Using Rserve

Rserve itself is the server program that responds to requests from the clients. It listens for any incoming connections and processes incoming requests. For details on installation and launching the server, see installation. 

Contents

• Using Rserve with authentication
• Customizing Rserve configurations
• R Debug Mode
• Using Rserve for Multiple Users
• Rserve Security

Using Rserve with authentication

Customizing Rserve configurations

1. The Rserve configuration can be customized with the /etc/Rserv.conf file. The configuration file can be changed at compile time by specifying -DCONFIG_FILE= ...
2. You can also add additional configuration files with the --RS-conf command line argument.
3. You can find more information here: http://www.rforge.net/Rserve/doc.html#conf

R DEBUG MODE

1. There is a special debug version of Rserve which displays a lot of information when run among others all packets sent and results on the R side.
2. Under unix, by default it is compiled along with the regular version and can be found under the $RHOME/library/Rserve directory as Rserve.dbg
3. In Windows, use Rserve_d.exe or enter Rserve(TRUE) in the R Console instead of Rserve().

USING RSERVE FOR MULTIPLE USERS

1. The Windows version of Rserve supports only one connection at a time. Any subsequent connections to the same Rserve share the same working directory and data space.
2. In order to have multiple users share a single R instance, you should consider running Rserve on Linux or OS X platforms. These platforms don't have the single connection limitation. You can find more information in this link: https://rforge.net/Rserve/doc.html

RSERVE Security

1. Make sure you do not run Rserve as root
2. Use "remote disable" in your configuration whenever you do not have a remote access setup with Rserve and Aqua Data Studio
3. Use "auth required" and "plaintext disable" when remote access is required.
4. On unix consider using su client and cachepwd yes options with a password file that is only root-readable. This will prevent client password retrieval and clients from attacking the server.