RStudio on Kubernetes - multi-user, multi-deployment best practise

[vignesh_bountiful]

Hi,

I have an RStudio server running currently on my AWS EC2 machine using docker.
I'm planning to move to Kubernetes for scaling purposes.
What would you suggest to be the best practice for maintaining multi-user on a multi-deployment?

• Is there a way to de-couple user management? Like using a database instead of Linux users.
• can we hook up with any other OAuth service providers for authentication?

If I restart an RStudio docker container, I would like to maintain the users separately so that I can use them later when I bring them up, without me creating them again and again.

Please suggest the best practice to achieve RStudio deployment on Kubernetes and still maintain multi-user consistency without any issue.

Thanks, V

[alexkgold]

Hi @vignesh_bountiful,

The features you all named are supported by RStudio Server Pro. RStudio Server Pro supports a number of different authentication options, including Google OAuth, LDAP/AD, and proxied auth. We also recently added the launcher feature, which allows you to connect your RStudio Server Pro instance to a Kubernetes cluster and launch sessions there.

If you're interested, there's a lot more information on RStudio Server Pro, including a free 45-day trial, and the ability to schedule a demo with sales here.

You can also check out the admin guide for details on available auth mechanisms.

[vignesh_bountiful]

Hi @alexkgold,

Thanks for responding soon. We are currently using RStudio Community Edition.
Is any of the options possible in RStudio open source (free) version ?

Cheers, V

[Kill3rbee]

Hi @vignesh_bountiful,
I have tried Auth0 on an application presented at rstudio-conf-2018.

It works pretty well and here is the URL to the application https://kill3rbee.shinyapps.io/vFeedCardDrill/
I wanted to test Auth0 especially for Federation.

Hope this helps

Thanks

[vignesh_bountiful]

Thanks @Kill3rbee

Seems like yours is an application that is protected with Auth0.
I'm looking for a solution to access RStudio IDE (Community Edition) with some external authentication.
@alexkgold Can you please share your thoughts and suggestions here?
Can we write an external application that will handle the authentication and act as a proxy for IDE? If so,
can you share an example?

[alexkgold]

Hi @vignesh_bountiful,

Our recommended solution for running RStudio with authentication is RStudio Server Pro. Others in the community may have suggestions of how to configure RStudio Server Community Edition with authentication.

Thanks!

[Kill3rbee]

@vignesh_bountiful

RStudio Server Community Edition with authentication

There are many ways to do that without using without RStudio Server Pro. If you google, you will find a lot of articles:

How to setup RStudio Server authentication for CentOS 7

How to get your very own RStudio Server and Shiny Server with DigitalOcean

Adding Authentication to Shiny Server in 4 Simple Steps

Going "Pro" with RStudio Server Open Source

R studio Pro integration with Active Directory

With such a general question, you may be better off with the premium support for RStudio Pro: https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/requests/new You have to get the Linux PAM system connected to Active Directory, which might help guide a web search, but the specifics beyond that likely depend quite a bit on the details of your network. What distribution of Linux you're using, what version of Active Directory you're on, and so on. I'll move this to the #r-admin category to see if anyone has some general resources that might be good starting points for you and other people looking to deal with Active Directory.

I have seen so many articles on that, you will have to decide based on your technology infrastructure.
I set up one using SAML, but never really documented it. Good lucj

Go luck