Customize a Notebook Instance Using a Lifecycle Configuration Script - Amazon SageMaker

Customize a Notebook Instance Using a Lifecycle Configuration Script

To install packages or sample notebooks on your notebook instance, configure networking and security for it, or otherwise use a shell script to customize it, use a lifecycle configuration. A lifecycle configuration provides shell scripts that run only when you create the notebook instance or whenever you start one. When you create a notebook instance, you can create a new lifecycle configuration and the scripts it uses or apply one that you already have.

You can also use a lifecycle configuration script to access AWS services from your notebook. For example, you can create a script that lets you use your notebook to control other AWS resources, such as an Amazon EMR instance.

We maintain a public repository of notebook lifecycle configuration scripts that address common use cases for customizing notebook instances at https://github.com/aws-samples/amazon-sagemaker-notebook-instance-lifecycle-configuration-samples.

Note

Each script has a limit of 16384 characters.

The value of the $PATH environment variable that is available to both scripts is /usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/bin. The working directory, which is the value of the $PWD environment variable, is /.

View CloudWatch Logs for notebook instance lifecycle configurations in log group /aws/sagemaker/NotebookInstances in log stream [notebook-instance-name]/[LifecycleConfigHook].

Scripts cannot run for longer than 5 minutes. If a script runs for longer than 5 minutes, it fails and the notebook instance is not created or started. To help decrease the run time of scripts, try the following:

  • Cut down on necessary steps. For example, limit which conda environments in which to install large packages.

  • Run tasks in parallel processes.

  • Use the nohup command in your script.

You can see a list of notebook instance lifecycle configurations you previously created by choosing Lifecycle configuration in the SageMaker console. You can attach a notebook instance lifecycle configuration when you create a new notebook instance. For more information about creating a notebook instance, see Create a Notebook Instance.

To create a lifecycle configuration
  1. Open the SageMaker console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/sagemaker/.

  2. On the left navigation pane, choose Admin configurations.

  3. Under Admin configurations, choose Lifecycle configurations.

  4. From the Lifecycle configurations page, choose the Notebook Instance tab.

  5. Choose Create configuration.

  6. For Name, type a name using alphanumeric characters and "-", but no spaces. The name can have a maximum of 63 characters.

  7. (Optional) To create a script that runs when you create the notebook and every time you start it, choose Start notebook.

  8. In the Start notebook editor, type the script.

  9. (Optional) To create a script that runs only once, when you create the notebook, choose Create notebook.

  10. In the Create notebook editor, type the script configure networking.

  11. Choose Create configuration.