Running the Notebook Server¶

The IPython notebook server is a custom web server that runs the notebook web application. Most of the time, users run the notebook server on their local computer using IPython's command line interface.

Starting the notebook server using the command line¶

You can start the notebook server from the command line (Terminal on Mac/Linux, CMD prompt on Windows) by running the following command:

ipython notebook

This will print some information about the notebook server in your console, including the URL of the web application (by default, http://127.0.0.1:8888). It will then open your default web browser to this URL.

When the notebook opens, you will see the notebook dashboard, which will show a list of the notebooks and subdirectories in the directory where the notebook server was started. As of IPython 2.0, the dashboard allows you to navigate to different subdirectories. Because of this, it is no longer necessary to start a separate notebook server for each subdirectory. Most of the time, you will want to start a notebook server in the highest directory in your filesystem where notebooks can be found. Often this will be your home directory.

You can start more than one notebook server at the same time. By default, the first notebook server starts on port 8888 and later notebook servers search for open ports near that one.

You can also specify the port manually:

ipython notebook --port 9999

Or start notebook server without opening a web browser.

ipython notebook --no-browser

The notebook server has a number of other command line arguments that can be displayed with the --help flag:

ipython notebook --help

Configuring the IPython Notebook¶

The notebook web server can also be configured using IPython profiles and configuration files. The Notebook web server configuration options are set in a file named ipython_notebook_config.py in your IPython profile directory. The profile directory is a subfolder of your IPython directory, which itself is usually .ipython in your home directory.

You can display the location of your default profile directory by running the command:

ipython locate

The default version of ipython_notebook_config.py lists all of the options available along with documentation for each. Changes made to that file will affect all notebook servers run under that profile. Command line options always override those set in configuration files.

More details about IPython configuration files and profiles can be found here.

Securing the notebook server¶

The IPython Notebook allows arbitrary code execution on the computer running it. Thus, the notebook web server should never be run on the open internet without first securing it. By default, the notebook server only listens on local network interface (127.0.0.1) There are two steps required to secure the notebook server:

1. Setting a password
2. Encrypt network traffic using SSL

You can protect your notebook server with a simple single password by setting the NotebookApp.password configurable. You can prepare a hashed password using the function IPython.lib.security.passwd:

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

You can then add this to your ipython_notebook_config.py:

# Password to use for web authentication
c = get_config()
c.NotebookApp.password = 
u'sha1:67c9e60bb8b6:9ffede0825894254b2e042ea597d771089e11aed'

When using a password, it is a good idea to also use SSL, so that your password is not sent unencrypted by your browser. You can start the notebook to communicate via a secure protocol mode using a self-signed certificate with the command::

$ ipython notebook --certfile=mycert.pem

.. note::

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

Your browser will warn you of a dangerous certificate because it is self-signed. If you want to have a fully compliant certificate that will not raise warnings, it is possible (but rather involved) to obtain one, as explained in detail in this tutorial__.

.. __: http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2009/12/how-to-get-set-with-a-secure-sertificate-for-free.ars
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 this, but it is easy to overlook and think the server is for some reason non-responsive.

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 create a custom profile for the notebook, with the following command line, type::

$ ipython profile create nbserver

In the profile directory just created, edit the file ipython_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()

 # Kernel config
 c.IPKernelApp.pylab = 'inline'  # if you want plotting support always

 # 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 ipython notebook --profile=nbserver.

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 ipython_notebook_config.py)::

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

Using a different notebook store¶

By default, the notebook server stores the notebook documents that it saves as files in the working directory of the notebook server, also known as the notebook_dir. This logic is implemented in the :class:FileNotebookManager class. However, the server can be configured to use a different notebook manager class, which can store the notebooks in a different format.

The bookstore_ package currently allows users to store notebooks on Rackspace CloudFiles or OpenStack Swift based object stores.

Writing a notebook manager is as simple as extending the base class :class:NotebookManager. The simple_notebook_manager_ provides a great example of an in memory notebook manager, created solely for the purpose of illustrating the notebook manager API.

.. _bookstore: https://github.com/rgbkrk/bookstore

.. _simple_notebook_manager: https://github.com/khinsen/simple_notebook_manager

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.