VS Code in a Web Browser without Open OnDemand

Run the VS Code Code-Server on Delta in manual mode (without Open OnDemand) by following these steps:

  1. In a terminal, ssh log in to Delta (see Direct Access Login Nodes).

  2. Navigate to /sw/external/vscode/code-server/bin.

  3. Run the following command to start the server. Replace dt-loginNN with the login node you are logged in to.

    In the following example, the user is logged in to dt-login03:

    [arnoldg@dt-login03 bin]$  ./code-server --bind-addr
dt-login03:8899
[2023-04-14T15:57:03.059Z] info  code-server 4.11.0 85e083580dec27ef19827ff42d3c9257d56ea7e3
[2023-04-14T15:57:03.060Z] info  Using user-data-dir ~/.local/share/code-server
[2023-04-14T15:57:03.132Z] info  Using config file ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml
[2023-04-14T15:57:03.133Z] info  HTTP server listening on http://141.142.140.196:8899/
[2023-04-14T15:57:03.133Z] info    - Authentication is enabled
[2023-04-14T15:57:03.133Z] info      - Using password from ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml
[2023-04-14T15:57:03.133Z] info    - Not serving HTTPS
[10:57:12]

  4. Open a second terminal window.

  5. In the second terminal, SSH tunnel to the login node running code-server with the following command. Replace:

    • username with your Delta login username (in one place).

    • dt-loginNN with the same login node you used in step 3 (in two places).

    ssh -l username -L 127.0.0.1:8899:dt-loginNN.delta.ncsa.illinois.edu:8899 dt-loginNN.delta.ncsa.illinois.edu

    In the following example, the user is logged in to dt-login03:

    (base) galen@macbookair-m1-042020 ~ % ssh -l arnoldg -L
127.0.0.1:8899:dt-login03.delta.ncsa.illinois.edu:8899 dt-login03.delta.ncsa.illinois.edu
...
Success. Logging you in...
dt-login03.delta.internal.ncsa.edu (141.142.140.196)
  OS: RedHat 8.6   HW: HPE   CPU: 128x    RAM: 252 GB
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  6. Read the config.yaml file noted when you started the server (step 3) and copy the password to your clipboard.

    [arnoldg@dt-login03 ~]$ more ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml
bind-addr: 127.0.0.1:8080
auth: password
password: 9e8081e80d9999c3c525fe26
cert: false

  7. Open a web browser on your local desktop/laptop and go to the following URL.

    http://127.0.0.1:8899

  8. In the password field, enter the password you copied in step 6 and begin using VS Code in your browser.

    vscode in a web browser