How to connect VScode to colab / paperspace / etc - visual-studio-code

Cloud instances like google colab, paperspace gradient etc. offer free or very inexpensive options at ~10$/months for storage, GPU compute, ready-to-use containers and a jupyter notebook/lab IDE. It's great for hobby prototypes.
However, personally, I much prefer IDEs like VSCode for developing even small projects. Given that VSCode offers ssh-remote access to machines and even docker containers, what are the best options to realize this? Already tried colab-ssh which works but feels a bit sluggish. Maybe there are better options?
On the other side, one can rent instances like AWS p2.xlarge, but with costs of 1$/h they become significantly more expensive than the above options (sidenote: Why is there such a discrepancy?)

SSH onto notebook server
Most managed notebook services don't allow/support SSH.
Colab states this in its terms of service.
Paperspace also seems to not support it (according to this forum thread from 2018).
It may be possible with Sagemaker if you set up a bastion host.
VS Code server
VS Code server you lets you run VS Code on the notebook server, and connect through a local VS Code without SSH.
in Colab: colabcode
in Paperspace: gradient-coder
On the client side you can connect via the Remote - Tunnels extension.

Related

Is there a way to run an IDE like VSCode from a cloud instance?

I know that with R you can run RStudio as a browser instance directly from a server/cloud instance, so you access the IDE via browser, and that IDE has access to files/data available on that instance (similar to what Jupyterlab does).
Similarly i wonder if there is a way to run VSCode (or some other full feature IDE) as a browser instance on something like a google dataproc, so instead of using Jupyter to run code and access data, you would use the IDE.
I realize there are ways to run a local instance of an IDE and connect to a server/cloud instance, but in some cases these connections are blocked by firewalls and you have no way of running code on the instance other than via browser/jupyter, so i was wondering if there was some other way to do this.
As #guillaume blaquiere suggested :
Cloud Workstation is the brand new feature is designed for that
Fully managed development environments built to meet the needs of security-sensitive enterprises. It enhances the security of development environments while accelerating developer onboarding and productivity.
Access secure and fast development environments anytime via browser or local IDE
Enable administrators to easily provision, scale, manage, and secure development environments
Customize development environments with your preferred IDE and through custom container images

The best way to deploy/redeploy PHP code from github to GCP Compute Engine LAMP Stack [Google Click to Deploy]

overflowers!
Can someone please advice me on the best way to continuously deploy PHP code from github to GCP Compute Engine? Specifically to GCP Marketplace LAMP Stack, which is the Google Click to Deploy VM? Here is the link to the market place
Your advice is greatly appreciated!
Click to Deploy (C2D) is an excellent way to test drive solutions but I'm (admittedly somewhat naive but) skeptical that it's a good approach to combine C2D with customization.
That said, the C2D solutions are published and you could, with some work, customize the solution as the basis for your own solution.
In other words, I'd recommend not combining the C2D as-is but to customize the tools that it uses (!) for your needs.
The README explains how the LAMP VM is built (Cloud Build, packer, chef).
Without wishing to in any way impugn your approach, please consider alternative ways to deploy PHP to Google Cloud Platform. Running Apache and MySQL on a VM may be entirely appropriate for your needs but you will need to maintain the OS, Apache, MySQL etc.
If you're goal is to deploy a PHP (web) app that needs a MySQL-compliant database and you want to be more "cloud native", you could consider using:
App Engine or Cloud Run to host your PHP app (see link)
Cloud SQL for the database (see link)
The above would require more initial work but, if you want more flexibility, resilience and less "chore", I think you'd benefit from the investment.
In addition opening up the app like this would facilitate leveraging Cloud Monitoring, Logging, Debugger etc

Is it possible to edit Cloud Functions via SSH on VS Code?

I know how to develop using Linux VMs and SSH on VS Code, but now I am using Cloud Functions and I would like to debug it on VS Code or any other editor/IDE, is it possible?
Yes, it is possible to debug the code that you are going to deploy into Cloud Functions in your favorite IDE. As the opposite to Compute Engine you can't ssh into Cloud Functions. Cloud Functions is based on preemptible Compute Engine instances, this means that you have no control at all over the instances and you can't ssh into them.
What you can actually do is develop your function as a small, idempotent piece of code, test it locally and then deploy it to Cloud Functions directly from your IDE, then if you want to see the logs of your function you can run the gcloud functions logs command directly on your ide

Can AWS Toolkit in Eclipse be used with localstack?

For local development, I was hoping to set up a localhost profile for AWS Toolkit that I could then use in Eclipse to interact with resources on localstack, but I'm at a loss to set this up. There is a local(localhost) option in AWS Toolkit, but I don't see how it would know what endpoints to access for the various services in localstack.
It seems like a relatively logical thing to want to do, or do I have to do all my interaction with the aws (or awslocal) cli?

What strategy do you use to sync your code when working from home

At my work I currently have my development environment inside a Virtual Machine. When I need to do work from home I copy my VM and any databases I need onto a laptop drive sized external USB drive. After about 10 minutes of copying I put the drive in my pocket and head home, copy back the VM and databases onto my personal computer and I'm ready to work. I follow the same steps to take the work back with me.
So if I count the total amount of time I spend waiting around for files to finish copying in order for me to take work home and bring it back again, it comes to around 40 minutes! I do have a VPN connection to my work from home (providing the internet is up at both sites) and a decent internet speed (8mbits down/?up) but I find Remote Desktoping into my work machine laggy enough for me to want to work on my VM directly.
So in looking at what other options I have or how I could improve my existing option I'm interested in what strategy you use or recommend to do work at home and keeping your code/environment in sync.
EDIT: I'd prefer an option where I don't have to commit my changes into version control before I leave work - as I like to make meaningful descriptive comments in my commits, committing would take longer than just copying my VM onto a portable drive! lol Also I'd prefer a solution where my dev environment stays in sync too. Having said that I'm still very interested in your own solutions even if they don't exactly solve my problem as best as I'd like. :)
A Distributed / Decentralized Version Control System solution will suit your needs, Git, Bazaar, Mercurial, darcs... you have plenty alternatives.
Use a version control software like SVN, SourceOffSite, etc. You just have to check-in all your changes and get the latest changes when you want to sync.
Or you can use Windows Live Sync -> https://sync.live.com/foldersharetolivesync.aspx
Hasn't anyone recommended rsync? Use an rsync client to send the diff between files. You can apply these diffs thus bringing your file up-to-date. For the smallest file transfer it's probably the best idea.
I simply use an external portable notebook drive and do all my work on that. All my PCs have it set to the same drive letter. So no copying anything .. I've not attempted to run VMs this way, however, but I don't see any reason it shouldn't simply work.
i use dropbox.
We use Citrix and then I do a remote desktop connection to my PC at work. It is not the fastest solution in the world, but it does eliminate the problem of keeping two or more workstations up-to-date.
Here is a solution I use.
Set up a VPN between the office network and the laptop.
Install the VisualSVN Server
Load all projects in the SCC.
When at the office I check out a project, work on it and then check it in. When at home or around the world I connect to the office via VPN, check out my project, do my thing then check it in. Via the VPN connection I can also RDP to my dev boxes and or servers.
Hope this helps. Good luck!
I either connect remotely to the office SVN, or VPN in and remote desktop my dev or desktop machine and carry on working. It's very rare I sync any files, but when I do it's usually with DropBox (although you can't really do that with large files).
Write program, that will syncronize all your data through internet, and then shutwodn your computer, so at the end of the day you launch it, and go home, and when you come home all data is already there
We work with a distributed team, so it is vital everyone has easy and secure code repository access. For this, we use SVN over ssl/https. It works great, reliably and secure.
Depending on the VM software you are using why don't you set up 2 different VM disks, keep your user profile/dev files on one disk and the OS and other programs that change rarely on the other.
This way you can probably get away with only having to copy the larger disk image when you've installed something new and end up only copying a single virtual disk containing your work.
Just setup a SVN server at home, forward your router port and get on with your life. rsync is also a good, fast solution. Just remember to use it over SSH.
I had a similar problem. But fortunately we had a source control server (TFS) configured so I use to work only from the local Virtual Machines stored on my external drive and than check in the required files to the TFS as an when required.
you haven't specified the OS and virtualization system, but if you're working VM images that can be mounted, e.g. XEN on linux, then you could mount the image and sync it via rsync.
i connecting to the office net work and download the lates version form svn
use the Dev mysql server
so i am just like anther computer in the office network
I imagine that most of the time spent copying involves the database. Is that right? If so, can you not simply connect to your work DB from home using your VPN connection?
You would still copy your source files (or use a source code control system as others have suggested), but this would only take a fraction of the time.
If all you need is a virtual machine from your work computer, then you could mount a remote catalog (using nfs or smb) where is your virtual machine files store and run that virtual machine from there. This should be faster than using remote desktop.
I also use DropBox, and that is key because it is important to keep it simple.
It is generally better if you can have some type of remote desktop ability, because this will allow you to use a standard workstation configuration, and it will allow for consistent connection to network resources (database server, business servers like workflow, etc).
Working offline, in my opinion, is ok for certain tasks, but overall there are obstacles for systems which connect to other resources (unless you plan to move those resources to your home box).
It was a problem for me too. So, the company bought me a laptop, and I do my work on it, at home or anywhere else.
I have a set up where a folder on one machine is synced to a folder on another machine. any changes to the contents on one machine is also made on the other machine within a minute.
So you could sync the top level folder of your work files, and have then sync to your home machine. What I like about this is that syncing is completely transparent. As far as the user experience goes, I'm simply using the file system. No external app to interact with.
I use Live Sync Live Sync from Microsoft to this. You'll need to create a Windows Live ID to use this system. It works for windows and macs.
Dropbox and Microsoft's Live Sync are good options that have already been mentioned. My personal favorite is Live Mesh, also from Microsoft. The one great feature that puts it above the other two, in my mind, is the ability to specify which folders get synched on which computers, and where the folders are located. So, for example, I synch my Visual Studio 2005/Projects folder between my work machine and my dev box at home, and I synch Visual Studio 2008/Projects between my side gig VM and my home dev box.
i have a macbook with all my dev software on it; when i go to work, i start it in target firewire mode and plug it into my work macpro with the fast processor, lan connection, big monitor, etc. this way i never have to leave my user folder but i have access to all the software and hardware available at work.
Why don't you just use version control? A DVCS?
Find here a tutorial on DVCS for Windows users (very simple)
http://codicesoftware.blogspot.com/2010/03/distributed-development-for-windows.html
Some ideas:
Use network storage (with SSD cache if speed is a concern), either for your code or to host your VM.
Separate data and OS into two virtual disks in your VM.
Google drive, Onedrive, Dropbox etc.
If you use Visual Studio (Code), try the Live Share extension.
Dockerize your environment. Alternatively, I keep a bash script for all the setup I did, so I could almost one-click reinstall my dev environment anywhere.
Use a second version control, covering your whole work directory. Commit and push everything before switching environments, then pull and hard reset your commit in another machine.