Integrate VSCode remote container extension into Web IDE

Purpose

Investigate whether we can use the VS Code first-party extension to connect to remote containers from the browser-based instance. If so, document what technical requirements and limitations are involved.

Scope

VS Code already supports, to some extent, connecting via SSH to remote containers. The scope of this issue is to determine whether we can use that functionality in the web. The output of this issue should be a refined Epic that outlines an iteration plan to deliver an MVC using the remote container feature in the Web IDE.

Details

The ability to use an existing workflow to connect to remote containers from VS Code would be a big win for anyone already experienced in working this way on the desktop version of VS Code. With proper documentation, we can clearly articulate what kinds of containers and configurations are supported and consider this our first MVC. It would also mean that GitLab does not need to create any new infrastructure to support Remote Development. For customers already managing their own infrastructure, this would be more efficient from a time and cost perspective, as they would not need to migrate any containers nor pay for a GitLab-hosted offering.

Links

• https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode-remote.vscode-remote-extensionpack
• Remote development extension repo

Questions

1. Is this extension compatible with the web version already? (The assumption is yes since it's likely part of the Codespaces solution)
2. Is this functionality open source? If not, are there others doing the same thing that are open source?
   1. Link to license it doesn't appear to be MIT, but unclear if we can use it.
3. What limitations exist for connecting to remote containers? How would we describe the ideal configuration to a customer?
4. What sort of configuration is needed when connecting to a container for the first time?