code-server-vps-howto

run cdr/code-server on your favorite vps

this example uses amazon lightsail

VPS Specs

• 4GB RAM
• 80GB HD
• Static public IPv4 Address

Domain Name (optional)

• Register a domain name
• Configure your domain name to use your VPS provider's DNS servers
• This example uses ${SERVER}

Amazon Lightsail Ubuntu

The userid is ubuntu

SSH Access

• Create SSH Keys from Account Page in Amazon Lightsail
• Windows PuTTy users - Use PuttyGen to convert your private key (.pem) to PuTTy format (.ppk)
• Configure PuTTY to use your SSH key for authentication to your VPS
• Save PuTTY profile name as ubuntu@fully-qualified-domain-name (ex: [email protected])

Console Access

Amazon Lightsail also provides console access via your web browser if ssh access breaks

Login to VPS

ssh ubuntu@${SERVER}

Update software from Ubuntu

sudo apt update -y
sudo apt upgrade -y

Install docker and docker-compose

sudo apt install docker docker-compose -y

code-server, web-based VS Code IDE

• Go to github and get the latest version of code-server, https://github.com/cdr/code-server
• As of 7/15/2019, the latest release is https://github.com/cdr/code-server/releases/tag/1.1156-vsc1.33.1

Get the download URL for Linux

https://github.com/cdr/code-server/releases/download/1.1156-vsc1.33.1/code-server1.1156-vsc1.33.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

Download code-server to /home/ubuntu (ubuntu's home directory)

wget https://github.com/cdr/code-server/releases/download/1.1156-vsc1.33.1/code-server1.1156-vsc1.33.1-linux-x64.tar.gz

Install code-server in /opt/code-server

cd /opt
sudo tar xvzf /home/ubuntu/code-server1.1156-vsc1.33.1-linux-x64.tar.gz
sudo ln -s code-server1.1156-vsc1.33.1-linux-x64  code-server

Setup code-server startup script

cd /usr/local/sbin
sudo vi code-server.sh

/opt/code-server/code-server /home/ubuntu/projects --cert=/usr/local/etc/code-server/certs/${SERVER}.crt --cert-key=/usr/local/etc/code-server/private/${SERVER}.key -d /opt/code-server

Make code-server startup script executable

sudo chmod 755 code-server.sh

Create directory structure for code-server SSL cert/key

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/code-server/{certs,private}

Generate a self-signed SSL cert (follow prompts)

sudo openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /usr/local/etc/code-server/private/${SERVER}.key -out /usr/local/.etc/code-server/certs/${SERVER}.crt

Change permsission to give ubuntu ownership of keys/cert - you will run code-server as user ubuntu

chown -R ubuntu:ubuntu /usr/local/etc/*

Ubuntu uses systemd to start processed, create a code-server.service config file

This config will run code-server as a daemon with user ubuntu

sudo cd /lib/systemd/system
sudo vi code-server.service

[Unit]
Description = Code Server Service.

[Service]
User = ubuntu
Type = simple
ExecStart = /bin/bash /usr/local/sbin/code-server.sh

[Install]
WantedBy = multi-user.target

Starting code-server

sudo systemctl start code-server

Get password for code-server authentication

sudo systemctl status code-server

● code-server.service - Code Server Service.
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/code-server.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2019-06-19 03:35:46 UTC; 2s ago
 Main PID: 2406 (bash)
    Tasks: 25 (limit: 4703)
   CGroup: /system.slice/code-server.service
           ├─2406 /bin/bash /usr/local/sbin/code-server.sh
           ├─2413 /opt/code-server/code-server /home/ubuntu/projects --cert=/usr/local/etc/code-server/ce
           └─2435 /opt/code-server1.1156-vsc1.33.1-linux-x64/code-server /src/packages/server/out/cli.js

Jul 15 03:35:47 mister.bombasticly.com bash[2406]: INFO  Starting webserver... {"host":"0.0.0.0","port":8
Jul 15 03:35:47 mister.bombasticly.com bash[2406]: INFO
Jul 15 03:35:47 mister.bombasticly.com bash[2406]: INFO  Password: d5d49F541f07d63jb202213e
Jul 15 03:35:47 mister.bombasticly.com bash[2406]: INFO
Jul 15 03:35:47 mister.bombasticly.com bash[2406]: INFO  Started (click the link below to open):
Jul 15 03:35:47 mister.bombasticly.com bash[2406]: INFO  https://localhost:8443/
Jul 15 03:35:47 mister.bombasticly.com bash[2406]: INFO
Jul 15 03:35:47 mister.bombasticly.com bash[2406]: INFO  Starting shared process [1/5]...
Jul 15 03:35:47 mister.bombasticly.com bash[2406]: WARN  stderr {"data":"(node:2435) [DEP0005] Deprecatio
Jul 15 03:35:48 mister.bombasticly.com bash[2406]: INFO  Connected to shared process

Configure code-server to start automatically at system boot

sudo systemctl enable code-server

From your web-browser access the code-server URL, ex: https://${SERVER}.com:8443

• code-server uses a self-signed SSL certificate that may prompt your browser to ask you some additional questions before you proceed
• When prompted for the password, cut it from your 'sudo systemctl status code-server' output and paste it in your web browser
• You should now be logged in to your web IDE and in your projects directory