Architecture FAQs

General

Do you have any infrastructure as code (IaC) examples for the reference architectures in this guide?

No. Posit does not provide IaC examples for reference architectures. Each customer’s environment and tooling requirements are unique, making a one-size-fits-all IaC solution impractical. Additionally, maintaining numerous IaC examples is prohibitive.

What operating systems are supported?

Posit Connect only supports Linux. Please refer to the Requirements page for a list of supported Linux distributions.

Components

Can I deploy in AWS ECS?

Yes. You can deploy Posit Connect as a container on ECS, but it should run as a long-lived container on On-Demand or Reserved instances. Posit Connect does not support ECS with AWS Fargate. Architecturally, Connect and all content sessions exist within the same container; content sessions do not launch into separate ECS containers. This setup closely models the reference architecture for AWS Single Server.

Can I use AWS Fargate Instances?

AWS Fargate requires that containers run in unprivileged mode. When running Posit Connect, privilege is required unless off-host execution is enabled. See the Docker page for more details. In practice this means that:

• Posit Connect can be deployed in Amazon EKS with Fargate.
• Posit Connect can not be deployed in Amazon ECS with Fargate.

Can I use spot instances?

No. Cloud service providers offer different types of compute. Spot Instances or Spot Virtual Machines (VMs) are a compute type that let you leverage under-utilized VM capacity at a reduced cost. For example, AWS offers Spot Instances. The reference architectures are not designed to be used with Spot Instances. You should instead use On-Demand or Reserved Instances.

Can I use databases other than SQLite or PostgreSQL?

For single server deployments Posit Connect supports SQLite and PostgreSQL. For load balanced and Kubernetes deployments, PostgreSQL must be used. Other databases are not supported at this time. See the Database page for more details.

Do I need to actively maintain the SQLite database or have a Database Administrator (DBA)?

No. A single-server architecture for Posit Connect uses an internal SQLite database for product metadata by default. Connect handles all database updates and maintenance, so you do not need a database administrator to manage it.

Should I setup TLS/SSL?

Yes, we always recommend setting up TLS/SSL. Posit Connect can be configured to use SSL certificates. Refer to the Security page for more details. If Posit Connect is running behind a load balancer or reverse proxy please refer to the Running with a Proxy page.

Integrations

Can I access data that exists outside of the VPC where Posit Connect is installed?

Yes. Content deployed to Posit Connect may need to access data in a database, fileshare, or other data. Networking can control access to these resources. However, be aware of potential latency issues if the external data store is not located near Posit Connect. In some cases, consider moving the external data and Connect closer together, using caching, or mirroring the data.