What is LabPod
LabPod turns a single GPU workstation into a shared platform that a small research team can use from a browser. Each team member gets their own isolated workspace - Jupyter, VS Code, or a plain terminal - with CPU, memory, and GPU quotas plus an advisory disk alert. No SSH setup, no cluster, no scheduler.
The one-liner
Section titled “The one-liner”Install LabPod on the lab GPU box. Users open http://<host>:24680 in a browser, log in, and
launch GPU workspaces. The admin watches who’s using what from a single dashboard and can
force-stop any workspace.
Who it’s for
Section titled “Who it’s for”A 5–10 person research group sharing one or two GPU workstations - a grad-school lab, a small R&D team, a teaching assistant with one powerful machine. The person running the box doesn’t need a Kubernetes background. LabPod installs from a single script and runs as a systemd service.
What you get
Section titled “What you get”- Per-user workspaces with enforced CPU/memory/GPU quotas and advisory disk alerts.
- Browser UI - JupyterLab, VS Code (code-server), a built-in terminal, TensorBoard, MLflow.
- GPU allocation - whole GPUs, software fractional sharing, or MIG slices (A100/H100).
- Admin dashboard - live per-user resource usage, GPU occupancy, disk pressure warnings, and audit logs.
- Rootless container isolation - every workspace runs as the owner’s Linux account; files keep natural host ownership.
- No queue - coordination is quotas + monitoring + admin force-stop, not a job scheduler.
What it is not
Section titled “What it is not”- Not a container GUI - LabPod is a workspace UX, not a general-purpose Portainer replacement.
- Not a cluster tool - no Slurm, no Kubernetes, no multi-node scheduling.
- Not a notebook-only tool - workspaces are persistent containers you start and stop, not ephemeral notebook sessions.
LabPod does not auto-stop workspaces. A workspace stays running until you stop it.
Where to go next
Section titled “Where to go next”- New user: Core concepts → Researcher quickstart
- Setting up the box: Requirements → Install & first boot
- Evaluating: Why LabPod