Setting Up R And RStudio Server On Ubuntu

R is a language and environment for statistical computing and graphics. It’s free software under the GPL license and provides extensive statistical and graphical capabilities through numerous contributed packages.

The R environment package is available in Ubuntu’s standard repositories. Install it with:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install r-base

This installs r-base along with recommended packages and build tools. The installation may take several minutes and will pull in dependencies like BLAS, LAPACK, and development libraries.

Once installed, verify the installation by starting the R REPL:

You should see output like:

R version 4.3.x (202x-xx-xx) -- "[Release Name]"
Copyright (C) 202x The R Foundation for Statistical Computing
Platform: x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (64-bit)

R is free software and comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
...
Type 'q()' to quit R.

>

Exit the REPL by typing q() at the prompt.

Install RStudio Server on Ubuntu

RStudio Server is a browser-based IDE for R that runs on a remote server and is accessed through any web browser. This makes it ideal for shared computing environments or cloud deployments.

First, check the RStudio downloads page to get the correct URL for your Ubuntu version. Then download and install the package:

wget https://download2.rstudio.org/server/focal/amd64/rstudio-server-latest-amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./rstudio-server-latest-amd64.deb

The installation script will automatically create the rstudio-server system user and start the service. RStudio Server listens on port 8787 by default.

Verify that the service is running:

sudo systemctl status rstudio-server

If the service isn’t running, start it with:

sudo systemctl start rstudio-server

Access RStudio Server

Open a web browser and navigate to:

http://<server-ip-or-domain>:8787

For local access, use http://localhost:8787.

Log in with any valid Ubuntu system user account. The username and password must correspond to a real user on the system.

Once logged in, you’ll have access to the RStudio IDE with a console, script editor, package manager, and file browser.

Useful RStudio Server Management Commands

Stop the server:

sudo systemctl stop rstudio-server

Restart the server:

sudo systemctl restart rstudio-server

View the service log:

sudo journalctl -u rstudio-server -n 50

Check RStudio Server version:

rstudio-server version

Configure RStudio Server

RStudio Server configuration is stored in /etc/rstudio/rserver.conf. Common configurations include changing the default port:

www-port=8787
www-address=0.0.0.0

After editing the config file, restart the service:

sudo systemctl restart rstudio-server

Firewall Configuration

If your system uses a firewall (UFW on Ubuntu), allow access to port 8787:

sudo ufw allow 8787/tcp

For cloud deployments (AWS, Azure, GCP), ensure the security group or network ACL permits inbound traffic on port 8787.

Install R Packages in RStudio Server

From the RStudio console, install packages using install.packages():

install.packages("ggplot2")
install.packages(c("dplyr", "tidyr", "ggplot2"))

Load packages with library():

library(ggplot2)

Performance Considerations

For production deployments, consider:

Running RStudio Server behind a reverse proxy (nginx or Apache) for SSL/TLS termination
Configuring resource limits in rserver.conf to prevent runaway processes from consuming system resources
Using authentication providers like PAM or LDAP for larger organizations
Running multiple sessions with appropriate memory and process limits
Monitoring disk space, especially in /home where user libraries are installed

Troubleshooting

If users cannot log in, check that their system account exists:

id username

If RStudio Server won’t start, check the log:

tail /var/log/rstudio/rstudio-server.log

For permission issues with package installation, ensure users have write access to their home directory and the R library path.