Install Posit Workbench

These instructions describe how to install Workbench on a Linux server.

For alternative installation instructions, see our recommended installation paths.

This page includes instructions for downloading Posit professional products. Download and/or use of these products is governed under the terms of the Posit End User License Agreement. By downloading, you agree to the terms posted there. The same instructions apply if you still use a legacy RStudio Server Pro license configuration (no launcher enabled).

Prerequisites

  • Review and meet the requirements

    Important

    We have several requirements, such as Database Connectivity, that must be satisfied before installing Workbench. Please review the Requirements page in its entirety before proceeding with the installation.

  • Install R (required)

  • Install Python (optional, unless you wish to integrate Workbench with VS Code and/or Jupyter)

Step 1. Install R & Python

Install R

Installing R is required.

  • Install a version of R on the server following the steps to Install R.

    Note

    Our recommended installation instructions for R allow you to make multiple versions of R available and avoid replacing existing versions of R when updating system packages.

Install Python

Installing Python is optional unless you wish to integrate Workbench with VS Code and/or Jupyter.

  • Install a version of Python on the server following the steps to Install Python.

    Note

    RStudio Pro and VS Code do not require Python. However, we recommend installing Python to provide users with the most choice and the option to develop in Python and/or R.

Step 2. Download and install

  • Download and install Workbench version 2024.09.1:
RHEL 9
$ curl -O https://download2.rstudio.org/server/rhel9/x86_64/rstudio-workbench-rhel-2024.09.1-x86_64.rpm
$ sudo yum install rstudio-workbench-rhel-2024.09.1-x86_64.rpm
RHEL 8
$ curl -O https://download2.rstudio.org/server/rhel8/x86_64/rstudio-workbench-rhel-2024.09.1-x86_64.rpm
$ sudo yum install rstudio-workbench-rhel-2024.09.1-x86_64.rpm
Ubuntu 24 / 22 | Debian 12
$ sudo apt-get install gdebi-core
$ curl -O https://download2.rstudio.org/server/jammy/amd64/rstudio-workbench-2024.09.1-amd64.deb
$ sudo gdebi rstudio-workbench-2024.09.1-amd64.deb
Ubuntu 20 / Debian 11
$ sudo apt-get install gdebi-core
$ curl -O https://download2.rstudio.org/server/focal/amd64/rstudio-workbench-2024.09.1-amd64.deb
$ sudo gdebi rstudio-workbench-2024.09.1-amd64.deb
$ curl -O https://download2.rstudio.org/server/opensuse15/x86_64/rstudio-workbench-2024.09.1-x86_64.rpm
$ sudo zypper install rstudio-workbench-2024.09.1-x86_64.rpm

Upon installation, Workbench configuration file (/etc/rstudio/rserver.conf) contains default configuration to run Workbench using local launcher sessions, without SSL enabled, listening on port 8787.

For additional information, please see the Workbench Administration Guide Appendix.

Step 3. Activate license

  • Run the following command to determine the status of your license and verify that your evaluation license is active:

    $ sudo rstudio-server license-manager status

    If you already have a license key and your server is in an online environment, you can activate the license using the following command:

    $ sudo rstudio-server license-manager activate <LICENSE-KEY>

    where <LICENSE-KEY> is the license key that was provided to you.

    If your server is offline, you can use this app to activate your offline license. For more information about offline license activation, refer to the Offline activation.

    If you are using a floating licensing server, refer to the floating licensing section of the Workbench Administration Guide.

    For more information on different options of activating your license, refer to the license management section of the Workbench Administration Guide.

Step 4. Verify installation

  • Now, view Workbench in a browser at http://<SERVER-ADDRESS>:8787, replacing <SERVER-ADDRESS> with the DNS name or IP address of the server.

Next steps

Jupyter Configuration

Posit is prioritizing JupyterLab sessions as the main IDE for native Jupyter tooling. JupyterLab is a better fit for using Jupyter Notebooks on Posit Workbench, given the more advanced and full-featured IDE experience compared to Notebook Classic.

JupyterLab is enabled by default for new installs via the labs-enabled=1 setting that’s placed in the default version of jupyter.conf.

Note

We have deprecated JupyterLab 3 now that maintenance support for that version has ended.

Classic Jupyter Notebook IDE sessions outside of JupyterLab are disabled by default, however they can be re-enabled by setting notebook-enabled=1 in jupyter.conf.

See the Jupyter sessions documentation for additional configuration options.

IDE selection

  • RStudio Pro: Is installed and enabled by default.
  • VS Code: Is installed and enabled by default.
  • Jupyter: See Enable Jupyter section above.

Quarto

Quarto is an open-source scientific and technical publishing system built on Pandoc and is bundled with RStudio Pro. To use it with VS Code or JupyterLab, Quarto needs to be added to the PATH. See Installing Quarto for instructions on installing Quarto or symlinking it into a location on the PATH for those editors.

Additional information

Posit Launcher

The Posit Job Launcher provides an extensible and reusable mechanism for Posit applications to start processes within various batch processing systems (e.g., SLURM) and container orchestration platforms (e.g., Kubernetes). Posit products integrate with the Job Launcher to allow you to utilize your existing cluster hardware for maximum process isolation and operations efficiency.

We offer the following integration options:

See the Job Launcher Administration documentation here.

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