PC² JupyterHub

The JupyterHub is currently only available for the Noctua 1 system.

It will also be made available for Noctua 2 in Q3/2022.

Access

The JupyterHub can be reached at the following address:

https://jh.noctua1.pc2.uni-paderborn.de/

Quick Start

Server Options

The Spawner

The spawner launches every single Jupyter Notebook instance.
Depending on the selected spawner or set resources, the instance starts locally on the JupyterHub server or on the Noctua 1 system as a Slurm job.

Local Notebook

The LocalSpawner spawns a notebook server on the JupyterHub host as a simple process.

The Noctua 1 Filesystems, Modules and Slurm Tools are available.

Noctua 1 (Slurm job)

The NoctuaSpawner stats a notebook server within a Slurm batch job. If you then stast a terminal via the Jupyter Interface, you will get a shell on the Noctua 1 compute node.

Jupyter Kernel

Jupyter kernels are processes that run idepentendetly and interact with the Jupyter Applications and their user interfaces.

Jupyter kernels can be loaded and used via Lmod (module command). From the JupyterLab interface the kernels can be loaded via the graphical Lmod tool.

Another way to use Jupyter kernels is Singularity container. See Singularity Container which containers are installed with which Jupyter kernels.

Singularity Container

In JupyterHub it is possible to launch Jupyter Notebook instances inside a Singularity container. This has the advantage of being able to use your own built environment. When starting a container, any directories can be mounted inside the container environment.

To learn more about Singularity, see here: Singularity-Introduction

If you want to build your own Singularity container for JupyterHub, see here: Create my own Singularity container

Remote Desktop (Graphical Environment via noVNC)

To create a remote desktop environment, you can click on "Desktop Environment" in the JupyterLab interface:

The Remote Desktop feature is available for local running notebooks and Noctua 1 (Slurm jobs) instances.

How-To

Loading software modules using JupyterLab

To load software modules inside JupyterLab, click on the Lmod extension tab. Then you have the possibility to search, load and unload modules.

If you are using the Classic Notebook View, click on tab "Softwares" to load software modules.

Default values on page “Spawner Options”

It is possible to enter default values on the "Server Options" page, which will be applied after each page refresh.

For this purpose a predefined XML document can be placed under $HOME/.jupyter/pc2-jupyterhub/.

The XML file (pc2-jupyterhub.xml) looks like following:

<JupyterHub_PC2>
    <!-- absolute path of your notebook directory -->
    <notebook_directory></notebook_directory>
    <!-- absolute path of a singularity container (This container should exists in $HOME/.jupyter/pc2-jupyterhub/)  -->
    <singularity_container></singularity_container>

    <!-- Default values to start a slurm job with -->
    <!-- The endtime will be automatically calculated (FORMAT: %H:%M) - Example: 1:00 -->
    <runtime></runtime>
    <partition></partition>
    <account></account>
    <reservation></reservation>
    <prologue></prologue>
</JupyterHub_PC2>

Default values - Example

<JupyterHub_PC2>
    <!-- absolute path of your notebook directory -->
    <notebook_directory>/scratch/pc2-mitarbeiter/mawi/</notebook_directory>
    <!-- absolute path of a singularity container (This container should exists in $HOME/.jupyter/pc2-jupyterhub/)  -->
    <singularity_container>/upb/departments/pc2/users/m/mawi/.jupyter/pc2-jupyterhub/jupyter_julia.sif</singularity_container>

    <!-- Default values to start a slurm job with -->
    <!-- The endtime will be automatically calculated (FORMAT: %H:%M) - Example: 1:00 -->
    <runtime>01:30</runtime>
    <partition>batch</partition>
    <account>hpc-lco-jupyter</account>
    <reservation></reservation>
    <prologue>
export SINGULARITY_BIND="/scratch/pc2-mitarbeiter/mawi/:/mawi/:rw"
export CUSTOM_VAR="Hello JupyterHub friend!"
    </prologue>
</JupyterHub_PC2>

Create my own Singularity container

Singularity recipe file

Base recipe

Bootstrap: docker
From: debian
 
%post
  apt update
  apt install -y python3 python3-pip git
  python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
  python3 -m pip install notebook batchspawner jupyterlab

Recipe (with JupyterLab and module extension)

Bootstrap: docker
From: debian

%post

  # base setup
  apt update
  apt install -y wget build-essential python3 python3-pip git procps nodejs npm vim

  # install lua
  apt install -y lua5.3 lua-bit32 lua-posix liblua5.3-0 liblua5.3-dev tcl tcl-dev tcl8.6 tcl8.6-dev libtcl8.6

  # install Lmod
  wget https://github.com/TACC/Lmod/archive/refs/tags/8.4.tar.gz -P /opt/lmod/
  tar -xf /opt/lmod/8.4.tar.gz -C /opt/lmod/
  cd /opt/lmod/Lmod-8.4/
  ./configure --prefix=/opt/apps/
  make install

  echo "module () \n{\n    eval \$(\$LMOD_CMD bash \"\$@\") && eval \$(\${LMOD_SETTARG_CMD:-:} -s sh)\n}" >> /etc/profile

  python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
  python3 -m pip install batchspawner notebook

  # using version 2.2.9 for extension jupyterlab-lmod
  python3 -m pip install jupyterlab==2.2.9

  python3 -m pip install jupyterlmod
  jupyter labextension install jupyterlab-lmod

%environment
  export LMOD_CMD=/opt/apps/lmod/lmod/libexec/lmod

Using Docker stacks

It is also possible to build singularity containers from the official jupyter docker stacks:

https://jupyter-docker-stacks.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Here are more information on how to build a singularity container from DockerHub:

https://sylabs.io/guides/3.7/user-guide/build_a_container.html

Build the container

You can build your container on your host by executing following command:

$ singularity build <container_name>.sif <your_recipe_file>

If you want to build the container on Noctua, you have to use the --remote option:

$ singularity build --remote <container_name>.sif <your_recipe_file>

Container Location

Your new created container can only be placed in your $HOME directory: $HOME/.jupyter/pc2-jupyterhub/

Alternatively you can create a link from your $PC2PFS to your $HOME directory:

$ ls -l /scratch/pc2-mitarbeiter/mawi/jupyter_container.sif
  -rw-r--r--. 1 mawi pc2-mitarbeiter 0 Dec 17 07:53 /scratch/pc2-mitarbeiter/mawi/jupyter_container.sif
$ ln -s /scratch/pc2-mitarbeiter/mawi/jupyter_container.sif $HOME/.jupyter/pc2-jupyterhub/

Mount additional paths into a Singularity container

With the NoctuaSpawner you can use the Prologue textblock to do this.

Just export following environment variable:

export SINGULARITY_BIND="SOURCE:DEST:OPTS,SOURCE:DEST:OPTS,..."

Example

export SINGULARITY_BIND="/scratch/hpc-prf-hpcprj/user/:/myscratch/:rw"

Then /scratch/hpc-prf-hpcprj/user/ would be mount to /myscratch/ (read & write) into the container.

See here for more information: https://sylabs.io/guides/3.7/user-guide/bind_paths_and_mounts.html

Troubleshooting

“Terminals unavailable”

If you have terminado installed in your $HOME directory (pip3 install --user), please make sure that the version of terminado is at least 0.8.3.

PC² Support

If you have any other problems that won’t be solved, please contact the pc2-support@uni-paderborn.de