JupyerHub Guide

JupyterHub Guide

This is a short guide to create and run the notbooks and environments in the JupiterHub for the Master course Microwave Remote Sensing (120.030) at the TU Wien.

Starting JupyterHub

In TUWEL, click on the JupyterHub icon JupyterHub Icon, which redirects you to your own JupyterLab user environment. You should then select the Server for the Desktop Notebook from the Microwave Remote Sensing course. Be patient - this can take a couple of minutes.

Please note that all screenshots in this guide refer to the lecture 120.030 Microwave Remote Sensing (2024W), even if a few things are different for you, the overall functionality and interface remain the same.

Exploring JupyterLab

When you start your server for the first time, your point of entry will be this starting page:

In the center, you have the Launcher where you can create Python or other files, play around with Jupyter Notebooks, store intermediate data. You can also open a Python console, a terminal, a text file, and many more. On the left, you can see your home directory where you have the folders lectures and shared. There might be other folders as well, but don’t be concerned about them.

After some intense coding and analysis, it can happen that you have many terminal and notebook tabs open. However, simply closing them does not quit the processes and running kernels in the background. Therefore, we recommend that you tidy up your running processes after some time, which can be done as marked by the top-left circle. As an overview, the number of running kernels and terminals are always shown at the bottom-left corner.

Setup of Exercise Environment

To use the Notebooks from the course, the following steps need to be taken:

  1. Navigate to the folder ~/shared/120.030-2024W/ where you should find a Makefile and a README.md.

  1. At this level, you should open a Terminal using the Launcher and run the command

    make notebooks

    Wait until the installation is finished - this can take a couple of minutes.

  2. The notebooks and an environment, where the important packages and all their dependencies are included, have been installed for you.

  3. It might be necessary to re-login to the JupyterHub to see it coming into effect.

  4. Now you should see a folder named microwave-remote-sensing containing the notebooks and additional kernels in the Launcher of JupyterLab.

  1. Select the kernel mrs-env kernel for execution of the code blocks in the notebook.

 

In case you could not select the correct server and could not find the folder from step one, you might be in the wrong server. You can change your server by selecting

File -> Hub Control Panel

and clicking on Stop My Server.

Then press Start My Server and you should be able to select the “Desktop Notebook” for the “120.030-2024W: 120.030 Microwave Remote Sensing” course.

Removing Exercise Environment

To remove the exercise notebooks as well as the Jupyter kernel Launch a terminal from ~/shared/120.030-2024W/ and type:

make delete

Editing Jupyter Notebooks

The homework exercises of the course are labeled as homework_exercise.ipynb. You are supposed to use these notebooks for the homework assignments and the completed notebooks should be submitted through TUWEL. The notebooks consist of two types of cells: Python and Markdown cells. Python cells contain executable Python code, whereas Markdown cells are used for open text and multiple choice questions. Double click on an existing cell to alter its content. To add new cells click select the cell type from the drop-down menu and click on the plus sign, as follows for Python cells:

And for Markdown cells:

For the multiple choice questions double click on the Markdown cell and replace the correct answers, as follows:

- [ ] Original
- [x] Selected answer

To save your work use the drop-down menu under File and select Save Notebook or use the shortcut CTRL + S.