Pre-Lab Exercises: Environment Setup

These exercises should be completed before your first lab session. They ensure your environment is ready to work with Python, Git, Docker, and the full course infrastructure.

Where do I run what?

Throughout this course, you will work in three different places. It’s important to know which one to use:

Where What How to open
System terminal Git commands, Docker commands, running .py files macOS: Terminal app. Windows: PowerShell or CMD. Linux: any terminal emulator.
JupyterLab Interactive notebooks (.ipynb), data exploration, visualizations Open your browser at localhost:8888 after starting the environment
Text editor / IDE Writing .py files (API servers, producers, consumers) VS Code recommended, or any editor you prefer

When an exercise says “in the terminal”, it means your system terminal (not JupyterLab’s terminal). When it says “in JupyterLab”, open a new notebook or use the JupyterLab terminal. When it says “create a file”, write it in your editor or use %%file filename.py magic in JupyterLab.

Part 1: Python

Task 1.1 – Check Python version

Open your system terminal and run:

python3 --version
pip --version

You need Python 3.10 or higher. If you don’t have it, install from python.org.

Task 1.2 – Create a virtual environment

Still in the terminal:

python3 -m venv rta_env
source rta_env/bin/activate   # Linux/macOS
# rta_env\Scripts\activate   # Windows
pip install --upgrade pip
pip install jupyterlab pandas numpy matplotlib scikit-learn requests

Task 1.3 – Start JupyterLab

jupyter lab

This opens JupyterLab in your browser at localhost:8888.

In JupyterLab, create a new Python notebook (click “Python 3” under Notebook) and run:

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
import sklearn

print(f"pandas:  {pd.__version__}")
print(f"numpy:   {np.__version__}")
print(f"sklearn: {sklearn.__version__}")
print("\nAll good! Your Python environment is ready.")

Part 2: Git

Task 2.1 – Install and configure Git

In your system terminal:

git --version
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
git config --global user.email "your@email.com"

Task 2.2 – Create a GitHub account

If you don’t have one yet, go to github.com and create an account.

Task 2.3 – Create your course repository

  1. On GitHub, click “New repository”
  2. Name it RTA_<your_initials> (e.g., RTA_SZ)
  3. Check “Add a README file”
  4. Clone it to your computer:
git clone https://github.com/<your_username>/RTA_<your_initials>.git
cd RTA_<your_initials>

Task 2.4 – Make your first commit

echo "# Real-Time Analytics - Course Repository" > README.md
git add .
git commit -m "Initial commit"
git push origin main

Part 3: Docker

Task 3.1 – Install Docker

Download and install Docker Desktop from docker.com.

Task 3.2 – Verify installation

In your terminal:

docker --version
docker compose version
docker run hello-world

You should see “Hello from Docker!” in the output.

Task 3.3 – Run Python in a container

docker run -it python:3.11-slim python -c "print('Hello from Docker!')"

Part 4: Course Environment

Task 4.1 – Clone the course infrastructure

This repository contains the full lab environment: JupyterLab, Kafka, Spark, all pre-configured.

git clone -b 2026Redis https://github.com/sebkaz/jupyterlab-project.git
cd jupyterlab-project

Task 4.2 – Start the environment

docker compose up -d

Wait 1-2 minutes for all services to start, then check:

docker compose ps

You should see several containers running (JupyterLab, Kafka, Zookeeper, etc.).

Task 4.3 – Access JupyterLab

Open your browser and go to: http://localhost:8999

password: root

You should see the JupyterLab interface. Create a new notebook and run:

# Run this in a JupyterLab notebook inside the Docker environment
import sys
print(f"Python: {sys.version}")
print(f"Running inside: {sys.prefix}")
print("Course environment is ready!")

Task 4.4 – Verify Kafka is running

Open a terminal inside JupyterLab (File > New > Terminal) and run:

kafka-topics.sh --list --bootstrap-server broker:9092

If it returns without errors (may show empty list), Kafka is running.

Task 4.5 – Stop the environment

When you’re done:

docker compose down

Checklist

Before your first lab, make sure you can:

Submit the link to your GitHub repository via MS Teams.