R and RStudio on a Secured CentOS 7 Environment

This repository provides a way to setup R and RStudio on a secured computing environment. In particular, the setup routine will:

• Download and Install on CentOS 7
  • Development Tools
  • R
  • RStudio
  • Assortment of R Packages into a site-wide library
• Embeds notice on session start regarding CRAN access.
• Establishes and redirects CRAN install package requests to a local directory.
• Alerts users that install.packages() is disabled in console R, R GUI, and RStudio IDE.
• Disable RStudio Features requiring Internet Access
  • Disables posting to RPubs or Shiny Apps
  • Disables RStudio Check for Updates
  • Disables HTTPS Secure Download Warning
    • Note: Not relevant as CRAN cannot be accessed.
• Sets up a help function in the global environment to open intranet documentation on environment when called.

Usage

To roll out the secure environment, the computer must initially be connected to the internet.

From there, we apply different configuration settings to suppress internet connections.

# Download latest version
wget -O master.zip http://github.com/coatless/r-centos7/archive/master.zip

# Unzip and delete the zip
unzip master.zip; rm master.zip

# Change directory
cd master/

# Allow the file to execute
chmod +x ~/setup-centos7-r.sh

# Run the file
./setup-centos7-r.sh

Computer-based Testing Facility (CBTF) Deployment

Within this video, there is a brief walkthrough of opening RStudio and writing in RMarkdown on a computer configured securely in the Computer-based Testing Facility (CBTF) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC).

Note: This video shows a slightly outdated version.

More details can be found at:

• Overriding RStudio's Startup Hook Inside Rprofile
• Improving the Secured Computer-based Testing Environment for R on Centos 7 Using Rprofile and Renviron
• R and RStudio in a Secured Environment on Centos 7