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Remote IDE (VSCode)

Access Oscar's file-system remotely from VSCode.

VSCode one-time setup

To use VSCode you must be on a Brown compliant network or connected to the VPN. Please install the Brown VPN client before proceeding.

To use VSCode you will need to be connected to the VPN. Please install the Brown VPN client before proceeding.

  1. Install the Remote Development extension pack for VSCode:

2. Open VSCode settings and uncheck symlink:

Code > Preferences > Settings

Search for symlink and make sure the symlink searching is unchecked

3. Make sure you have set up passwordless SSH authentication to Oscar. If you haven't, please refer to this documentation page.

If you have Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) installed in your computer, you need to follow the instructions for Windows (PowerShell).

4. Edit the config file:

The config file is located at:

~/.ssh/config

If you have Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) installed in your computer, you need to follow the instructions for Windows (PowerShell).

Edit the config file on your local machine, add the following lines. Replace <username> with your Oscar username. 

# Jump box with public IP address
Host jump-box
    HostName poodcit4.services.brown.edu
    User <username>

# Target machine with private IP address
Host ccv-vscode-node
    HostName node1103
    User <username>
    ProxyCommand ssh -q -W %h:%p jump-box

5. In VSCode, select Remote-SSH: Connect to Host… and after the list populates select ccv-vscode-node

6. Install and set up of VSCode

After a moment, VS Code will connect to the SSH server and set itself up.

  1. Configure VSCode

Important: Please run the following to add a settings.json file to your config. This is because the filewatcher and file searcher (rg) indexes all the files you have access to in your workspace. If you have a large dataset (e.g. machine learning) this can take a lot of resources on the vscode node.

Connect to VSCode first.

You can either create a symlink via the ln command below,

ln -s /gpfs/runtime/opt/vscode-server/ccv-vscode-config/settings.json /users/$USER/.vscode-server/data/Machine/settings.json

or manually create /users/$USER/.vscode-server/data/Machine/settings.json file with following contents

{
    "files.watcherExclude": {
        "**/.git/objects/**": true,
        "**/.git/subtree-cache/**": true,
        "**/node_modules/**": true,
        "/usr/local/**": true,
        "/gpfs/home/**": true,
        "/gpfs/data/**": true,
        "/gpfs/scratch/**": true
    },
    "search.followSymlinks": false,
    "search.exclude": {
        "**/.git/objects/**": true,
        "**/.git/subtree-cache/**": true,
        "**/node_modules/**": true,
        "/usr/local/**": true,
        "/gpfs/home/**": true,
        "/gpfs/data/**": true,
        "/gpfs/scratch/**": true
    }
}

Reconnect to VSCode

  1. Click the green icon "Open a Remote Window" in the bottom left corner of VSCode Window. Then click "Connect to Host" in the drop down list.

2. Select the ccv-vscode-node option to connect to Oscar.

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