Networking basics

This section will help you with basic proxy and network configuration to:

  • set the proxy’s IP address and port

  • set the proxy’s REST API URL

  • configure the Hub if the Proxy or Spawners are remote or isolated

  • set the hub_connect_ip which services will use to communicate with the hub

Set the Proxy’s IP address and port

The Proxy’s main IP address setting determines where JupyterHub is available to users. By default, JupyterHub is configured to be available on all network interfaces ('') on port 8000. Note: Use of '*' is discouraged for IP configuration; instead, use of '0.0.0.0' is preferred.

Changing the Proxy’s main IP address and port can be done with the following JupyterHub command line options:

jupyterhub --ip=192.168.1.2 --port=443

Or by placing the following lines in a configuration file, jupyterhub_config.py:

c.JupyterHub.ip = '192.168.1.2'
c.JupyterHub.port = 443

Port 443 is used in the examples since 443 is the default port for SSL/HTTPS.

Configuring only the main IP and port of JupyterHub should be sufficient for most deployments of JupyterHub. However, more customized scenarios may need additional networking details to be configured.

Note that c.JupyterHub.ip and c.JupyterHub.port are single values, not tuples or lists – JupyterHub listens to only a single IP address and port.

Set the Proxy’s REST API communication URL (optional)

By default, this REST API listens on port 8001 of localhost only. The Hub service talks to the proxy via a REST API on a secondary port. The API URL can be configured separately and override the default settings.

Set api_url

The URL to access the API, c.configurableHTTPProxy.api_url, is configurable. An example entry to set the proxy’s API URL in jupyterhub_config.py is:

c.ConfigurableHTTPProxy.api_url = 'http://10.0.1.4:5432'

proxy_api_ip and proxy_api_port (Deprecated in 0.8)

If running the Proxy separate from the Hub, configure the REST API communication IP address and port by adding this to the jupyterhub_config.py file:

# ideally a private network address
c.JupyterHub.proxy_api_ip = '10.0.1.4'
c.JupyterHub.proxy_api_port = 5432

We recommend using the proxy’s api_url setting instead of the deprecated settings, proxy_api_ip and proxy_api_port.

Configure the Hub if the Proxy or Spawners are remote or isolated

The Hub service listens only on localhost (port 8081) by default. The Hub needs to be accessible from both the proxy and all Spawners. When spawning local servers, an IP address setting of localhost is fine.

If either the Proxy or (more likely) the Spawners will be remote or isolated in containers, the Hub must listen on an IP that is accessible.

c.JupyterHub.hub_ip = '10.0.1.4'
c.JupyterHub.hub_port = 54321

Added in 0.8: The c.JupyterHub.hub_connect_ip setting is the ip address or hostname that other services should use to connect to the Hub. A common configuration for, e.g. docker, is:

c.JupyterHub.hub_ip = '0.0.0.0'  # listen on all interfaces
c.JupyterHub.hub_connect_ip = '10.0.1.4'  # ip as seen on the docker network. Can also be a hostname.

Adjusting the hub’s URL

The hub will most commonly be running on a hostname of its own. If it is not – for example, if the hub is being reverse-proxied and being exposed at a URL such as https://proxy.example.org/jupyter/ – then you will need to tell JupyterHub the base URL of the service. In such a case, it is both necessary and sufficient to set c.JupyterHub.base_url = '/jupyter/' in the configuration.

Configuration Basics Security settings