• Prerequisites
• Generate Let’s Encrypt certificates
• Connect a development environment to the Web IDE
  • Configure a remote connection
• Related topics

Tutorial: Connect a remote machine to the Web IDE

This tutorial shows you how to:

• Create a development environment outside of GitLab.
• Connect a remote machine to the Web IDE.

To connect a remote machine to the Web IDE, you’ll:

1. Generate Let’s Encrypt certificates.
2. Connect a development environment to the Web IDE.

Prerequisites

• A remote virtual machine with root access
• A domain address resolving to that machine
• Docker installation

Generate Let’s Encrypt certificates

To generate Let’s Encrypt certificates:

1. Create an A record to point a domain to your remote machine (for example, from example.remote.gitlab.dev to 10.0.2.2).

   If you do not have access to a domain, you can use a service like DuckDNS.

2. Install Certbot to enable HTTPS:

   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install certbot
   

3. Generate the certificates:

   export EMAIL="YOUR_EMAIL@example.com"
   export DOMAIN="example.remote.gitlab.dev"
   
   certbot -d "${DOMAIN}" \
     -m "${EMAIL}" \
     --config-dir ~/.certbot/config \
     --logs-dir ~/.certbot/logs \
     --work-dir ~/.certbot/work \
     --manual \
     --preferred-challenges dns certonly
   

   With DuckDNS, you must use the Certbot DNS DuckDNS plugin.

Now that you’ve generated the certificates, it’s time to create and connect a development environment.

Connect a development environment to the Web IDE

To connect a development environment to the Web IDE:

1. Create a development environment:

   export CERTS_DIR="/home/ubuntu/.certbot/config/live/${DOMAIN}"
   export PROJECTS_DIR="/home/ubuntu"
   
   docker run -d \
     --name my-environment \
     -p 3443:3443 \
     -v "${CERTS_DIR}/fullchain.pem:/gitlab-rd-web-ide/certs/fullchain.pem" \
     -v "${CERTS_DIR}/privkey.pem:/gitlab-rd-web-ide/certs/privkey.pem" \
     -v "${PROJECTS_DIR}:/projects" \
     registry.gitlab.com/gitlab-org/remote-development/gitlab-rd-web-ide-docker:0.2-alpha \
     --log-level warn --domain "${DOMAIN}" --ignore-version-mismatch
   

   The new development environment starts automatically.

2. Fetch a token:

   docker exec my-environment cat TOKEN
   

3. Configure a remote connection.

Configure a remote connection

To configure a remote connection from the Web IDE:

1. Open the Web IDE.
2. On the menu bar, select View > Terminal or press Control+`.
3. In the terminal panel, select Configure a remote connection.
4. Enter the URL for the remote host including the port (for example, yourdomain.com:3443).
5. Enter the project path.
6. Enter the token you’ve fetched.

Alternatively, you can pass the parameters from a URL and connect directly to the Web IDE:

1. Run this command:

   echo "https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/gitlab-web-ide?remoteHost=${DOMAIN}:3443&hostPath=/projects"
   

2. Go to that URL and enter the token you’ve fetched.

You’ve done it! Your development environment now runs as a remote host that’s connected to the Web IDE.

Related topics

• Manage a development environment