‘Error reading launcher key’ after running diagnostics command

Workbench
TLS
SSL
launcher
Published

May 1, 2026

Abstract

Troubleshooting error reading launcher key after run-diagnostics command.

Details on configuring TLS certifificates for each Posit professional product are available at the links below:

Introduction

After running the rstudio-server run-diagnostics command on a Posit Workbench node, the node enters an error state with the message ‘Error reading launcher key’. This can occur in load-balanced environments when you execute the diagnostics command.

Problem

This issue occurs when running the diagnostic script, because Workbench performs an rstudio-server reload. During the reload, the rserver process has already lowered its privileges to the server user (typically rstudio-server), which then cannot access launcher.pem when it is owned by root with restrictive (0600) permissions.

Workbench version 2024.12.1 fixes this issue.

Solution

You can resolve this error in one of the following ways:

Temporary fix

  1. Check the permissions of the launcher key file:

ls -la /etc/rstudio/launcher.pem

  1. If the file is owned by root and not readable by rstudio-server, update the ownership:

chown rstudio-server /etc/rstudio/launcher.pem

  1. Alternatively, restart the Workbench services:

sudo rstudio-server restart

Permanent fix

Upgrade to Workbench version 2024.12.1 or later, which includes a fix for this issue.

If you’re still having issues, you can reach out to Support by opening a ticket.