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JupyterHub, a multi-user server, manages and proxies multiple instances of the single-user IPython Jupyter notebook server.

Three actors:

• multi-user Hub (tornado process)
• configurable http proxy (node-http-proxy)
• multiple single-user IPython notebook servers (Python/IPython/tornado)

Basic principles:

• Hub spawns proxy
• Proxy forwards ~all requests to hub by default
• Hub handles login, and spawns single-user servers on demand
• Hub configures proxy to forward url prefixes to single-user servers

JupyterHub itself requires Python ≥ 3.3. To run the single-user servers (which may be on the same system as the Hub or not), Jupyter Notebook ≥ 4 is required.

Install nodejs/npm, which is available from your 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.)

Next, install JavaScript dependencies:

sudo npm install -g configurable-http-proxy

Notes on the pip command used in the installation directions below:

• sudo may be needed for pip install, depending on the user's filesystem permissions.

• JupyterHub requires Python >= 3.3, so pip3 may be required on some machines for package installation instead of pip (especially when both Python 2 and Python 3 are installed on a machine). If pip3 is not found, install it using (on Linux Debian/Ubuntu):

    sudo apt-get install python3-pip
  

JupyterHub can be installed with pip, and the proxy with npm:

npm install -g configurable-http-proxy
pip3 install jupyterhub

If you plan to run notebook servers locally, you may also need to install the Jupyter IPython notebook:

pip3 install --upgrade notebook

For a development install, clone the repository and then install from source:

git clone https://github.com/jupyterhub/jupyterhub
cd jupyterhub
pip3 install -r dev-requirements.txt -e .

If the pip3 install command fails and complains about lessc being unavailable, you may need to explicitly install some additional JavaScript dependencies:

npm install

This will fetch client-side JavaScript dependencies necessary to compile CSS.

You may also need to manually update JavaScript and CSS after some development updates, with:

python3 setup.py js    # fetch updated client-side js (changes rarely)
python3 setup.py css   # recompile CSS from LESS sources

To start the server, run the command:

jupyterhub

and then visit http://localhost:8000, and sign in with your unix credentials.

To allow multiple users to sign into the server, you will need to run the jupyterhub command as a privileged user, such as root. The wiki describes how to run the server as a less privileged user, which requires more configuration of the system.

See the getting started document for the basics of configuring your JupyterHub deployment.

Generate a default config file:

jupyterhub --generate-config

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:

• Using GitHub OAuth instead of PAM with OAuthenticator
• Spawning single-user servers with Docker, using the DockerSpawner

There is a ready to go docker image for JupyterHub. [Note: This jupyterhub/jupyterhub docker image is only an image for running the Hub service itself. It does not require the other Jupyter components, 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, installation of Jupyter Notebook ≥ 4 is required.]

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

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

This command will create a container named jupyterhub that you can stop and resume with docker stop/start. It will be listening on all interfaces at port 8000, so this is perfect to test 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 it to create system users in the container. These accounts will be used for authentication in jupyterhub's default configuration. In order to run without SSL (for testing purposes only), you'll need to set --no-ssl explicitly.

We encourage you to ask questions on the mailing list:

and you may participate in development discussions or get live help on Gitter:

• Project Jupyter website
• Documentation for JupyterHub [PDF]
• Documentation for Project Jupyter [PDF]
• Issues
• Technical support - Jupyter Google Group