Cloudnode Developer Shell

The Developer Shell provides you with command-line access using computing resources hosted on the Cloudnode platform. It makes it easy for you to manage your projects from your browser without the need to install the Cloudnode Command Line and other tools locally on your system. All tools are always available when you need them.

You can also use the Developer Shell to perform tasks which would normally require a Linux machine even if you are running a PC or another device.

Note

This is a Beta feature that is not covered by a SLA and may be subject to changes.

Getting Started

To open the Developer Shell navigate to your Dashboard > Applications page. Slide the Shell window open by dragging from the bottom or by using the window controls. Click the center button called “Activate Cloudnode Developer Shell”.

This will:

  • Provision a virtual compute instance
  • Open a terminal window in the browser
  • Mount your persistent /home drive
  • Mount your managed /app device (readonly)

Features

Developer Shell has the following features:

  • An ephemeral virtual machine instance
  • Terminal access from a web browser
  • 5 GB persistent disk storage
  • Preinstalled Cloudnode CLI and other tools (node, git, docker, ...)
  • Language support for Javascript, Python, C and C++
  • Web preview functionality
  • Read-only access to all your managed apps running on the platform

Virtual machine instance

When you launch Developer Shell the platform provisions a docker-based compute instance running an Ubuntu 14.04 LTS Linux operating system. Shell instances persist while your Shell session is active and terminate after a hour of inactivity.

Command-line access

The Developer Shell provides command-line access to the virtual machine instance in a browser-based terminal window. You can open multiple sessions to the same instance.

Persistent disk storage

Developer Shell provisions 5GB of persistent disk storage mounted as your $HOME directory. This storage will unlike the instance itself not time out on inactivity. All your files stored in your home directory, including projects, scripts annd configuration files like .bashrc, .cloudnoderc and .vimrc persist between sessions. Your $HOME directory is private to you and cannot be addressed by other users.

Installed software

The virtual machine comes with the following pre-installed tools.

Type Installed
Shell bash, sh
Linux Utilites Standard Ubuntu Utilities
Editors vi(m), mc
Build Tools make, npm, nvm
Compilers Python 2.7, Node.js 0.12.9 and 4.2.4, gcc 4.8.4
Source Control git 1.9.1
Additional Tools Docker 1.9.1, Cloudnode-cli 0.2.23, redis-cli 2.8.4, mongo 3.0.8

Additional software can be installed as Docker containers or using apt. We will also add tools you are missing to the base images upon request. We welcome your feeedback.

Web preview

Developer Shell provides web preview functionality that allows you to run web applications on the virtual machine instance and preview them from anywhere. The web applications must listen for HTTP requests on port 8080.

To connect to a web application running on an instance, click the Web Preview Button above the Developer Shell terminal window. This opens a preview URL on the Developer Shell proxy service in a new browser window. You can share this URL for collaboration and demostration puposes. Keep in mind that the service runs on a ephemeral instance and will only be running for 48 hours if not stopped before.

Use Cases

  • Manage your applications using the Cloudnode CLI
  • Manage your Git repositories
  • Inspect you managed apps, view full log files
  • Manage, import and export your Redis and MongoDB databases
  • Checkout your apps, make changes and commit, all from your browser
  • Run a preview of your apps
  • Build and run Docker containers
  • Checkout from and commit to Docker registries from your browser
  • Work from wherever you are