Launching an RStudio application

Introduction

Not everyone can imagine learning the command line or Linux. We understand that it is not an easy or approachable interface, and sometimes you just need to get some work done on the cloud.

In these situations, you can spin up an instance of RStudio and access it through the web. You’ll still have full control of the machine if you want, but you won’t have to ever manage the server in the same way as with our other offerings.

Disadvantages to be aware of:

We can't provide much help beyond showing you how to set these Software-As-A-Service systems up.
These applications won't be running as up to date software as if you managed it yourself.

Steps

Once you have a Project, follow these steps to set up an RStudio (or Jupyter) application.

1.Preparation

Note: Neither of these steps are strictly necessary to launch an application. We just list them here because we know that they will make your experience a lot smoother.

In preparation for the launching the application, you will need:

an SSH keypair (see the Getting Started tutorial for instructions on creating a keypair)
a decent size volume (follow steps one and two to create a volume)

The application launch process requires the ID of the volume. Click on the volume's name and copy the id number.

Paste it into a text pad just in case.

2. Create an application

Head to the App Catalog item in left-hand menu and navigate to Browse -> Browse Local.

In the search bar marked with the work "Filter" search for RStudio. Once you have a result, choose Quick Deploy.

Select one of the instance flavours available from the UoM Cloud, add a keypair, and select the melbourne-qh2-uom Availability Zone.

On the next screen, add the Volume ID you collected in the Preparation step. On the following screen, add a username and password combination, and then give the application a name. Remember what username and password you used or you will be locked out of the instance once it's created.

At this point you should see an RStudio application under the components tab on the App Catalog > Environment screen of the Dashboard. And hopefully it's marked Ready to deploy.

Hit the Deploy this environment button. This will take a little time as the system is built, but then you will have an IP address which you should be able to link to the web interface offering you RStudio, Shiny and a desktop. Use the login name and password you set up above.