Nectar BinderHub Service

The ARDC Nectar Cloud team is hosting a BinderHub Service. 

BinderHub allows you to share reproducible computational environments, making them easy to launch and interact with. All you need is a public repository URL where the computational environment is stored. No extra setup required! View a YouTube tutorial here.

For example, you want to share a Jupyter Notebook with a colleague. You can upload the Notebook into a GitHub repository. Your colleague will then use that Github repository link with BinderHub, which will create a space for them to view and interact with your Notebook. 

When using the Nectar BinderHub service it is important to be aware of and read the Terms of Service.

How do I access it?

You can log in with your University/Institutional credentials through AAF (Australian Access Federation) to access the BinderHub service here.

If you do not have access through the AAF, click here for other options.

Are there resource limits?

Yes! The BinderHub service comes with 8GB RAM, 4vCPU and 8 GB ephemeral storage per instance.

Is my data kept on the service?

No. Once you close the BinderHub instance, the data is not retained.

What is the difference between Nectar's JupyterHub and BinderHub services?

BinderHub is a platform which allows you to build and share computational environments with other researchers easily. In contrast, our JupyterHub service is an environment focused on using and running Jupyter Notebooks for individual users. These services can complement each other, in which if you want to share your Jupyter Notebook, you could upload a copy to your chosen repository, and then run it on BinderHub.

Is there a time limit for using this service?

The environments you create in BinderHub do have time limits. If you have your browser tab open, the environment will run for a maximum of 12 hours before terminating, regardless if analysis is still running. If you close the browser tab your environment was in, the system will terminate the session. 

How do I use it?

Organise your code, data, and computational environment files in a version-controlled repository. Examples include GitHub and GitLab.

Go to the BinderHub homepage here, and click the login with AAF button (this is your University/Institutional login). 

Once you have logged in, you will see the page below.  Add your repository link where it says GitHub, then you can click launch. A progress bar will appear below the launch text fields. In this example we are launching a J

Once the build is complete, you will be automatically taken to a homepage, where you notebook is listed, alongside any other files which were in your repository. You can then click your notebook file name to launch it.

Note: there are more options beyond the instructions above. We are just providing a basic example to help you get started.

A more detailed guide for creating a Binder project can be found here.

I want to learn more about BinderHub, where can I find resources?

We’ve compiled a list of helpful links within BinderHub’s documentation:

How can I prepare a repository for Binder?

How can I customise my BinderHub environment?

Ensure reproducibility for your Binder Repository

Sample Binder repositories