Jupyter Notebook and JupyterLab

Owned by Giang Rudderham
Last updated: Jan 04, 2024 by Cody Johnson
3 min read

In this page:


Information About the Update

1. What is the change?

Starting on December 30, 2022, the default interface on IDAS will change from Jupyter Notebook to JupyterLab. Please note this only affects the default interface at log in. Both Jupyter Notebook and JupyterLab will still be available on IDAS, and users can easily switch between Jupyter Notebook and JupyterLab. Please see the sections below for the steps to switch between Jupyter Notebook and JupyterLab on IDAS.

2. Whom will be affected?

This will impact both research and classroom users on IDAS. However, if a user chooses an RStudio instance at log in, they will not notice any difference.

3. Why do we make this change?

Project Jupyter, the community that builds Jupyter Notebook, released JupyterLab as its latest web-based user interface. Project Jupyter has stated that JupyterLab would eventually replace the original Jupyter Notebook. Switching the default interface on IDAS from Jupyter Notebook to JupyterLab will allow our team to add additional plugins to IDAS, troubleshoot issues more easily, and make a better experience for the users.

Specific Notes About Accessing IDAS

Research Users - Accessing Jupyter Notebook and JupyterLab 

If you use the "Interactive Research" instance on IDAS:

Research Users - Accessing RStudio

If you use the "Interactive Research" instance on IDAS, you can access RStudio in 2 ways.

1. Option 1: You can choose RStudio as the default interface when you log in to IDAS. Please follow the steps in the section Accessing RStudio for R. 

2. Option 2: You can choose Jupyter Lab as the default interface and still have access to R in IDAS. To do so, choose an R option under "IDAS Image" when you log in to IDAS:

    a. After logging in, you will see a JupyterLab interface.

    b. To launch RStudio, click the RStudio tile:


Classroom Users - Accessing Jupyter Notebook and JupyterLab 

If you use one of the course instances on IDAS: 

1. Log in to your course instance on IDAS - https://notebooks.hpc.uiowa.edu/.

2. After logging in, if your course uses JupyterLab (instead of RStudio), you will find that the URL for your IDAS course instance has the below format. 

https://notebooks.hpc.uiowa.edu/CLASS-NUMBER/user/HAWKID/lab/

3. To access Jupyter Notebook, change the end of the URL above from "lab" to "tree":

https://notebooks.hpc.uiowa.edu/CLASS-NUMBER/user/HAWKID/tree/

Classroom Users - Accessing RStudio 

If you use one of the course instances on IDAS, the instructor of the course decides the default interface that you see at log in.

1. Option 1: If the instructor decides to use RStudio as the default interface, you will see RStudio after you log in to your course instance on IDAS.

2. Option 2: If the instructor decides to use JupyterLab as the default interface (and still use R for the course), you can launch RStudio by clicking on the RStudio tile in JupyterLab:

Contact

If you have any questions or comments, please contact ITS - Research Services at research-computing@uiowa.edu.