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Installing RStudio Professional Drivers#

RStudio Workbench and/or RStudio Connect#

These procedures are intended for IT Admins that need to install the RStudio Professional Drivers on a server.

Install RStudio Professional Drivers on your server

Install RStudio Professional Drivers on the same server where RStudio Server Pro and/or RStudio Connect is installed.

Install RStudio Pro Drivers for Linux Server#

Use the following procedures to:

  • Install RStudio Professional Drivers on the same server where RStudio Workbench and/or RStudio Connect is installed or Pro and/or RStudio Connect is installed or
  • Alternatively, install RStudio Pro Drivers on your Linux desktop using DEB/RPM packages

Step 1. Install dependencies#

  • Install an OBDC driver manager using your system package manager:

    $ sudo yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel

    $ sudo apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev gdebi

    $ sudo zypper install unixODBC unixODBC-devel
    Additional steps for using the Oracle database driver

    If you are working with the Oracle database, you must:

    • Install the 19.x version of the Oracle Instant Client
    • Link the Oracle library directory to the RStudio Pro Drivers library directory by running the following command:

    Terminal
    $ ln -s /usr/lib/oracle/19.x/client64/lib/* /opt/rstudio-drivers/oracle/bin/lib/

    Please adjust the directory minor version (x) according to the installed version of the Oracle Instant Client.

    For more information on connecting to Oracle Databases, see the Connecting to Oracle databases with RStudio Professional Drivers support article.

    Additional steps for using the Snowflake driver version 1.7.0

    This step is no longer necessary on version 1.8.0 of the driver and later.

    Once the Snowflake driver is installed, the file /opt/rstudio-drivers/snowflake/bin/lib/rstudio.snowflakeodbc.ini must be updated to contain the following:

    Terminal
    [Driver]

CABundleFile=/opt/rstudio-drivers/snowflake/bin/lib/cacert.pem
ErrorMessagesPath=
LogLevel=0
LogPath=

Step 2. Download and install#

  • Download and install the RStudio Professional Drivers:

    $ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/drivers/7C152C12/installer/rstudio-drivers-1.8.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo yum install rstudio-drivers-1.8.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm

    $ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/drivers/7C152C12/installer/rstudio-drivers_1.8.0_amd64.deb
$ sudo gdebi rstudio-drivers_1.8.0_amd64.deb

    $ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/drivers/7C152C12/installer/rstudio-drivers-1.8.0-1.sles12.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo zypper --no-gpg-checks install rstudio-drivers-1.8.0-1.sles12.x86_64.rpm

    $ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/drivers/7C152C12/installer/rstudio-drivers-1.8.0-1.sles15.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo zypper --no-gpg-checks install rstudio-drivers-1.8.0-1.sles15.x86_64.rpm
    Alternative download and installation method

    In some cases, you may want to use an alternative installation method to install the RStudio Professional Drivers other than .rpm or .deb packages, for example:

    • Installing drivers to a location other than /opt/rstudio-drivers
    • Installing drivers as a non-root user
    • Installing a single driver or a subset of drivers

    For this reason, we provide the drivers as a single compressed .tar file that can be manually extracted and moved to the desired location:

  • If you previously uninstalled the Pro Drivers version 1.4.0, and do not wish to use multiple versions of the Pro Drivers, then verify that the /etc/odbcinst.ini file is pointing to the new version of the drivers located at /opt/rstudio-drivers.

Step 3. Configure driver locations#

The drivers install to /opt/rstudio-drivers/. The ODBC driver names and locations are specified in the /etc/odbcinst.ini configuration file.

A sample of this file is included at /opt/rstudio-drivers/odbcinst.ini.sample that is preconfigured with the names and locations of the RStudio Professional Drivers.

  • You can use the following commands to backup your existing /etc/odbcinst.ini file and write the contents of the sample configuration file to /etc/odbcinst.ini on your system:

    # Backup existing ODBC configuration file
$ sudo cp /etc/odbcinst.ini /etc/odbcinst.ini.bak

# Append sample ODBC configuration file into /etc/
$ cat /opt/rstudio-drivers/odbcinst.ini.sample | sudo tee -a /etc/odbcinst.ini

    # Backup existing ODBC configuration file
$ sudo cp /etc/unixODBC/odbcinst.ini /etc/unixODBC/odbcinst.ini.bak

# Append sample ODBC configuration file into /etc/unixODBC/
$ cat /opt/rstudio-drivers/odbcinst.ini.sample | sudo tee -a /etc/unixODBC/odbcinst.ini

Step 4. Testing database connectivity#

Test your database connections from the command line before creating new connections in RStudio. You can test connections by running isql, a command line tool for interactive SQL. The isql command requires you to create a data source name first.

ODBC Data Source Names (DSNs) are defined in the /etc/odbc.ini configuration file.

To create a new DSN:

  • Edit the file /etc/odbc.ini
  • Add a new entry for your desired database type by copying over the sample from /opt/rstudio-drivers/odbc.ini.sample
  • Ensure that the Driver setting in the DSN refers to the corresponding driver name or path listed in /etc/odbcinst.ini
  • Modify the entry with your desired connection parameters

For example, to add a SQL Server connection:

File: /etc/odbc.ini
[test]
Driver = SQLServer
Server = my.server.name
Database = dbname
Port = 1433

To test this connection, run the following command:

Terminal
$ isql test

Troubleshooting#

Refer to the article on Troubleshooting RStudio Professional Drivers for additional information on troubleshooting the ODBC drivers and dependencies.

Uninstallation#

  • Use the following commands to uninstall the RStudio Professional Drivers:

    $ sudo yum remove rstudio-drivers

    $ sudo apt-get remove rstudio-drivers

    $ sudo zypper rm rstudio-drivers

Upgrading#

Upgrading to version 1.8.0

If you are using RStudio Professional Drivers version 1.7.0, or older, and would like to upgrade, then please see our Upgrading documentation.

To continue to the Using RStudio Professional Drivers document, see the Usage documentation.

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