SSCC has RStudio Server installed on all of our Linstat and LinSilo servers (including LinSiloBig). With RStudio Server, the RStudio user interface runs in your web browser while the work happens on the server, allowing you to use the power of SSCC's Linux servers without having to learn Linux.
To use RStudio Server on Linstat you must be on SSCC's network. If you are outside the Sewell Social Sciences Building, or on the wireless network in the building, you need to first connect to the SSCC network using VPN.
To use RStudio Server on LinSilo you must first log into Silo.
To connect to RStudio server, open a web browser and go to:
https://server.ssc.wisc.edu:8787
where server should be replaced by the name of the server you want to connect to. For example, here are the addresses for the first three Linstat servers:
- https://linstat1.ssc.wisc.edu:8787
- https://linstat2.ssc.wisc.edu:8787
- https://linstat3.ssc.wisc.edu:8787
Winstat and WinSilo have links in the programs list to open RStudio Server on Linstat and LinSilo respectively.
With RStudio Server you have to connect to a specific server rather than logging into Linstat and being directed to the least busy server in the cluster. You can identify the least busy Linstat server by opening the terminal built into RStudio and typing ssh linstat. The server you are sent to will be the least busy, and you can change your RStudio Server session to use that server by simply changing the number in the address.
You can run a long job using RStudio Server by simply starting the job and closing your web browser. The job will continue running for up to a week. To reconnect to it you will need to go back to the same server. When you're done using RStudio Server, click File, Quit Session.
You don't need to learn Linux to use RStudio Server, but your jobs are running in Linux and they need to use Linux-style file references. The most important differences from Windows:
- There are no drives or drive letters in Linux. All directories are part of a single tree structure with the "root" of the tree denoted by a slash (/).
- /project is the Linux equivalent of V:, /smph is the Linux equivalent of S: (Silo only).
- Linux is case-sensitive. File and file are two different files.
If you set the working directory before running your code and only use relative paths in your code, you can easily write your code so that it will work in both Windows and Linux.
Last Revised: 8/11/2020