Notebook Servers

Basically Jupyter already runs as a server on your local machine, but now there are a bunch of other ways to run "notebooks".

I am looking at alternatives to the ArcGIS Notebook Server because it's $20000 + $5000/year for what appears to be basically a Docker manager. Esri uses the commercial version of Docker, that means they have to license it from Mirantis.

I've never had a need to license Docker, I just use the community version.

I started making a list of options but then I found https://datasciencenotebook.org/ which was created by someone at the Deepnote project.

My requirements

1. Must support Conda so that I can install arcgis.
2. Can I schedule jobs to run?
3. Is there a dark mode?
4. Can I store notebooks in git?

Okay maybe the last one is not a requirement.

I just decided to look at Deepnote first. It's running already on someone else's server.

Deepnote

They don't charge for it, so does it do what I need?

YES in fact it appears to check all the boxes. I have not tried storing a project in Github or running a local copy yet.

I used my brian32768@github account to access it.

I was able to run an arcgis task in it.

Can I install arcgis module?

Of course you can.

Create a notebook and install conda:

# 1. Install Conda and make Conda packages available in current environment

!wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
!chmod +x Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh
!sudo bash ./Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh -b -f -p /usr/local

import sys
sys.path.append('/usr/local/lib/python3.7/site-packages/')

Install a package:

!sudo conda install -y arcgis -c esri

Use it:

from arcgis import gis as GIS
gis = GIS(portal="", username="", password="")
cm = gis.content
maps = cm.search("", item_type='Web Map', outside_org=False,max_items=-1)
thismap = 0
for map in maps:
    thismap += 1
    print(f"{thismap}: {map.title}")

Okay, so that took all of 10 minutes.

Point goes to Deepnote.

What about scheduling?

Yes, another point for Deepnote. See How to schedule a notebook

Running locally

In theory I can run in a Docker, but I have to set up access to the Google docker repos.

Put this in a Dockerfile

FROM gcr.io/deepnote-200602/templates/deepnote
RUN wget https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-Linux-x86_64.sh -O ~/miniconda.sh
RUN bash ~/miniconda.sh -b -p $HOME/miniconda
ENV PATH $HOME/miniconda/bin:$PATH
RUN conda install python=3.7 ipykernel -y
RUN conda install <insert packages here> -y
RUN python -m ipykernel install --user --name=conda
ENV DEFAULT_KERNEL_NAME "conda"

docker build -t deepnote .

It fails because I don't have access to the Google data. See https://docs.deepnote.com/integrations/google-container-repository

Git integration

You can store projects in github. https://docs.deepnote.com/integrations/github

Zeppelin

https://zeppelin.apache.org/

docker run -p 8080:8080 --rm --name zeppelin apache/zeppelin:0.10.0

Okay now what -- that worked. I can type Python in a browser window and run it.