How to Set Up VS Code Server on Amazon Linux 2023 (Browser-based Development)

If you’re like me and want to develop on a remote EC2 instance using just your browser, this guide walks through setting up VS Code Server (code-server) on Amazon Linux 2023, securely served over HTTPS with Apache and Let’s Encrypt.

This setup is tested and working as of July 2025.

🔧 Prerequisites

• A running EC2 instance using Amazon Linux 2023
• Apache (httpd) installed and running
• A domain name (e.g., code.example.com) pointing to your instance
• Ports 80 and 443 open in your EC2 Security Group
• sudo access to the instance

✅ Step 1: Install code-server via RPM

wget https://github.com/coder/code-server/releases/download/v4.101.2/code-server-4.101.2-amd64.rpm
sudo dnf install -y ./code-server-4.101.2-amd64.rpm

Verify the installation:

code-server --version

⚙️ Step 2: Configure code-server

Create a systemd service

mkdir -p ~/.config/code-server
cat << EOF > ~/.config/code-server/config.yaml
bind-addr: 0.0.0.0:8080
auth: password
password: yourStrongPasswordHere
cert: false
EOF

Enable code-server service

cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/code-server.service
[Unit]
Description=code-server
After=network.target

[Service]
User=ec2-user
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/code-server
Restart=always

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
EOF

sudo systemctl daemon-reexec
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now code-server

check if its running

sudo systemctl status code-server

🛠 Step 3: Configure Apache Virtual Host (HTTP)

Create the file:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/code.example.com.conf

Add the following contents:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName code.example.com
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

Update your DNS to point code.example.com to your EC2 instance’s public IP.

restart Apache

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Once DNS propagation completes, visiting http://code.example.com should redirect to HTTPS (even if there’s a warning due to missing certificate — which will be fixed next).

🌐 Step 4: Let Apache Serve code-server Securely

Install required Apache modules:

sudo dnf install -y mod_ssl mod_proxy mod_proxy_http mod_proxy_wstunnel

🔐 Step 5: Obtain and Configure SSL with Certbot

Install Certbot and the Apache plugin:

sudo dnf install -y certbot python3-certbot-apache

Request the certificate:

sudo certbot --apache -d code.example.com

Certbot will automatically generate /etc/httpd/conf.d/code.example.com-le-ssl.conf.

🔁 Step 6: Enable Reverse Proxy in the SSL VHost

Edit the generated SSL config:

sudo nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/code.example.com-le-ssl.conf

Replace its contents with:

<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
<VirtualHost *:443>
    ServerName code.example.com

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/code.example.com/fullchain.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/code.example.com/privkey.pem
    Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf

    ProxyPreserveHost On
    ProxyRequests Off

    ProxyPass / http://127.0.0.1:8080/
    ProxyPassReverse / http://127.0.0.1:8080/

    # WebSocket support
    RewriteEngine On
    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} =websocket [NC]
    RewriteRule /(.*) ws://127.0.0.1:8080/$1 [P,L]

    RewriteCond %{HTTP:Upgrade} !=websocket [NC]
    RewriteRule /(.*) http://127.0.0.1:8080/$1 [P,L]

    ErrorLog /var/log/httpd/code-server_error.log
    CustomLog /var/log/httpd/code-server_access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
</IfModule>

Restart Apache:

sudo systemctl restart httpd

📱 Step 7: Access code-server in the Browser

Visit:

https://code.example.com

You should see:

• A valid HTTPS connection
• The code-server login prompt
• A full browser-based VS Code interface

✅ Bonus: Auto-renewal

Certbot installs an automatic renewal job. You can test it manually with:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Security

If you want to make it so that only you can access this code-server instance, edit /etc/httpd/conf.d/code.example.com-le-ssl.conf and add

<Location />
  Require ip X.X.X.X
</Location>

X.X.X.X is your IP address

This locks down the code.example.com to your IP address

restart apache

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Note: you need to update the IP address if your IP changes. If you are constantly travelling, you might want to use IP address range instead.

🧠 Conclusion

This setup enables full development from a browser — no native VS Code installation needed. Everything runs on the EC2 instance, securely served via Apache and Let’s Encrypt.

Happy coding!

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