Install Pro Drivers on a Server

These procedures are for IT Admins that need to install the Posit Professional Drivers on a server where Workbench and/or Connect is installed.

Install Posit Professional Drivers on the same server where the following were previously installed:

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
Posit End User License Agreement

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.

Step 1. Install dependencies

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

    sudo yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel
    sudo apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev gdebi
    sudo zypper install unixODBC unixODBC-devel

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

    • Install version 19.21 of the Oracle Instant Client

    • Link the Oracle library directory to the Posit Pro Drivers library directory by running the following command:

      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.

    If you are using AWS RDS for MySQL, driver version 2024.03 removes the mysql_native_password plugin, which is the default authentication plugin used in AWS RDS for MySQL. This removal breaks authentication with AWS RDS for MySQL databases unless the follow change runs in advance of the ODBC driver upgrade.

    1. Connect to the destination MySQL database using your current MySQL drivers.
    2. Once connected, execute the follow statement to change the authentication plugin for your Master Username/Master Password from the AWS Console:
    ALTER USER 'ReplaceWithMasterUsername'@'%' IDENTIFIED WITH caching_sha2_password by 'ReplaceWithMasterPassword' REPLACE 'ReplaceWithMasterPassword';
    1. Run the same command for any other users that needs to connect to your AWS RDS for MySQL database, using their username and password in the command.
    2. Proceed with the driver upgrade.

    Future resets of the Master Password in the AWS console reverts to using mysql_native_password plugin, locking your user out of the database via the Posit Professional Drivers. Connect to the AWS RDS for MySQl database via alternate means to rerun the statement above.

Step 2. Download and install

Posit End User License Agreement

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.

  • Download and install the Posit Professional Drivers:
curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/drivers/7C152C12/installer/rstudio-drivers-2024.03.0-1.el.x86_64.rpm
sudo yum install ./rstudio-drivers-2024.03.0-1.el.x86_64.rpm
curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/drivers/7C152C12/installer/rstudio-drivers_2024.03.0_amd64.deb
sudo apt-get install ./rstudio-drivers_2024.03.0_amd64.deb
curl -O https://cdn.rstudio.com/drivers/7C152C12/installer/rstudio-drivers-2024.03.0-1.sles.x86_64.rpm
sudo zypper --no-gpg-checks install ./rstudio-drivers-2024.03.0-1.sles.x86_64.rpm

To use an alternative download and 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:

Step 3. Configure driver locations

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

View an example of this file at /opt/rstudio-drivers/odbcinst.ini.sample. The file is preconfigured with the names and locations of the Posit Professional Drivers.

  • Use the following commands to backup your existing /etc/odbcinst.ini file and write the contents of the example configuration file to /etc/odbcinst.ini on your system:

    # 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 could be required to specify a user and password argument for connection. See isql (1) - Linux Man Pages for additional information.

The /etc/odbc.ini configuration file defines the ODBC Data Source Names (DSNs).

To create a new DSN:

  • Edit the file /etc/odbc.ini
  • Add a new entry for your desired database type by copying over the example 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:

File: /etc/odbc.ini
[test]
Driver = SQLServer
Server = my.server.name
Database = dbname
Port = 1433

To test this connection, run the following command:

isql -v 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:
sudo yum remove rstudio-drivers
sudo apt-get remove rstudio-drivers
sudo zypper rm rstudio-drivers

Upgrading

If you are using Professional Drivers version 1.8.0, or older, and would like to upgrade, then please see the Upgrading documentation.

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

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