Abstract

Galaxy Interactive Tools (GxITs) are a method to run containerized tools that are interactive in nature. Interactive Tools typically run a persistent service accessed on a specific port and run until terminated by the user. One common example of such a tool is [Jupyter Notebook][jupyter]. Galaxy Interactive Tools are similar in purpose to [Galaxy Interactive Environments]gie-docs, but are implemented in a significantly different manner. Most notably, instead of directly invoking containers on the Galaxy server, dedicated Docker node, or as a Docker Swarm service (as is done for GIEs), Interactive Tools are submitted through Galaxy's job management system and thus are scheduled the same as any other Galaxy tool - on a Slurm cluster, for instance. Galaxy Interactive Tools were introduced in Galaxy Release 19.09.

About This Material

This is a Hands-on Tutorial from the GTN which is usable either for individual self-study, or as a teaching material in a classroom.

Questions this will address

• What are Galaxy Interactive Tools?
• How can I enable Interactive Tools on my Galaxy instance?

Learning Objectives

• Understand what Galaxy Interactive Tools are and how they work
• Be aware of the security implications of Interactive Tools
• Have a basic understanding of the Interactive Tools (GxIT/GIE) Proxy, its purpose, and configuration
• Be familiar with wildcard SSL certificates and how to get them from Let's Encrypt
• Configure your Galaxy to serve Interactive Tools using an Ansible Playbook
• Start, run, and use an Interactive Tool