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RStudio on a compute node

RStudio can also run on a compute node of your choosing, with the CPUs and memory of an interactive session, served to your browser through an ssh tunnel. Use it when the RStudio server does not fit, which means a different R, more than one session, or CPUs and memory scheduled to you alone.

Start RStudio in a session

  1. On a login node, start an interactive session and load the module:

    $ qrsh -pe mthread 4
$ module load tools/R/RStudio/server

  2. The first time only, create the server's configuration file:

    $ init-rstudio-server
init-rstudio-server: db.conf file created:
-rw-rw-r--. 1 USERNAME USERNAME 433 Oct  3 16:24 /home/USERNAME/.local/share/rstudio/rstudio-server/db.conf

    Without it the server does not start, and says db.conf not found, you need to run init-rstudio-server first.

  3. Start the server:

    $ start-rstudio-server -port 8123
start-rstudio-server: starting RStudio server on host=compute-64-11 and port=8123
  you need to create a ssh tunnel on your local machine with
    ssh -N -L 8123:compute-64-11:8123 [email protected]

Point your browser to http://localhost:8123 on your local machine.
Use Control+C in this window to kill the server when done.

    -port chooses the port, and the default is 8787. Address already in use means another user has that port on the node. Choose another, between 1025 and 65535. start-rstudio-server -help lists the options.

  4. On your own machine, open the tunnel the script printed, in a terminal you leave alone:

    $ ssh -N -L 8123:compute-64-11:8123 [email protected]

  5. Open http://localhost:8123 in a browser. RStudio opens with no sign-in.

  6. When done, Ctrl-C in the server's window, Ctrl-C in the tunnel's terminal, then exit the session. Do not leave a server running unattended.

The module loads R 4.4.1 (tools/R/4.4.1). module load tools/R gives 4.4.0.

RStudio desktop over X11

tools/R/RStudio/desktop provides the windowed RStudio, drawn on your machine through X11. It needs an X server on your machine and an ssh -Y connection, is slow, and does not work with Xming on Windows (Cygwin/X and WSL work). Start it from a qlogin session with rstudio --no-sandbox --disable-gpu.

Last updated 2026-10-13