We can run Jupyter Notebook remotely on a server to run large computing jobs, which cost a lot of memory, CPU or time. You can log in the remote server, e.g.,

ssh <your_account_name>@maxwell.ielm.ust.hk

Create a notebook configuration file

Use the following command to generate a configure file jupyter_notebook_config.py, whose default parent directory is ~/.jupyter

jupyter notebook --generate-config

Generate a hashed password

Open Python from terminal and use the following commands to obtain your hashed password:

python
>>> from notebook.auth import passwd
>>> passwd()
Enter password:
Verrfy password:
'sha1:xxx...'

Use SSL for security

You can secure the connection (https://) using a self-sighed certificate:

openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 365 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout mykey.key -out mycert.pem

This command requires you to enter some personal information and one password for future use (login the Maxwell on your laptop, brwoser password). It will also generate two files mykey.key and mycert.pem in the current directory.

Run a public notebook server

This step would let you access notebook on maxwell via a web brwser. Open the configuration file via following command:

vim ~/.jupyter/.jupyter/jupyter_notebook_config.py

Find the following lines, make corresponding changes and uncomment them:

## The full path to an SSL/TLS certificate file.
c.NotebookApp.certfile = u'./mycert.pem'

## The IP address the notebook server will listen on.
c.NotebookApp.ip = '*'

## The full path to a private key file for usage with SSL/TLS.
c.NotebookApp.keyfile = u'./mykey.key'

c.NotebookApp.password = u'sha1:xxx...<your hashed password>'

c.NotebookApp.open_browser = False

## The port the notebook server will listen on.
c.NotebookApp.port = 9999

Save and exit.

After above settings, you can start the notebook using the jupyter notebook command. Open your brwoser, e.g, Safari, go to https://maxwell.ielm.sut.hk:9999 It needs your password to access (the password created via SSL).

Remark

  1. The default location of mycert.pem and mykey.key is in the home directory ~/if you use the above seeting. Acturally, you can move them to other directory, e.g., ~/.jupyter/, then edit the addresses of certfile and keyfile in configuration file (see above).
  2. In the above example, I used the port 9999, this is my port, you can choose one from 9991, 9993-9994, 9996-9997, these ones are avaiable now.
    • Ergang used 9998, Halilun used 9995, Qing used 9990, and I used 9992, 9999.
  3. You can use nohup command if you still want to use the notebook on Maxwell after you close the notebook terminal window, e.g., 
      nohup jupyter notebook > log &

    If you want to kill it later, use kill $(pgrep jupyter).

That’s it, enjoy running Python notebook remotely on Maxwell.