Using RStudio


RStudio is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for editing and running R programs.

In the ecocloud Platform, RStudio is accessed through the JupyterLabs user interface. Therefore, a Jupyter server is launched to run RStudio. JupyterLab can be used for other tasks, such as to manage files on the server's temporary storage (see storage overview) and for running Jupyter Notebooks (see using Jupyter Notebooks). This article only covers the use of RStudio.

A single Jupyter server is used to run the JupyterLab user interface and RStudio.

The sections below describe actions on the Jupyter server:

  • Launching a Jupyter server
  • Terminating a Jupyter server

And actions that can be performed, once a Jupyter server is running:

  • Starting RStudio
  • Stopping RStudio

Launch server

To launch a new server:

  1. Go to the tools page . Sign in, if you have not yet signed in.
  2. Follow the link for "R (Studio and Jupyter". The hub control panel will appear.
  3. Press the “Start My Server” button. The “Spawner Options” page will appear.
  4. Select “RStudio Notebook” and press the “Spawn” button.. The JupyterLab page will appear.

Note: if you do not see the "Start My Server" button, it could be because another server is already running. Currently, a maximum of one server can be run, so you will need to terminate the running server before another can be launched. It could also be because another server is in the process of being terminated, in which case please wait a minute before trying again.

Start RStudio

RStudio is started from the JupyterLab launcher.

  1. Press the "RStudio" button. The button is in the "launcher" pane (the right side of the page), under the "Notebook" section (the top row of icons).
  2. Use RStudio.

Stop RStudio

  1. From the “File” menu, select “Quit Session”. A dialog will appear saying the R session has ended.
  2. Close the browser tab.

Terminate server

When finished with the JupyterLab server, it should be terminated so the resources it uses are released.

  1. Save your data. This is very important, since all data in the server’s temporary storage will be lost when the server is terminated.
    1. Check that all notebooks and scripts you want to keep are saved to the workspace storage.
    2. Check that all input/result data you want to keep are saved to external storage.
  2. From the "Hub" menu choose "Control Panel". The hub control panel will appear.
  3. Press the “Stop My Server” button. Wait a few seconds and the “Stop My Server” button will disappear.
  4. Close the browser tab containing the hub control panel.
  5. Close the browser tab containing JupyterLab (ignore any "server connection error" dialog that appears).



Modified on: 2019-02-12 10:48:11 +1100

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