VSCode Remote HPC
This script can be used to start a batch job on the cluster and then connect Microsoft VSCode to it. The script is inspired by the blog
https://medium.com/@isaiah.taylor/use-vs-code-on-a-supercomputer-15e4cbbb1bc2
Requirements
The script assumes that you have setup SSH keys for passwordless access to the cluster. Please find some instructions on how to create SSH keys on the scicomp wiki:
https://scicomp.ethz.ch/wiki/Accessing_the_clusters#SSH_keys
Currently the script runs on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows (using WSL/WSL2 or git bash). When using a Linux computer, please make sure that xdg-open is installed. This package is used to automatically start your default browser. You can install it with the command
CentOS:
yum install xdg-utils
Ubuntu:
apt-get install xdg-utils
Using SSH keys with non-default names
Since the reopening of Euler after the cyber attack in May 2020, we recommend to the cluster users to use SSH keys.
$HOME/.ssh/id_ed25519_euler
You can either use the -k option of the script to specify the location of the SSH key, or even better use an SSH config file with the IdentityFile option
https://scicomp.ethz.ch/wiki/Accessing_the_clusters#How_to_use_keys_with_non-default_names
I would recommend to use the SSH config file as this works more reliably.
Preparation
The preparation steps only need to be executed once. You need to carry out those steps to set up the basic configuration for your ETH account with regards to the code-server.
- Login to the Euler
- Start and interactive job with
srun --ntasks=1 --time=00:10:00 --mem-per-cpu=2048 --pty bash
When using Euler, switch to the new software stack (in case you haven't set it as default yet), either using
env2lmod
for the current shell, or
set_software_stack.sh new
to set it as permanent default (when using this command, you need to logout and login again to make the change becoming active)
Load the modules for one of the code-server installations:
module load gcc/6.3.0 code-server/3.12.0
Start the code-server once with the command code-server
[sfux@eu-ms-001-01 ~]$ code-server
[2021-11-02T10:01:45.407Z] info code-server 3.12.0 4cd55f94c0a72f05c18cea070e10b969996614d2
[2021-11-02T10:01:45.409Z] info Using user-data-dir ~/.local/share/code-server
[2021-11-02T10:01:45.433Z] info Using config file ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml
[2021-11-02T10:01:45.433Z] info HTTP server listening on http://127.0.0.1:8080
[2021-11-02T10:01:45.433Z] info - Authentication is enabled
[2021-11-02T10:01:45.433Z] info - Using password from ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml
[2021-11-02T10:01:45.433Z] info - Not serving HTTPS
[sfux@eu-ms-001-01 ~]$
This will setup the local configuration (including a password for you) and store it in your home directory in $HOME/.config/code-server/config.yaml
After the server started, terminate it with ctrl+c
Usage
Install
Download the repository with the command
git clone https://gitlab.ethz.ch/sfux/VSCode_remote_HPC.git
Run VSCode in a batch job
The start_vscode.sh script needs to be executed on your local computer. Please find below the list of options that can be used with the script:
$ ./start_vscode.sh --help
./start_vscode.sh: Script to start a VSCode on Euler from a local computer
Usage: start_vscode.sh [options]
Options:
-u | --username USERNAME ETH username for SSH connection to Euler
-n | --numcores NUM_CPU Number of CPU cores to be used on the cluster
-W | --runtime RUN_TIME Run time limit for the code-server in hours and minutes HH:MM
-m | --memory MEM_PER_CORE Memory limit in MB per core
-b | --batchsys BATCH_SYS Batch system to use (LSF or SLURM)
Optional arguments:
-c | --config CONFIG_FILE Configuration file for specifying options
-g | --numgpu NUM_GPU Number of GPUs to be used on the cluster
-h | --help Display help for this script and quit
-i | --interval INTERVAL Time interval for checking if the job on the cluster already started
-k | --key SSH_KEY_PATH Path to SSH key with non-standard name
-v | --version Display version of the script and exit
Examples:
./start_vscode.sh -u sfux -b SLURM -n 4 -W 04:00 -m 2048
./start_vscode.sh --username sfux --batchsys SLURM --numcores 2 --runtime 01:30 --memory 2048
./start_vscode.sh -c /c/Users/sfux/.vsc_config
Format of configuration file:
VSC_USERNAME="" # ETH username for SSH connection to Euler
VSC_NUM_CPU=1 # Number of CPU cores to be used on the cluster
VSC_NUM_GPU=0 # Number of GPUs to be used on the cluster
VSC_RUN_TIME="01:00" # Run time limit for the code-server in hours and minutes HH:MM
VSC_MEM_PER_CPU_CORE=1024 # Memory limit in MB per core
VSC_WAITING_INTERVAL=60 # Time interval to check if the job on the cluster already started
VSC_SSH_KEY_PATH="" # Path to SSH key with non-standard name
VSC_BATCH_SYSTEM="SLURM" # Batch system to use (SLURM or LSF)
Reconnect to a code-server session
When running the script, it creates a local file called reconnect_info in the installation directory, which contains all information regarding the used ports, the remote ip address, the command for the SSH tunnel and the URL for the browser. This information should be sufficient to reconnect to a code-server session if connection was lost.
Cleanup after the job
Please note that when you finish working with the code-server, you need to login to the cluster, identify the job with bjobs and then kill it with the bkill command, using the jobid as parameter). Afterwards you also need to clean up the SSH tunnel that is running in the background. Example:
$ ps -u | grep -m1 -- "-L" | grep -- "-N"
samfux 8729 0.0 0.0 59404 6636 pts/5 S 13:46 0:00 ssh sfux@euler.ethz.ch -L 51339:10.205.4.122:8888 -N
$ kill 8729
This example is from a Linux computer. If you are using git bash on Windows, then you can find the SSH process with the ps kommand and use kill to stop it.
Main author
- Samuel Fux
Contributions
- Andreas Lugmayr
- Mike Boss
- Nadia Marounina