the-littlest-jupyterhub/docs/howto/admin/systemd.rst

.. _howto/admin/systemd:

================================
Customizing ``systemd`` services
================================

By default, TLJH configures two ``systemd`` services to run JupyterHub and Traefik.

These services come with a default set of settings, which are specified in
`jupyterhub.service <https://github.com/jupyterhub/the-littlest-jupyterhub/blob/master/tljh/systemd-units/jupyterhub.service>`_ and
`traefik.service <https://github.com/jupyterhub/the-littlest-jupyterhub/blob/master/tljh/systemd-units/traefik.service>`_.
They look like the following:

.. code-block:: bash

  [Unit]
  Requires=traefik.service
  After=traefik.service

  [Service]
  User=root
  Restart=always
  WorkingDirectory=/opt/tljh/state
  PrivateTmp=yes
  PrivateDevices=yes
  ProtectKernelTunables=yes
  ProtectKernelModules=yes
  Environment=TLJH_INSTALL_PREFIX=/opt/tljh
  ExecStart=/opt/tljh/hub/bin/python3 -m jupyterhub.app -f jupyterhub_config.py --upgrade-db

  [Install]
  WantedBy=multi-user.target


However in some cases, admins might want to have better control on these settings.

For example when mounting shared volumes over the network using `Samba <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samba_(software)>`_,
these namespacing settings might be a bit too strict and prevent users from accessing the shared volumes.


Overriding settings with ``override.conf``
==========================================

To override the ``jupyterhub`` settings, it is possible to provide a custom ``/etc/systemd/system/jupyterhub.service.d/override.conf`` file.

Here is an example for the content of the file:

.. code-block:: bash

    [Service]
    PrivateTmp=no
    PrivateDevices=no
    ProtectKernelTunables=no
    ProtectKernelModules=no

This example should be useful in the case of mounting volumes using Samba and sharing them with the JupyterHub users.
You might also want to provide your own options, which are listed in the
`systemd documentation <https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.exec.html>`_.

Then make sure to reload the daemon and the ``jupyterhub`` service:

.. code-block:: bash

    sudo systemctl daemon-reload
    sudo systemctl restart jupyterhub

Then check the status with:

.. code-block:: bash

    sudo systemctl status jupyterhub

The output should look like the following:

.. image:: ../../images/admin/jupyterhub-systemd-status.png
  :alt: Checking the status of the JupyterHub systemd service

To override the ``traefik`` settings, create a new file under ``/etc/systemd/system/traefik.service.d/override.conf``
and follow the same steps.


References
==========

If you would like to learn more about the ``systemd`` security features, check out these references:

- `List of systemd settings <https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.exec.html>`_
- `Mastering systemd: Securing and sandboxing applications and services <https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/mastering-systemd>`_