Using RStudio Server on CoCalc via a Compute Server
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/Owq90O0vLJo
CoCalc's compute servers let you very easily run arbitrary virtual machines associated to any CoCalc project. The cost is by the second (pay as you go) for cloud hosted VM's.
Create a new compute server (e.g., a 16GB instance with 4 vCPUs on Google Cloud costs about a $0.03/hour) and select the R image:
Also, when creating your compute server, be sure to create a "Custom Domain Name with SSL":
For better performance, select your compute server to be in a region that is geographically close to you. When using RStudio Server, all communication is directly between you and the compute server.
Once your compute servers is running (about 1-2 minutes), click on the https link, paste in your random token, and you have the latest version of RStudio Server running. In the example below, I visit https://rstudio.cocalc.cloud and I paste in that token LmWIML... .
RStudio then has full access to your files from your project and the CPU power of whatever compute server you're using:
RStudio of course supports a wide range of document formats in the R ecosystem, including R Notebook, R Markdown, Shiny Apps, Quarto etc.
The RStudio hosted on a compute server does not have any support for realtime collaboration or AI integration, etc. If you need all that, you can also use a Jupyter notebook running on your compute server.
If you want a terminal on your compute server you can also just create a normal CoCalc Terminal (outside R Studio), via +New --> Terminal, then move it to your R server via the dropdown. This terminal is collaborative, has chat on the side, and you can use AI to get help. You can also run R here.
Then: