log in to your ngrok home page.
2. On the left-hand side bar: Getting Started > Your Authtoken
3. On the Command Line section, copy only the key, which is the big string with random letters and numbers.

4. Go back to the terminanl in the cluster (with the vsc_pyngrok environment activated) and add your authentification token with the following command:

   ngrok authtoken <the_token_you_copied_in_the_previous_step>

This setup only has to be done once.

screen -S pyngrok

interactive -w <bbgnXXX> # Node of previous step
conda activate vsc_node
pyngrok http 8080

Copy the URL to your browser and exit the session Ctrl + A + D

Check your VSCode password

cat ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml

Browse your VSCode remotely

When entering the URL in your browser, click Visit site and introduce the password you obtained in the previous step in order to be able to use VSCode.

Reference

• Jordi Deu Pons
• Carlos López-Elorduy
• Federica Brando