Quickstart - Installation

Prerequisites

Before installing JupyterHub, you will need:

  • Python 3.3 or greater

    An understanding of using pip or conda for installing Python packages is helpful.

  • nodejs/npm

    Install nodejs/npm, using your operating system’s package manager. For example, install on Linux (Debian/Ubuntu) using:

    sudo apt-get install npm nodejs-legacy
    

    (The nodejs-legacy package installs the node executable and is currently required for npm to work on Debian/Ubuntu.)

  • TLS certificate and key for HTTPS communication

  • Domain name

Before running the single-user notebook servers (which may be on the same system as the Hub or not):

Installation

JupyterHub can be installed with pip or conda and the proxy with npm:

pip, npm:

python3 -m pip install jupyterhub
npm install -g configurable-http-proxy

conda (one command installs jupyterhub and proxy):

conda install -c conda-forge jupyterhub

To test your installation:

jupyterhub -h
configurable-http-proxy -h

If you plan to run notebook servers locally, you will need also to install Jupyter notebook:

pip:

python3 -m pip install notebook

conda:

conda install notebook

Start the Hub server

To start the Hub server, run the command:

jupyterhub

Visit https://localhost:8000 in your browser, and sign in with your unix credentials.

To allow multiple users to sign into the Hub server, you must start jupyterhub as a privileged user, such as root:

sudo jupyterhub

The wiki describes how to run the server as a less privileged user, which requires additional configuration of the system.


Basic Configuration

The getting started document contains detailed information abouts configuring a JupyterHub deployment.

The JupyterHub tutorial provides a video and documentation that explains and illustrates the fundamental steps for installation and configuration. Repo | Tutorial documentation

Generate a default configuration file

Generate a default config file:

jupyterhub --generate-config

Customize the configuration, authentication, and process spawning

Spawn the server on 10.0.1.2:443 with https:

jupyterhub --ip 10.0.1.2 --port 443 --ssl-key my_ssl.key --ssl-cert my_ssl.cert

The authentication and process spawning mechanisms can be replaced, which should allow plugging into a variety of authentication or process control environments. Some examples, meant as illustration and testing of this concept, are:


Alternate Installation using Docker

A ready to go docker image for JupyterHub gives a straightforward deployment of JupyterHub.

Note: This jupyterhub/jupyterhub docker image is only an image for running the Hub service itself. It does not provide the other Jupyter components, such as Notebook installation, which are needed by the single-user servers. To run the single-user servers, which may be on the same system as the Hub or not, Jupyter Notebook version 4 or greater must be installed.

Starting JupyterHub with docker

The JupyterHub docker image can be started with the following command:

docker run -d --name jupyterhub jupyterhub/jupyterhub jupyterhub

This command will create a container named jupyterhub that you can stop and resume with docker stop/start.

The Hub service will be listening on all interfaces at port 8000, which makes this a good choice for testing JupyterHub on your desktop or laptop.

If you want to run docker on a computer that has a public IP then you should (as in MUST) secure it with ssl by adding ssl options to your docker configuration or using a ssl enabled proxy.

Mounting volumes will allow you to store data outside the docker image (host system) so it will be persistent, even when you start a new image.

The command docker exec -it jupyterhub bash will spawn a root shell in your docker container. You can use the root shell to create system users in the container. These accounts will be used for authentication in JupyterHub’s default configuration.