LinkedIn: Collab Services — Scientific Computing on openDesk Edu
We just shipped the biggest update to openDesk Edu since its launch: Collab Services — 11 open-source scientific computing tools, all integrated with Keycloak SSO and deployable via a single helmfile apply.
What's new: JupyterHub, Overleaf (LaTeX), RStudio Server, code-server (VS Code), Open WebUI + Ollama (local AI), ttyd (web terminal), Slidev (presentations), KasmVNC (Linux desktop), Dask (distributed computing), and Excalidraw (whiteboard).
Why this matters: Universities running openDesk Edu can now offer their students and researchers Jupyter notebooks, collaborative LaTeX editing, browser-based IDEs, and private AI assistants — all on infrastructure they control, with SSO through their existing Shibboleth federation (DFN-AAI / eduGAIN).
The architecture:
- 7 upstream Helm charts + 4 custom charts
- oauth2-proxy sidecars for Keycloak SSO
- Native OIDC for JupyterHub and Open WebUI
- HAProxy ingress with wildcard TLS
- OpenCloud storage integration for RStudio
Verified: All 9 services pass smoke tests, all 5 custom charts pass Helm connectivity checks.
Try it:
git clone https://codeberg.org/opendesk-edu/opendesk-edu.git
helmfile -e prod apply --selector name=jupyterhub
Full details: https://opendesk-edu.org/en/blog/collab-services-scientific-tools
#OpenSource #Kubernetes #HigherEd #ScientificComputing #DigitalSovereignty

