Coder for Docker and AWS EC2 Alpha: Coder v1.25

Coder 1.25 is now available for installation or upgrade, with some important milestone features. In previous releases of Coder, you needed a Kubernetes cluster to install Coder. Today, we are pleased to announce that you can also install and run Coder with Docker!

This release also adds alpha support for using AWS EC2-based workspaces, multi-zone support, and more.

Run Coder with Docker

You can now run Coder in seconds with a Docker run command:

docker run -it --rm -p 7080:7080 \
    -v ~/.coder:/var/run/coder \
    -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
    codercom/coder:1.25.0

All you need is Docker installed on the machine where you are installing Coder.

Coder for Docker is limited to a single host machine, so it won't scale to large numbers of workspaces, Coder for Docker can also be used to evaluate features in the latest Coder version before upgrading your larger Coder deployment. For detailed instructions, visit our documentation.

EC2 Workspaces in Coder (Alpha)

We’ve also added support for provisioning workspaces on EC2 instances, virtual machines managed by Amazon Web Services.

Similar to Coder’s Docker and Kubernetes workspace providers, EC2 workspaces use container images. Each EC2 workspace runs in a container on an individual EC2 instance.

You can try the alpha feature in v1.25 by adding Amazon EC2 in the admin panel. After that, developers can begin creating EC2 workspaces in Coder.

Workspace providers: explained

Workspace providers are logical groups of resources to which developers can deploy workspaces. Since the release of workspace providers in March, they have been mainly used to improve connection speed for geo-distributed teams.

With the introduction of Docker and EC2 workspaces in Coder v1.25, workspace providers now give Coder admins more options for deploying Coder workspaces. As of 1.25, the three providers are now:

• Kubernetes: one pod powers a single workspace
• EC2: one instance powers a single workspace
• Docker: one container powers a single workspace

We plan to continue to expand the available options in the future with new ways to deploy Coder and workspaces. Read more about workspace providers in our docs.

AWS IAM Roles for Service Accounts

We've added support for using IAM roles for AWS Service Accounts. This allows more flexibility in defining which AWS resources Coder can access. To configure this, see our docs.

Multi-Availability Zone Deployments Support

We've added support for Coder deployments distributed across multiple availability zones. This improves availability and reduces downtime for teams. This can be done by changing the affinity in the Workspace Provider. Previously this was set by default and is now exposed and can be modified.

New workspace screen

The “New workspace” screen has been simplified in Coder v1.25, with many options being moved to the “Advanced” panel. All of the options are still available for familiar users, but the experience has become easier for a user who is new to Coder.

Kubernetes 1.19 End of Life

Coder v1.25 will be the last release to support Kubernetes v1.19 clusters.

The final patch release of Kubernetes 1.19 was published on 28 October 2021. As such, Coder v1.26 (released next month) and later will require the use of Kubernetes 1.20 or later. See Coder's version support policy for more information.

Ready to try out v1.25?

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