iPython notebook can't connect to kernel on google-compute-engine

Question

I've been trying to get ipython/jupyter notebook running as a notebook server on Google Compute Engine (Ubuntu 14.04 VM), but can't connect to the Python kernel.

I started with the latest Anaconda distribution. I can connect to the notebook server from my local machine via the web, browse the directory tree of the VM, and create new notebook, but never connects to the kernel (orange message in the upper right of Jupyter). The notebook port (8888) is open in the firewall settings. iPython notebook returns the following:

[I 19:21:10.152 NotebookApp] Using MathJax from CDN: https://cdn.mathjax.org/mathjax/latest/MathJax.js
[I 19:21:10.169 NotebookApp] Serving notebooks from local directory: /home/rattlerray
[I 19:21:10.170 NotebookApp] 0 active kernels 
[I 19:21:10.170 NotebookApp] The IPython Notebook is running at: https://[all ip addresses on your system]:8888/
[I 19:21:10.170 NotebookApp] Use Control-C to stop this server and shut down all kernels (twice to skip confirmation).
[I 19:22:13.835 NotebookApp] 302 GET / (98.169.96.157) 0.85ms
[I 19:22:31.902 NotebookApp] Creating new notebook in 
[I 19:22:33.634 NotebookApp] Kernel started: 011d8a15-0e4a-448a-b02a-4121780e4bb6

If anyone has run into this before and can offer some things to check, I'd appreciate it. Googling around hasn't helped and I'd really like to get this working on the cloud. Thanks!

Answer 1

I am using EC2 but encounter same problem.

I uses SSL told in the tutorial, after login and open a notebook in Safari always showing "Connecting to kernel". Then I try Chrome, which gives warning about certificate but works fine.

Then I comment the certificate in config file, then open in Safari it works fine.

If you are using Firefox, may be this issue Unable to contact kernel in Firefox after updating to ipython 3.0

Hope this will help.

Update: The issue is reported on Github: https://github.com/ipython/ipython/issues/8621. As said in the post, this is the limitation of Safari. If you still want to use SSL to visit Notebook, you have to add the certificate into your keychain and trust it. Check the help posted by Apple: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18677?locale=en_US

Answer 2

Another way you can connect to your IPython (Jupyter) Notebook server is by opening an SSH tunnel with port forwarding. I wrote a how-to post describing my own workflow. I'm using Google Compute Engine from within Chrome but many of the steps are analogous to other setup variations:
https://stharrold.github.io/20151208-ipynb-on-gce-from-chrome.html

Excerpt:
"""
Brief setup routine:
* Start [your] virtual machine instance.
* Start a Jupyter Notebook server on the instance:
$ jupyter notebook --ip=0.0.0.0 --port=8888 --no-browser &
$ disown 1234 (where 1234 is the process ID)
* Create an SSH tunnel to forward a local port to the server's port on the instance:
$ ssh -f -N -L localhost:8888:0.0.0.0:8888 [email protected]
For [the] Chrome [app] Secure Shell, omit -f to keep the tunnel open (see screenshot [in post]).
* View the server at http://localhost:8888
"""

Additional details are in the post.