Interactive Sessions

This repository contains interactive session workflows for the Activate platform. Each workflow starts a web server on a compute cluster and connects it to the platform UI, giving users browser-based access to tools like JupyterLab, VS Code, VNC desktops, and web shells.

Available Sessions

Session	Description
jupyterlab-host	JupyterLab notebook environment
jupyter-host	Legacy Jupyter Notebook
openvscode	VS Code in the browser
vncserver	Remote desktop (VNC) with various GUI applications
webshell	Browser-based terminal

How It Works

Each session is defined by two bash scripts and one workflow YAML:

1. controller-v3.sh -- Runs on the controller (login) node. Installs software and downloads dependencies. This node has internet access.
2. start-template-v3.sh -- Runs on the controller or compute node (depending on user selection). Starts the web service.
3. Workflow YAML (workflow/yamls/<session>/<deployment>_v4.yaml) -- Defines the platform UI form, generates the inputs.sh environment file, and calls the session_runner subworkflow.

All sessions use the session_runner subworkflow (workflow/session_runner/) which handles job scheduling, port allocation, SSH tunneling, and session registration with the platform.

Deployments

The session_runner subworkflow has deployment-specific variants for different Activate platform installations:

Deployment	File	Description
general	general.yaml	Standard SLURM/PBS clusters
emed	emed.yaml	Einstein Medical clusters
noaa	noaa.yaml	NOAA clusters
hsp	hsp.yaml	HSP clusters

Each session also has per-deployment workflow YAMLs (e.g., general_v4.yaml, emed_v4.yaml) that configure the UI form and scheduler settings for that deployment.

Note: Some sessions also support Kubernetes deployments (e.g., general_k8s_v4.yaml), but the session_runner subworkflow is designed for compute (PBS/SLURM) clusters. Kubernetes sessions use a different orchestration approach with kubectl directly.

Repository Structure

.
├── jupyterlab-host/         # JupyterLab scripts
│   ├── controller-v3.sh     #   Controller node setup
│   └── start-template-v3.sh #   Service start script
├── openvscode/              # VS Code scripts
├── vncserver/               # VNC desktop scripts
├── webshell/                # Web shell scripts
├── jupyter-host/            # Legacy Jupyter scripts
├── workflow/
│   ├── session_runner/      # Session runner subworkflow (per deployment)
│   ├── script_submitter/    # Script submitter subworkflow
│   ├── yamls/               # Workflow YAMLs (per session, per deployment)
│   ├── readmes/             # Per-session documentation shown in the UI
│   └── thumbnails/          # UI thumbnails
├── downloads/               # Binary dependencies (Git LFS)
└── examples/                # Example notebooks

Developing a New Session

See DeveloperGuide.md for step-by-step instructions on creating your own interactive session.