jupyterhub-idle-culler provides a JupyterHub service to cull and shut down idle notebook servers and users on a JupyterHub deployment.

In jupyterhub_config.py, add the following dictionary for the idle-culler Service to the c.JupyterHub.services list:

c.JupyterHub.services = [
    {
        'name': 'idle-culler',
        'admin': True,
        'command': [
            sys.executable,
            '-m', 'jupyterhub_idle_culler',
            '--timeout=3600'
        ],
    }
]

where:

• 'admin': True indicates that the Service requires admin permissions so it can shut down arbitrary user notebooks, and
• 'command' indicates that the Service will be managed by the Hub.

jupyterhub-idle-culler can also be run as a standalone script. It can access the hub's api with a service token. The service token must have admin privileges.

Generate an API token and store it in a JUPYTERHUB_API_TOKEN environment variable. Then start jupyterhub-idle-culler manually

export JUPYTERHUB_API_TOKEN=$(jupyterhub token)
python3 -m jupyterhub-idle-culler[--timeout=900] [--url=http://localhost:8081/hub/api]