Here is a presentation I gave to the Ann Arbor R Users' Group meetup on Feb 13. I will expand this with better (higher-security) AWS information over February. I will also be giving a presentation on how to use RStudio to the AWS Michigan and AWS Detroit Meetups in March.

1. USING R/RSTUDIO ON AWS
Barry DeCicco (bdecicco2001@yahoo.com)
Ann Arbor R Users’ Group Meeting
February 13, 2020

2. WHY USE AWS?
 It’s the most popular cloud package – you will encounter it
at work.
 You can access data sets and run tasks too large for your
personal computer.
 You can leave things running, no matter what you are
doing with your personal computer.
 It’s free for starting usage.

3. CONTENTS
 How to set up on AWS.
 Remotely accessing AWS.
 Rstudio launching.
 Moving data with Dropbox.
ASSUMPTION: You already have an account with AWS and with
Dropbox.

4. IMPORTANT NOTE
 The method illustrated here is a low-security method.
 AWS prefers a method using key files, but insists on locking down
the key file on the user’s machine.
 In Windows, this is extremely hard to do, and generally does not
work.
 I’m working on this, and will update this presentation once I have
a consistent working method.

5. HOW TO SET UP ON AWS

6. STEPS
(FROM ‘HOW TO RUN RSTUDIO ON AWS IN UNDER 3 MINUTES FOR
FREE’)
 Have an account in Dropbox ready.
 Login to AWS or set up account.
 Choose region for virtual machine (from external website).
 This site will redirect you to the AWS EC2 Management Console (‘EC2
is ‘Elastic Compute’).
 Go through Launch Instance Wizard
 Skip the key file part (it’s a pain; deal with it later)

7. STEPS
(FROM ‘HOW TO RUN RSTUDIO ON AWS IN UNDER 3 MINUTES FOR
FREE’)
 Copy the IPv4 Public IP into a new browser window to open Rstudio
on ASW.
 Login with ‘rstudio’/your Instance ID.
 Set up Dropbox access
(https://www.edamamecourse.org/docs/using_dropbox_on_your_ec2_m
achine.html)

8. HOW TO RUN RSTUDIO ON AWS IN
UNDER 3 MINUTES FOR FREE
Step 1:Login to your AWS
account (or create one, if
you don’t have one)
.

9. STEP 2: GO TO LOUIS
ASLETT’S WEBSITE,
CHOOSE THE REGION
YOU WANT YOUR
VIRTUAL MACHINES
TO STAY, AND CLICK
ON THE LINK NEXT TO
IT (E.G., AMI-
02BF650155C44B475
FOR US WEST, N.
CALIFORNIA). THE
LINK WILL DIRECTLY
LEAD YOU TO THE EC2
MANAGEMENT
CONSOLE.

10. STEP 3: CLICK
THROUGH THE
LAUNCH INSTANCE
WIZARD. ALMOST
EVERYTHING IS
ALREADY PRE-FILLED
OUT AND YOUR
SCREEN SHOULD
LOOK LIKE THE
SCREENSHOTS BELOW.
DON’T PRESS “REVIEW
AND LAUNCH” YET.
WE NEED TO GO
THROUGH THE
WHOLE PROCESS
ONCE JUST TO BE
SURE, SO PRESS
“NEXT: …”.

11. STEP 4: CONFIGURE
INSTANCE DETAILS:
KEEP DEFAULTS, PRESS
“NEXT: …”.

12. STEP 5: ADD
STORAGE: KEEP
DEFAULTS, PRESS
“NEXT: …”.

13. STEP 5: ADD TAGS:
KEEP DEFAULTS, PRESS
“NEXT: …”.

14. STEP 6: CONFIGURE
SECURITY: CLICK ON
“ADD RULE”, CHOOSE
HTTP AND CHANGE
“SOURCE” FROM
CUSTOM TO
ANYWHERE. NOW IT
SHOULD LOOK LIKE
THE SCREENSHOT
BELOW. “NEXT: …”.

15. STEP 7: JUST PRESS
“REVIEW AND
LAUNCH” AND
“LAUNCH” ON THE
NEXT PAGE. THE FINAL
STEP IS TO CHOOSE A
SSH SECURITY KEY.
WHILE IT’S NOT THE
MOST SECURE
SETTING, THE FASTEST
WILL BE TO CHOOSE
TO PROCEED
WITHOUT A KEY. JUST
COPY THE SETTING
FROM THE NEXT
SCREENSHOT AND
PRESS “LAUNCH
INSTANCES”

16. STEP 7: JUST PRESS
“REVIEW AND
LAUNCH” AND
“LAUNCH” ON THE
NEXT PAGE. THE FINAL
STEP IS TO CHOOSE A
SSH SECURITY KEY.
WHILE IT’S NOT THE
MOST SECURE
SETTING, THE FASTEST
WILL BE TO CHOOSE
TO PROCEED
WITHOUT A KEY. JUST
COPY THE SETTING
FROM THE NEXT
SCREENSHOT AND
PRESS “LAUNCH
INSTANCES”

17. IT WILL TAKE A FEW MINUTES FOR YOUR INSTANCE TO
START UP. ONCE IT HAS, SELECT THAT INSTANCE TO PULL
UP THE DASHBOARD.

18. IT WILL TAKE A FEW MINUTES FOR YOUR INSTANCE TO
START UP. ONCE IT HAS, SELECT THAT INSTANCE TO PULL
UP THE DASHBOARD.

19. NOTE THE “IPV4 PUBLIC
IP” AND “INSTANCE ID”.
COPY THE IPV4 PUBLIC IP
AND PASTE IT INTO THE
ADDRESS OF A NEW
BROWSER WINDOW

20. NOTE THE “IPv4 Public
IP”. COPY THAT AND
PASTE IT INTO THE
ADDRESS OF A NEW
BROWSER WINDOW.
YOUR USERNAME IS
‘rstudio’ AND THE
PASSWORD IS THE
“Instance ID”

21. CONNECTING TO DROPBOX
If you chose to use the key pair, and were able to set up the
permissions correctly, then you can SSH and SFTP to your
instance.
If not, you can use Dropbox to sync folders.

22. CONNECTING TO DROPBOX
If you chose to use the key
pair, and were able to set
up the permissions
correctly, then you can SSH
and SFTP to your instance.
If not, you can use
Dropbox to sync folders.
Run the pre-existing
commands in RStudio

23. CONNECTING TO DROPBOX
If you chose to use the key
pair, and were able to set
up the permissions
correctly, then you can SSH
and SFTP to your instance.
If not, you can use
Dropbox to sync folders.
Run the pre-existing
commands in Rstudio –
ONE AT A TIME

26. LAUNCHING AN AWS
SESSION

28. Credits
Chuck Anderson, for walking me through the secure
connection method.
Medium.com, whose series ‘towards Data Science’
(https://towardsdatascience.com/) has been an invaluable
source of information, explanations and source code.

29. QUESTIONS?

30. REFERENCES – AWS
 https://towardsdatascience.com/how-to-run-rstudio-on-aws-in-
under-3-minutes-for-free-65f8d0b6ccda
 https://www.datacamp.com/community/tutorials/aws-ec2-beginner-
tutorial
 http://www.win-vector.com/blog/2018/01/setting-up-rstudio-server-
quickly-on-amazon-ec2/
 https://www.sicara.ai/blog/2017-12-07-speed-up-code-rstudio-aws
 http://strimas.com/r/rstudio-cloud-1/
 https://winscp.net/eng/docs/guide_amazon_ec2

31. REFERENCES (CONTINUED)
Key File Problems:
https://superuser.com/questions/1296024/window
s-ssh-permissions-for-private-key-are-too-open
https://superuser.com/questions/1309447/how-to-
secure-ssh-private-key-on-windows-10/1311633