Overview

RStudio Server is a web-based interface to RStudio – a development environment for R programming.

Research Computing provides a web portal where RStudio Server can be accessed on the HPC system. However, to use RStudio Server, you must have an account on UVA HPC. Instructions for setting up an account can be found here.

Accessing RStudio Server

To access RStudio Server, you will begin by connecting to our Open OnDemand portal:

  1. Open a web browser and go to URL: https://ood.hpc.virginia.edu.
  2. Use your “Netbadge” credentials to log in.
  3. On the top right of the menu bar of the Open OnDemand dashboard, click on “Interactive Apps”.
  4. In the drop-down box, click on “RStudio Server”.

Note that if you want to use your local R packages installed through the R module, you need to run

echo "R_LIBS_USER=~/R/goolf/x.y" > ~/.Renviron

before launching the instance. Here x.y is the major-minor version of R, e.g. 4.3. Alternatively, you may run inside RStudio:

.libPaths('~/R/goolf/x.y')

Requesting an Instance

Your instance (or copy) of RStudio will run on a compute node. So, it will need a list of resources, such as partition, time, and allocation. If you are new to UVA HPC, you may want to read the Getting Started Guide to learn more about the partitions.

  1. After connecting to RStudio through Open OnDemand, a form will appear where you can fill in the resources for RStudio.
  2. When done filling in the resources, click on the blue “Launch” button at the bottom of the form.

It will take a few minutes for the system to gather the resources for your instance of RStudio. When the resources are ready a “Connect to RStudio Server” button will appear. Click on the button.

Using RStudio

When RStudio opens in your web browser, it will appear just like the RStudio that you have on your laptop or desktop. You can use it just as you always have, including installing packages. (If you have not used RStudio in the past, you may wish to review this tutorial.)

Closing the Interactive Session

When you are done, quit the RStudio Server application and terminate the session. The interactive session will be closed and the allocated resources will be released. If you leave the session open, your allocation will continue to be charged until the specified time limit is reached.

RStudio in Rio

Access

  1. Begin by connecting to your Linux VM
    • This will display the Open OnDemand dashboard.
  2. On the top right of the menu bar of the Open OnDemand dashboard, click on “Interactive Apps”.
  3. In the drop-down box, click on “RStudio Server”.

Requesting an Instance

Requesting an instance in Rio OOD is the same as Rivanna/Afton (described above). More information on partitions and the system can be found here.

Using RStudio

Using RStudio will be the same as on your laptop or in Rivanna/Afton. It’s important to keep in mind that outbound connections are prohibited and only ceritan sites are whitelisted.

Installed R packages will be saved under /standard/ivy-xxxx-xxxx/<computingID>/R/X.Y where ivy-xxxx-xxxx is the name of your project, <computingID> is your computing ID, and X.Y is the major(X) and minor(Y) version number of R you’re using.

Closing the session is the same as described above in the standard security zone implementation.

|  HPC, software