Client-server setup for IPython-Notebook based courses

| Rationale | Alternatives | Benefits | Drawbacks | Quickstart | Requirements | Personal Laptops | Nomenclature |

Rationale

Depending on the Python-ecosystem used in a course, it can be tricky and time-consuming to set up individually all computers to be used by the participants. The client-server setup presented here requires from the clients, usually the machines in a computer-lab and/or personal laptops, no setup that isn't included in most standard modern operating systems. The IPython-interpreters and -Notebooks (one for each client) are run from one virtual environment (virtualenv) on a central server. The setup exploits the web-based nature of the IPython Notebook in that the participants only interact with a browser.

Alternatives

More fancy solutions to the problem would likely involve Docker, jupyterhub and/or tmpnb.

Benefits

• Little set-up time required.

• The server-setup can be kept for the next course.

• Additional modules for a course are installed once and become immediately accessible to all participants.

• All participants work in exactly the same environment.

• Apart from a system Python, and a Python virtual environment in a user account, no additional software needs to be installed on the server.

• Client computers don't need Python/IPython Notebook installed at all.

• Scales well to large numbers of clients.

Drawbacks

• Participants don't necessarily leave with a Python installation on their laptops that would allow them to continue programming after the course. This could be remedied by offering an after-course installation event.

• Not tested (yet) whether that works with Windows clients.

Quickstart

1. Check that your computing infrastructure fulfils the Requirements.

2. Create one account on each computer-lab client, exclusively to be used for the course. The usernames should be different on each machine and will correspond to one (or a team of two) participants. These accounts need passwords.

3. Log into an administration account on the server.

4. Clone the repository on github, e.g.:

   git clone https://github.com/C2SM/ipython-workshop-setup.git ./setup
   

   or click the "Download ZIP" - button on the GitHub page and uncompress.

5. Modify the file clients-template.txt and save it as clients.txt. The format of the file is:

   • The first line contains instructor_un@server, where "instructor_un" is a username for a special ("instructor") account on the server, and "server" stands for its FQDN, e.g., "climserv.dept.university.ch".
   • From the second line on, the first row contains participantX@clientX, where "participantX" stands for a participant's username and "clientX" stands for the corresponding client-machine, e.g. "part05@client05.mylab.mydomain.tld".
   • The second row contains the corresponding passwords (of the client accounts).
   • The third row contains "participantX@server", indicating the accounts on the server, which correspond to the client accounts. These accounts will be generated automatically!.
   • Include participants who bring their own laptop by writing personal_laptop in the first column, an arbitrary dummy_password in the second one (not used) and an ordinary client account descriptor in the third column.
   • Fields (columns) are separated by exactly one space!
   • You can include a line that associates the instructor-account on the server with a client-machine account. This way you (as instructor) will have a setup identical to the participants. Do this by adding the appropriate line anywhere below the first line.

6. Run mk_server_accounts.sh. This will create the instructor- and participant-accounts on the server, install a virtualenv in the instructor-account, and install the necessary packages in this virtualenv ("necessary packages" as defined in requirements.txt).

7. Run cpkeys.sh. This will create ssh key pairs on the clients, and copy the public key to .ssh/authorized_keys in the respective accounts on server.

8. Run clientprep.sh. This will customize the startup_template.txt and copy it as startup.sh into each client's $HOME.

9. Copy your course Notebooks into the home-directories of the server-accounts.

10. Test the installation: Log into a client-account and run ./startup.sh. this should start an Ipython-Notebook instance in the virtualenv but on the corresponding server-participant-account, do the ssh-forwarding thing, and - after some seconds - start Firefox pointed at the Notebook. Try simultaneously with different client accounts.

Requirements

Clients

• The clients need only basic networking capabilities (ssh), a browser, a POSIX CLI (e.g. bash), and some standard POSIX utilities (sed, grep, cut, netstat). All OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, etc. systems should work out-of-the box. Windows clients would probably work with Cygwin installed, but this is not (yet) tested. Let me know in case you find something out!

• The (computer-lab) clients need to be reachable via ssh from the server

• You need administrative powers on the (computer-lab) clients to be able to set up accounts.

Server

• The server needs a modern system-Python (it needs to match the versions of the modules you use in the course and the IPython-Notebook version).
  We assume that the path to the interpreter is /usr/bin/python2.7. If that is not the case, please edit in mk_server_accounts.sh the line: virtualenv -p /usr/bin/python2.7

• You need administrator rights on that server. You need to have an account that lets you do passwordless sudo.

• The server must be reachable via ssh by the clients.

Personal Laptops

There should have been created server-accounts for the laptop users. (see the keyword personal_laptop in clients.txt).

1. Collect ssh public keys from the laptop-users. If necessary have them create a key-pair using ssh-keygen.

2. Move each public key to the file $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys in the $HOME of respective server-account.

3. Copy startup_template.txt to startup.sh on each laptop client and replace "__user__" with the respective server-account (e.g. "part08@cimserv.dept.university.tld"), and replace "__instructor_home__" with the home directory of the instructor account on the server (e.g. /home/instructor).

A helper script to set up participants' personal laptops in a more automated fashion is in the works.

Nomenclature

client-machine: A machine used by one or two participants. Might be a computer-lab machine or a personal laptop. Identified by FQDN, e.g., client05.mylab.mydomain.tld.

administration account: An account that lets you sudo to root-privileges non-interactively.

server: A machine on which the Python interpreter, Ipython, Notebook, and a virtual environment responding to the necessities of the teaching material are installed. All Notebook instances are run on this machine.