Using RStudio Server and RStudio Desktop in Open OnDemand

RStudio is an integrated development environment (IDE) designed for the R programming language, which is used for statistical computing and graphics. It provides tools for coding, plotting, and managing data, and is available in desktop and server versions.

The open source versions of both are available in the Open OnDemand (OOD) web portal: you can access the RStudio IDE via the RStudio Desktop application or the RStudio Server application. RStudio Desktop is a standalone regular desktop application whereas RStudio Server is a client/server version of RStudio that runs on a remote Linux server and is accessed via the client’s web browser. RStudio Server allows users to access the RStudio IDE from any web browser, making it easy to work remotely and share resources.

RStudio Server typically has more overhead than RStudio Desktop because it runs on a remote server and provides a web-based interface, which requires additional resources for server management and user access. RStudio Desktop, being a standalone application, operates directly on the desktop machine with less resource demand. If using the RStudio Server app in OOD we recommend requesting at least two CPUs for your session due to the additional overhead of running the server version of the app.

Both RStudio Server and RStudio Desktop will use the Longleaf R module that is specified by the user when creating the OOD session.

Note that with RStudio Server only one browser at a time may be connected to a RStudio session. However, with RStudio Desktop you can have multiple simultaneous sessions.