Notes

I will introduce the concept of code-server.

I am neither the creator nor the developer of the code-server.

Genesis

I ran into corporate network issues due to some limitation (proxy, firewall, powerless machine, mastered OS) since I found the opensource code-server repositories.

Concept

Coder release

Actually, Code-server is VS Code running on a remote server, accessible through the browser.

Here are the main advantages :

• Access through Web UI

• Code on any device with a consistent development environment.

• All intensive computation runs on your server.

• Preserve battery life when you're on the go.

• You're no longer running excess instances of Chrome.

• Easy collaboration

You can take a tour to the coder website which offers a free version and an enterprise extended version with 24/7h support and provides cloud server auto-deployment (Coder).

Linuxserver release

The LinuxServer.io team brings a container release linuxserver/code-server. It offers more flexibility and customization than the coder release. It embeds a VS code with some layers (Docker, Python, NodeJS, Java, PHP, etc ... -> docker-mods) and some default packages.

Here are the main features :

• Custom base docker image with S6 overlay (for more details : just-containers/s6-overlay)

• Full customisation and docker layer mods integration (linuxserver/docker-mods)

• Weekly base OS updates and regular security updates

• Easy authentication setup

• Domain proxying

• etc ...

Here is the list of layers : https://mods.linuxserver.io/?mod=code-server.

There is also other version/repository of the code-server.

Requirements (for linuxserver/code-server)

• Docker
• 1 GB of RAM minimum (2 or 4 GB of RAM is better)
• 2 CPU cores minimum

See for more details : https://github.com/coder/code-server/blob/main/docs/requirements.md

Installation (for linuxserver/code-server)

Here is a sample of the docker-compose.yml then you get started creating the container.

---
version: "2.1"
services:
  code-server:
    image: linuxserver/code-server:latest
    container_name: code-server
    environment:
      - PUID=1000
      - PGID=1000
      - TZ=Europe/London
      - PASSWORD=password #optional
      - HASHED_PASSWORD= #optional
      - SUDO_PASSWORD=password #optional
      - SUDO_PASSWORD_HASH= #optional
      - PROXY_DOMAIN=code-server.my.domain #optional
      - DEFAULT_WORKSPACE=/config/workspace #optional
      - DOCKER_MODS=linuxserver/mods:python #example
    volumes:
      - /path/to/appdata/config:/config
    ports:
      - 8443:8443
    restart: unless-stopped

See for more details : https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-code-server#parameters

Getting started (for linuxserver/code-server)

You just have to run the container, open your browser and go to the url http://localhost:8443 .

My use case

I implemented a system which allows to create, edit, restart, delete a code-server instance through a WEB UI with a tiny interface and some buttons. I prepared an instance with default packages and default configuration in order to be usable in the internal corporate network.

I added a feature that allows to save, restore, duplicate and share the entire instance with extensions, code and packages through the docker commit command (ex: code-server templates). I also added custom mods which are custom docker images (like Jupyter, Django, React, etc ...).

I used the combination of Django + Ansible + Nginx + Docker for the implementation of the system (code-server generator). Thanks to Nginx with an overlay attachable docker swarm network, I can reach all instances through one route/endpoint. If you are interested, I can give more details about the entire stack.

Conclusion

This concept allows to get a readymade developer container with VS Code and desired layers/packages improving the developer experience.

For corporate usage, it allows to deploy a custom instance, which works inside the corporate network (proxy, firewall, etc ...). In my case, I deployed 100 instances in one powerful worker allowing us to reduce the cost of the single machines vs the worker. It also permits to solve most common problem and improving the time spent for the installation and the development of an application directly with the code-server instance.

For personal usage, it could be deployed locally or remotely and be used to have a single container with dotfiles and needed layers. But in fact, it is more relevant if multiple instances are used.

There are other use cases :

• a fast deploy (for saving installation time)

• a temporary usage (for an intern)

• an event (ex: Hackaton - generate multiple code-server)

• improve the developer environment

• testing the code-server

And you, what do you think about this solution ?

Dev.to Posts

• https://dev.to/babak/how-to-run-vs-code-on-the-server-3c7h

• https://dev.to/mikenikles/why-i-use-a-cloud-based-development-environment-and-how-you-can-too-4l8a

• https://dev.to/ivanmoreno/how-to-setup-a-remote-development-environment-with-code-server-and-nextcloud-2a1g

Links

• https://coder.com/

• https://github.com/coder/coder

• https://github.com/coder/code-server

• https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-code-server

• https://github.com/just-containers/s6-overlay

• https://github.com/linuxserver/docker-mods

• https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/remote/vscode-server