Running a notebook server

The Jupyter notebook <notebook> web application is based on a server-client structure. The notebook server uses a two-process kernel architecture <ipython:ipythonzmq> based on ZeroMQ, as well as Tornado for serving HTTP requests.

Note

By default, a notebook server runs locally at 127.0.0.1:8888 and is accessible only from localhost. You may access the notebook server from the browser using http://127.0.0.1:8888.

This document describes how you can secure a notebook server <notebook_server_security> and how to run it on a public interface <notebook_public_server>.

Securing a notebook server

You can protect your notebook server with a simple single password by configuring the NotebookApp.password setting in jupyter_notebook_config.py.

Preparing a hashed password

You can prepare a hashed password using the function notebook.auth.security.passwd:

In [1]: from notebook.auth import passwd
In [2]: passwd()
Enter password:
Verify password:
Out[2]: 'sha1:67c9e60bb8b6:9ffede0825894254b2e042ea597d771089e11aed'

Caution

~notebook.auth.security.passwd when called with no arguments will prompt you to enter and verify your password such as in the above code snippet. Although the function can also be passed a string as an argument such as passwd('mypassword'), please do not pass a string as an argument inside an IPython session, as it will be saved in your input history.

Adding hashed password to your notebook configuration file

You can then add the hashed password to your jupyter_notebook_config.py. The default location for this file jupyter_notebook_config.py in your Jupyter folder in your home directory, ~/.jupyter. e.g.:

# Get notebook configuration and add hashed password
c = get_config()
c.NotebookApp.password =
u'sha1:67c9e60bb8b6:9ffede0825894254b2e042ea597d771089e11aed'

Using SSL for encrypted communication

When using a password, it is a good idea to also use SSL with a web certificate, so that your hashed password is not sent unencrypted by your browser.

Important

Web security is rapidly changing and evolving. We provide this document as a convenience to the user, and recommend that the user keep current on changes that may impact security, such as new releases of OpenSSL. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) website is a good resource on general security issues and web practices.

You can start the notebook to communicate via a secure protocol mode by setting the certfile option to your self-signed certificate, i.e. mycert.pem, with the command:

$ jupyter notebook --certfile=mycert.pem

Tip

A self-signed certificate can be generated with openssl. For example, the following command will create a certificate valid for 365 days with both the key and certificate data written to the same file:

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

When starting the notebook server, your browser may warn that your self-signed certificate is insecure or unrecognized. If you wish to have a fully compliant self-signed certificate that will not raise warnings, it is possible (but rather involved) to create one, as explained in detail in this tutorial.

Keep in mind that when you enable SSL support, you will need to access the notebook server over https://, not over plain http://. The startup message from the server prints a reminder in the console, but it is easy to overlook this detail and think the server is for some reason non-responsive. When using SSL, always access the notebook server with ``https://``.

Running a public notebook server

If you want to access your notebook server remotely via a web browser, you can do the following.

Start by creating a certificate file and a hashed password, as explained above. Then, if you don't already have one, create a config file for the notebook using the following command line:

$ jupyter notebook --generate-config

In the ~/.jupyter directory, edit the notebook config file, jupyter_notebook_config.py. By default, the file has all fields commented; the minimum set you need to uncomment and edit is the following:

c = get_config()

# Notebook config
c.NotebookApp.certfile = u'/absolute/path/to/your/certificate/mycert.pem'
c.NotebookApp.ip = '*'
c.NotebookApp.open_browser = False
c.NotebookApp.password = u'sha1:bcd259ccf...[your hashed password here]'
# It is a good idea to put it on a known, fixed port
c.NotebookApp.port = 9999

You can then start the notebook and access it later by pointing your browser to https://your.host.com:9999 with jupyter notebook.

Firewall Setup

To function correctly, the firewall on the computer running the ipython server must be configured to allow connections from client machines on the c.NotebookApp.port port to allow connections to the web interface. The firewall must also allow connections from 127.0.0.1 (localhost) on ports from 49152 to 65535. These ports are used by the server to communicate with the notebook kernels. The kernel communication ports are chosen randomly by ZeroMQ, and may require multiple connections per kernel, so a large range of ports must be accessible.

Running with a different URL prefix

The notebook dashboard (the landing page with an overview of the notebooks in your working directory) typically lives at the URL http://localhost:8888/. If you prefer that it lives, together with the rest of the notebook, under a sub-directory, e.g. http://localhost:8888/ipython/, you can do so with configuration options like the following (see above for instructions about modifying jupyter_notebook_config.py):

c.NotebookApp.base_url = '/ipython/'
c.NotebookApp.webapp_settings = {'static_url_prefix':'/ipython/static/'}

Known issues

When behind a proxy, especially if your system or browser is set to autodetect the proxy, the notebook web application might fail to connect to the server's websockets, and present you with a warning at startup. In this case, you need to configure your system not to use the proxy for the server's address.

For example, in Firefox, go to the Preferences panel, Advanced section, Network tab, click 'Settings...', and add the address of the notebook server to the 'No proxy for' field.

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