Chapter 4. Using the Jupyter application
Red Hat OpenShift AI provides access to Jupyter as an enabled application for situations where, for example, you do not want users to have their own data science projects or you want to open a notebook that was developed outside of OpenShift AI and has no dependencies on other environments.
Note that the preferred way to access Jupyter on OpenShift AI is through a data science project, as described in Creating a workbench. The advantages to using an OpenShift AI data science project and creating a workbench that includes Jupyter, is that your project organizes your data science work in one place and adds functionality such as data connections so that you can access data and save your models and pipelines for automating your ML workflow.
4.1. Starting a Jupyter notebook server
Jupyter is based on a server-client architecture. The Jupyter notebook server runs in a container on the Red Hat OpenShift cluster. The client is the JupyterLab interface that opens in your web browser on your local computer. However, all of the commands that you enter in JupyterLab are executed by the notebook server. This architecture allows you to interact through your local computer in a browser environment, while all processing occurs on the cluster. The cluster provides the benefits of larger available resources and security because the data being processed never leaves the cluster.
From the Jupyter application tile, you can start a Jupyter notebook server. If you require extra power for use with large datasets, you can assign accelerators to your notebook server to optimize performance.
Prerequisites
- You are logged in to Red Hat OpenShift AI.
- You are starting Jupyter for the first time or you stopped your notebook server.
-
You know the names and values you want to use for any environment variables in your notebook server environment, for example,
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY
. - If you want to work with a large data set, work with your administrator to proactively increase the storage capacity of your notebook server. If applicable, also consider assigning accelerators to your notebook server.
Procedure
- In the left navigation pane, click Applications > Enabled.
- Locate the Jupyter tile on the Enabled applications page.
Click Launch application.
If you see an Access permission needed message, you are not in the default user group or the default administrator group for OpenShift AI. Ask your administrator to add you to the correct group by using Adding users.
If you have not previously authorized the
jupyter-nb-<username>
service account to access your account, the Authorize Access page appears prompting you to provide authorization. Inspect the permissions selected by default, and click the Allow selected permissions button.If your credentials are accepted, the Notebook server control panel opens displaying the Start a notebook server page.
Start a notebook server.
In the Notebook image section, select the notebook image to use for your server.
Different notebook images have different packages installed by default. Click the help icon (?) next to a notebook image name to view a list of its included packages.
If the notebook image contains multiple versions, select the version of the notebook image from the Versions section.
NoteWhen a new version of a notebook image is released, the previous version remains available and supported on the cluster. This gives you time to migrate your work to the latest version of the notebook image.
- From the Container size list, select a suitable container size for your server.
- Optional: From the Accelerator list, select an accelerator.
If you selected an accelerator in the preceding step, specify the number of accelerators to use.
ImportantUsing accelerators is only supported with specific notebook images. For GPUs, only the PyTorch, TensorFlow, and CUDA notebook images are supported. For Habana Gaudi devices, only the HabanaAI notebook image is supported. In addition, you can only specify the number of accelerators required for your notebook server if accelerators are enabled on your cluster. To learn how to enable GPU support, see Enabling GPU support in OpenShift AI.
Optional: Select and specify values for any new Environment variables.
The interface stores these variables so that you only need to enter them once. Example variable names for common environment variables are automatically provided for frequently integrated environments and frameworks, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS).
ImportantSelect the Secret checkbox for variables with sensitive values that must remain private, such as passwords.
- Optional: Check Start server in current tab.
Click Start server.
The Starting server progress indicator appears. Click Expand event log to view additional information about the server creation process. Depending on the deployment size and resources you requested, starting the server can take up to several minutes. Only click Cancel if you want to cancel the server creation.
After the server starts, you see one of the following behaviors:
- If you selected Start server in current tab in the preceding step, the JupyterLab interface opens in the current tab of your web browser.
- If you did not select Start server in current tab in the preceding step, the Starting server dialog box prompts you to open the server in a new browser tab or in the current browser tab.
Verification
- The JupyterLab interface opens.
Troubleshooting
- If you see the "Unable to load notebook server configuration options" error message, contact your administrator so that they can review the logs associated with your Jupyter pod and determine further details about the problem.
4.2. Creating and importing notebooks
You can create a blank notebook or import a notebook from several different sources.
4.2.1. Creating a new notebook
You can create a new Jupyter notebook from an existing notebook container image to access its resources and properties. The Notebook server control panel contains a list of available container images that you can run as a single-user notebook server.
Prerequisites
- Ensure that you have logged in to Red Hat OpenShift AI.
- Ensure that you have launched your notebook server and logged in to JupyterLab.
- The notebook image exists in a registry, image stream, and is accessible.
Procedure
-
Click File
New Notebook. If prompted, select a kernel for your notebook from the list.
If you want to use a kernel, click Select. If you do not want to use a kernel, click No Kernel.
Verification
- Check that the notebook file is visible in the JupyterLab interface.
4.2.2. Uploading an existing notebook file from local storage
You can load an existing notebook from local storage into JupyterLab to continue work, or adapt a project for a new use case.
Prerequisites
- Credentials for logging in to JupyterLab.
- A launched and running Jupyter notebook server.
- A notebook file exists in your local storage.
Procedure
- In the File Browser in the left sidebar of the JupyterLab interface, click Upload Files ( ).
Locate and select the notebook file and click Open.
The file is displayed in the File Browser.
Verification
- The notebook file displays in the File Browser in the left sidebar of the JupyterLab interface.
- You can open the notebook file in JupyterLab.
4.3. Collaborating on notebooks by using Git
If your notebooks or other files are stored in Git version control, you can import them from a Git repository onto your notebook server to work with them in JupyterLab. When you are ready, you can push your changes back to the Git repository so that others can review or use your models.
4.3.1. Uploading an existing notebook file from a Git repository by using JupyterLab
You can use the JupyterLab user interface to clone a Git repository into your workspace to continue your work or integrate files from an external project.
Prerequisites
- A launched and running Jupyter notebook server.
- Read access for the Git repository you want to clone.
Procedure
Copy the HTTPS URL for the Git repository.
-
On GitHub, click ⤓ Code
HTTPS and click the Clipboard button. - On GitLab, click Clone and click the Clipboard button under Clone with HTTPS.
-
On GitHub, click ⤓ Code
In the JupyterLab interface, click the Git Clone button ( ).
You can also click Git
Clone a repository in the menu, or click the Git icon ( ) and click the Clone a repository button. The Clone a repo dialog appears.
- Enter the HTTPS URL of the repository that contains your notebook.
- Click CLONE.
- If prompted, enter your username and password for the Git repository.
Verification
- Check that the contents of the repository are visible in the file browser in JupyterLab, or run the ls command in the terminal to verify that the repository is shown as a directory.
4.3.2. Uploading an existing notebook file from a Git repository by using the command line interface
You can use the command line interface to clone a Git repository into your workspace to continue your work or integrate files from an external project.
Prerequisites
- A launched and running Jupyter notebook server.
Procedure
Copy the HTTPS URL for the Git repository.
-
On GitHub, click ⤓ Code
HTTPS and click the Clipboard button. - On GitLab, click Clone and click the Clipboard button under Clone with HTTPS.
-
On GitHub, click ⤓ Code
-
In JupyterLab, click File
New Terminal to open a terminal window. Enter the
git clone
command.git clone <git-clone-URL>
Replace `<git-clone-URL>` with the HTTPS URL, for example:
[1234567890@jupyter-nb-jdoe ~]$ git clone https://github.com/example/myrepo.git Cloning into myrepo... remote: Enumerating objects: 11, done. remote: Counting objects: 100% (11/11), done. remote: Compressing objects: 100% (10/10), done. remote: Total 2821 (delta 1), reused 5 (delta 1), pack-reused 2810 Receiving objects: 100% (2821/2821), 39.17 MiB | 23.89 MiB/s, done. Resolving deltas: 100% (1416/1416), done.
Verification
- Check that the contents of the repository are visible in the file browser in JupyterLab, or run the ls command in the terminal to verify that the repository is shown as a directory.
4.3.3. Updating your project with changes from a remote Git repository
You can pull changes made by other users into your data science project from a remote Git repository.
Prerequisites
- You have configured the remote Git repository.
- You have already imported the Git repository into JupyterLab, and the contents of the repository are visible in the file browser in JupyterLab.
- You have permissions to pull files from the remote Git repository to your local repository.
- You have credentials for logging in to Jupyter.
- You have a launched and running Jupyter server.
Procedure
- In the JupyterLab interface, click the Git button ( ).
- Click the Pull latest changes button ( ).
Verification
- You can view the changes pulled from the remote repository in the History tab of the Git pane.
4.3.4. Pushing project changes to a Git repository
To build and deploy your application in a production environment, upload your work to a remote Git repository.
Prerequisites
- You have opened a notebook in the JupyterLab interface.
- You have already added the relevant Git repository to your notebook server.
- You have permission to push changes to the relevant Git repository.
- You have installed the Git version control extension.
Procedure
-
Click File
Save All to save any unsaved changes. - Click the Git icon ( ) to open the Git pane in the JupyterLab interface.
Confirm that your changed files appear under Changed.
If your changed files appear under Untracked, click Git
Simple Staging to enable a simplified Git process. Commit your changes.
- Ensure that all files under Changed have a blue checkmark beside them.
- In the Summary field, enter a brief description of the changes you made.
- Click Commit.
-
Click Git
Push to Remote to push your changes to the remote repository. - When prompted, enter your Git credentials and click OK.
Verification
- Your most recently pushed changes are visible in the remote Git repository.
4.4. Managing Python packages
In JupyterLab, you can view the Python packages that are installed on your notebook image and install additional packages.
4.4.1. Viewing Python packages installed on your notebook server
You can check which Python packages are installed on your notebook server and which version of the package you have by running the pip
tool in a notebook cell.
Prerequisites
- Log in to JupyterLab and open a notebook.
Procedure
Enter the following in a new cell in your notebook:
!pip list
- Run the cell.
Verification
The output shows an alphabetical list of all installed Python packages and their versions. For example, if you use this command immediately after creating a notebook server that uses the Minimal image, the first packages shown are similar to the following:
Package Version --------------------------------- ---------- aiohttp 3.7.3 alembic 1.5.2 appdirs 1.4.4 argo-workflows 3.6.1 argon2-cffi 20.1.0 async-generator 1.10 async-timeout 3.0.1 attrdict 2.0.1 attrs 20.3.0 backcall 0.2.0
Additional resources
4.4.2. Installing Python packages on your notebook server
You can install Python packages that are not part of the default notebook server by adding the package and the version to a requirements.txt
file and then running the pip install
command in a notebook cell.
You can also install packages directly, but Red Hat recommends using a requirements.txt
file so that the packages stated in the file can be easily re-used across different notebooks. In addition, using a requirements.txt
file is also useful when using a S2I build to deploy a model.
Prerequisites
- Log in to JupyterLab and open a notebook.
Procedure
Create a new text file using one of the following methods:
- Click + to open a new launcher and click Text file.
-
Click File
New Text File.
Rename the text file to
requirements.txt
.- Right-click on the name of the file and click Rename Text. The Rename File dialog opens.
-
Enter
requirements.txt
in the New Name field and click Rename.
Add the packages to install to the
requirements.txt
file.altair
You can specify the exact version to install by using the
==
(equal to) operator, for example:altair==4.1.0
NoteRed Hat recommends specifying exact package versions to enhance the stability of your notebook server over time. New package versions can introduce undesirable or unexpected changes in your environment’s behavior.
To install multiple packages at the same time, place each package on a separate line.
Install the packages in
requirements.txt
to your server using a notebook cell.Create a new cell in your notebook and enter the following command:
!pip install -r requirements.txt
- Run the cell by pressing Shift and Enter.
ImportantThis command installs the package on your notebook server, but you must still run the
import
directive in a code cell to use the package in your code.import altair
Verification
-
Confirm that the packages in
requirements.txt
appear in the list of packages installed on the notebook server. See Viewing Python packages installed on your notebook server for details.
4.5. Updating notebook server settings by restarting your server
You can update the settings on your notebook server by stopping and relaunching the notebook server. For example, if your server runs out of memory, you can restart the server to make the container size larger.
Prerequisites
- A running notebook server.
- Log in to JupyterLab.
Procedure
Click File
Hub Control Panel. The Notebook server control panel opens.
Click the Stop notebook server button.
The Stop server dialog opens.
Click Stop server to confirm your decision.
The Start a notebook server page opens.
- Update the relevant notebook server settings and click Start server.
Verification
- The notebook server starts and contains your updated settings.