Installing Posit Professional Drivers#

Posit Workbench and/or Posit Connect#

These procedures are intended for IT Admins that need to install the Posit Professional Drivers on a server.

Install Pro Drivers for Linux Server#

Use the following procedures to:

• Install Professional Drivers on the same server where Posit Workbench and/or Posit Connect is installed or
• Alternatively, install Posit Professional Drivers on your Linux desktop using DEB/RPM packages

Step 1. Install dependencies#

• Install an OBDC driver manager using your system package manager:

  RHEL/CentOS LinuxUbuntu/Debian LinuxSUSE Linux

  $ sudo yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel
  

  $ sudo apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev gdebi
  

  $ sudo zypper install unixODBC unixODBC-devel
  

  Additional steps for using the Oracle database driver

  If you are working with the Oracle database, you must:

  • Install version 19.8 of the Oracle Instant Client
  • Link the Oracle library directory to the Posit Pro Drivers library directory by running the following command:

  Terminal

  $ ln -s /usr/lib/oracle/19.x/client64/lib/* /opt/rstudio-drivers/oracle/bin/lib/
  

  Please adjust the directory minor version (x) according to the installed version of the Oracle Instant Client.

  For more information on connecting to Oracle Databases, see the Connecting to Oracle databases with Posit Professional Drivers support article.

  Additional steps for using the Snowflake driver version 1.7.0

  This step is no longer necessary on version 1.8.0 of the driver and later.

  Once the Snowflake driver is installed, the file /opt/rstudio-drivers/snowflake/bin/lib/rstudio.snowflakeodbc.ini must be updated to contain the following:

  Terminal

  [Driver]
  
  CABundleFile=/opt/rstudio-drivers/snowflake/bin/lib/cacert.pem
  ErrorMessagesPath=
  LogLevel=0
  LogPath=
  

Step 2. Download and install#

• Download and install the Posit Professional Drivers:

  RHEL/CentOS LinuxUbuntu/Debian LinuxSUSE Linux 12 SP3+SUSE Linux 15 SP2

  $ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/drivers/7C152C12/installer/rstudio-drivers-2023.05.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
  $ sudo yum install rstudio-drivers-2023.05.0-1.el7.x86_64.rpm
  

  $ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/drivers/7C152C12/installer/rstudio-drivers_2023.05.0_amd64.deb
  $ sudo gdebi rstudio-drivers_2023.05.0_amd64.deb
  

  $ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/drivers/7C152C12/installer/rstudio-drivers-2023.05.0-1.sles12.x86_64.rpm
  $ sudo zypper --no-gpg-checks install rstudio-drivers-2023.05.0-1.sles12.x86_64.rpm
  

  $ curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/drivers/7C152C12/installer/rstudio-drivers-2023.05.0-1.sles15.x86_64.rpm
  $ sudo zypper --no-gpg-checks install rstudio-drivers-2023.05.0-1.sles15.x86_64.rpm
  

  Alternative download and installation method

  In some cases, you may want to use an alternative installation method to install the Posit Professional Drivers other than .rpm or .deb packages, for example:

  • Installing drivers to a location other than /opt/rstudio-drivers
  • Installing drivers as a non-root user
  • Installing a single driver or a subset of drivers

  For this reason, we provide the drivers as a single compressed .tar file that can be manually extracted and moved to the desired location:

  • Download Posit Professional Drivers as a single compressed .tar file

  • Refer to the detailed documentation for each driver for instructions on how to configure each driver.

• If you previously uninstalled the Pro Drivers version 1.4.0, and do not wish to use multiple versions of the Pro Drivers, then verify that the /etc/odbcinst.ini file is pointing to the new version of the drivers located at /opt/rstudio-drivers.

Step 3. Configure driver locations#

The drivers install to /opt/rstudio-drivers/. The ODBC driver names and locations are specified in the /etc/odbcinst.ini configuration file.

A sample of this file is included at /opt/rstudio-drivers/odbcinst.ini.sample that is preconfigured with the names and locations of the Posit Professional Drivers.

• You can use the following commands to backup your existing /etc/odbcinst.ini file and write the contents of the sample configuration file to /etc/odbcinst.ini on your system:

  RHEL/CentOS and Ubuntu/DebianSUSE Linux 12 and 15

  # Backup existing ODBC configuration file
  $ sudo cp /etc/odbcinst.ini /etc/odbcinst.ini.bak
  
  # Append sample ODBC configuration file into /etc/
  $ cat /opt/rstudio-drivers/odbcinst.ini.sample | sudo tee -a /etc/odbcinst.ini
  

  # Backup existing ODBC configuration file
  $ sudo cp /etc/unixODBC/odbcinst.ini /etc/unixODBC/odbcinst.ini.bak
  
  # Append sample ODBC configuration file into /etc/unixODBC/
  $ cat /opt/rstudio-drivers/odbcinst.ini.sample | sudo tee -a /etc/unixODBC/odbcinst.ini
  

Step 4. Testing database connectivity#

Test your database connections from the command line before creating new connections in Posit.

How to test:

• You can test connections by running isql (a command line tool for interactive SQL
• The isql command requires you to create a data source name (DSN) first
• Additionally, you may be required to specify a user and password argument for connection. See isql (1) - Linux Man Pages for additional information.

ODBC Data Source Names (DSNs) are defined in the /etc/odbc.ini configuration file.

To create a new DSN:

• Edit the file /etc/odbc.ini
• Add a new entry for your desired database type by copying over the sample from /opt/rstudio-drivers/odbc.ini.sample
• Ensure that the Driver setting in the DSN refers to the corresponding driver name or path listed in /etc/odbcinst.ini
• Modify the entry with your desired connection parameters

For example, to add a SQL Server connection:

[test]
Driver = SQLServer
Server = my.server.name
Database = dbname
Port = 1433

To test this connection, run the following command:

$ isql test

Troubleshooting#

Refer to the article on Troubleshooting Posit Professional Drivers for additional information on troubleshooting the ODBC drivers and dependencies.

Uninstallation#

• Use the following commands to uninstall the Posit Professional Drivers:

  RHEL/CentOS LinuxUbuntu/Debian LinuxSUSE Linux

  $ sudo yum remove rstudio-drivers
  

  $ sudo apt-get remove rstudio-drivers
  

  $ sudo zypper rm rstudio-drivers
  

Upgrading#

To continue to the Using Posit Professional Drivers document, see the Usage documentation.