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Remote Development using SSH
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Remote Development using SSH

The Visual Studio Code Remote - SSH extension allows you to open a remote folder on any remote machine, virtual machine, or container with a running SSH server and take full advantage of VS Code's feature set. Once connected to a server, you can interact with files and folders anywhere on the remote filesystem.

No source code needs to be on your local machine to gain these benefits since the extension runs commands and other extensions directly on the remote machine. The extension will install VS Code Server on the remote OS; the server is independent of any existing VS Code installation on the remote OS.

This lets VS Code provide a local-quality development experience - including full IntelliSense (completions), code navigation, and debugging - regardless of where your code is hosted.

Getting started

Note: After reviewing this topic, you can get started with the introductory SSH tutorial.

System requirements

Local: A supported OpenSSH compatible SSH client must also be installed.

Remote SSH host: A running SSH server on:

  • x86_64 Debian 8+, Ubuntu 16.04+, CentOS / RHEL 7+.
  • ARMv7l (AArch32) Raspberry Pi OS (previously called Raspbian) Stretch/9+ (32-bit).
  • ARMv8l (AArch64) Ubuntu 18.04+ (64-bit).
  • Windows 10 / Server 2016/2019 (1803+) using the official OpenSSH Server.
  • macOS 10.14+ (Mojave) SSH hosts with Remote Login enabled.
  • 1 GB RAM is required for remote hosts, but at least 2 GB RAM and a 2-core CPU is recommended.

Other glibc based Linux distributions for x86_64, ARMv7l (AArch32), and ARMv8l (AArch64) should work if they have the needed prerequisites. See the Remote Development with Linux article for information prerequisites and tips for getting community supported distributions up and running.

While ARMv7l (AArch32) and ARMv8l (AArch64) support is available, some extensions installed on these devices may not work due to the use of x86 native code in the extension.

Installation

To get started, you need to:

  1. Install an OpenSSH compatible SSH client if one is not already present.

  2. Install Visual Studio Code or Visual Studio Code Insiders.

  3. Install the Remote-SSH extension. If you plan to work with other remote extensions in VS Code, you may choose to install the Remote Development extension pack.

SSH host setup

  1. If you do not have an SSH host set up, follow the directions for Linux, Windows 10 / Server (1803+), or macOS SSH host or create a VM on Azure.

  2. Optional: If your Linux or macOS SSH host will be accessed by multiple users at the same time, consider enabling Remote.SSH: Remote Server Listen On Socket in VS Code User settings for improved security.

    In the Settings editor:

    See the Tips and Tricks article for details.

  3. Optional: While password-based authentication is supported, we recommend setting up key based authentication for your host. See the Tips and Tricks article for details.

Connect to a remote host

To connect to a remote host for the first time, follow these steps:

  1. Verify you can connect to the SSH host by running the following command from a terminal / PowerShell window replacing user@hostname as appropriate.

    Host remotehost.yourcompany.com User yourname HostName another-host-fqdn-or-ip-goes-here IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa-remote-ssh

    See Tips and Tricks for details on generating the key shown here. You can manually edit this file with anything the SSH config file format supports, so this is just one example.

    From this point forward, the host will appear in the list of hosts when you select Remote-SSH: Connect to Host... from the Command Palette (F1, ⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)) or in the SSH Targets section of the Remote Explorer.

    The Remote Explorer allows you to both open a new empty window on the remote host or directly open a folder you previously opened. Expand the host and click on the Open Folder icon next to the folder you want to open on the host.

    Managing extensions

    VS Code runs extensions in one of two places: locally on the UI / client side, or remotely on the SSH host. While extensions that affect the VS Code UI, like themes and snippets, are installed locally, most extensions will reside on the SSH host. This ensures you have smooth experience and allows you to install any needed extensions for a given workspace on an SSH host from your local machine. This way, you can pick up exactly where you left off, from a different machine complete with your extensions.

    If you install an extension from the Extensions view, it will automatically be installed in the correct location. Once installed, you can tell where an extension is installed based on the category grouping.

    There will be a category for your remote SSH host:

    And also a Local - Installed category:

    Note: If you are an extension author and find that your extension is not working properly or installs in the wrong place, see Supporting Remote Development for details.

    Local extensions that actually need to run remotely will appear dimmed and disabled in the Local - Installed category. Select Install to install an extension on your remote host.

    You can also install all locally installed extensions on the SSH host by going to the Extensions view and selecting Install Local Extensions in SSH: {Hostname} using the cloud button at the right of the Local - Installed title bar. This will display a dropdown where you can select which locally installed extensions to install on your SSH host.

    "Always installed" extensions

    If there are extensions that you would like to always have installed on any SSH host, you can specify which ones using the remote.SSH.defaultExtensions property in settings.json. For example, if you wanted to install the GitLens and Resource Monitor extensions, specify their extension IDs as follows:

    "remote.extensionKind": { "ms-azuretools.vscode-containers": [ "ui" ], "ms-vscode-remote.remote-ssh-edit": [ "workspace" ] }

    A value of "ui" instead of "workspace" will force the extension to run on the local UI/client side instead. Typically, this should only be used for testing unless otherwise noted in the extension's documentation since it can break extensions. See the article on Supporting Remote Development for details.

    Forwarding a port / creating SSH tunnel

    Sometimes when developing, you may need to access a port on a remote machine that is not publicly exposed. There are two ways to do this using an SSH tunnel that "forwards" the desired remote port to your local machine.

    Temporarily forwarding a port

    Once you are connected to a host, if you want to temporarily forward a new port for the duration of the session, select Forward a Port from the Command Palette (F1, ⇧⌘P (Windows, Linux Ctrl+Shift+P)) or select the Add Port button in the Ports view. You can see the Ports view in the bottom panel, or by running the command Ports: Focus on Ports View.

    You'll be asked to enter the port you would like to forward and you can give it a name.

    A notification will tell you the localhost port you should use to access the remote port. For example, if you forwarded an HTTP server listening on port 3000, the notification may tell you that it was mapped to port 4123 on localhost since 3000 was already in use. You can then connect to this remote HTTP server using http://localhost:4123.

    This same information is available in the Forwarded Ports section of the Remote Explorer if you need to access it later.

    If you would like VS Code to remember any ports you have forwarded, check Remote: Restore Forwarded Ports in the Settings editor (⌘, (Windows, Linux Ctrl+,)) or set "remote.restoreForwardedPorts": true in settings.json.

    Change local port on tunnel

    If you would like the local port of the tunnel to be different than the remote server's, you can change this via the Forwarded Ports panel.

    Right-click the tunnel you want to modify, and select Change Local Address Port in the context menu.

    Always forwarding a port

    If you have ports that you always want to forward, you can use the LocalForward directive in the same SSH config file you use to remember hosts and advanced settings.

    For example, if you wanted to forward ports 3000 and 27017, you could update the file as follows: