Modules

Users install and run VS Code on their own machine. On the remote side no module is needed - the client installs its own server automatically (~/.vscode-server).

Setup a remote connection

1) locally install the following VScode extensions

• Remote – SSH
• Remote – SSH: Editing Configuration Files
• Remote Explorer

2) pick and fire up your remote compute node (avoid expansive tasks on logins), for example

salloc -p cpu-clx

3) add this block to your local SSH config to connect to any bcn* compute node via blogin

Host clx-login
    User <your_username>
    HostName blogin.nhr.zib.de
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/<your_key>

Host bcn*
    User <your_username>
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/<your_key>
	ProxyCommand ssh -W %h:%p clx-login

4) in VScode open the Command Palette, type/enter: Remote – SSH: Connect to Host, and provide the name of your allocated compute node, e.g. bcn####

5) as soon as the remote connection in VScode is established you can install additional extensions on the remote side, too. Some recommendations are 

• GitHub Copilot
• Python
• JupyterHub
• C/C++
• Modern Fortran

Steps 2) and 4) need to be executed each time running VScode on a compute node. All other steps are required one time only - are permanent.

Optional: containerized VScode server

Advantage: inside container user has more rights, e.g., can use dnf.