Posted on: 13 Sep 2023

I am usually running analyses on a remote server, which I thought was not easily compatible with using jupyter lab.

The truth is: I was wrong. It is very easy to launch a jupyter lab server in a remote computer (e.g. via a ssh connection), and access it from a laptop in a browser with a GUI. I am sharing the solution here, mainly because I want to remember it, I hope it may also help you.

So here are the steps:

1. Login via ssh to the remote server and launch jupyter lab
2. In the local computer, open a terminal and start a ssh tunnel:

   ssh -N -L 8888:localhost:8888 user@remotehost
   

   The 8888 port is the common jupyter lab port. If your jupyter lab is using another port, change it accordingly in the command.

3. Open localhost:8888 in your browser, and voila!

Note: jupyter lab may start with a token, in this case paste localhost:8888/?token=THETOKEN in your browser (the token is given when jupyter lab starts).

Note: I am using snakemake and the great possibility to use jupyter notebooks in it. When I use the --edit-notebook option on the remote server, I then simply need to use the ssh tunnel to edit my notebook in my browser. Very convenient!