Shiny Server Tutorial

instructions.md

Shiny Server Tutorial Instructions

Prerequisites

• AWS account is created
• Non-root user is created
• VPC exists in the us-east-1 region
  • We can go over the networking of what this should look like

Creating the Host

1. Log into your AWS account
2. Click EC2 --> Instances
3. Click Launch Instance
   • Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS (HVM), SSD Volume Type - ami-43a15f3e
   • t2.micro (for now, free)
     • https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/
   • Make sure subnet is public
   • Make sure you auto-assign a public IP (Enable)
   • Storage is dependent on your database, logging, etc. situation
   • Add a "Name" tag

• Create or use a security group configured according to the information below (see Security Group Information)
  • Make sure you have whatever key pair you choose (or create a new one)

4. Wait until your instance is in state "running"
   • Note the public IP of your instance (IPv4 Public IP)
5. SSH onto the host
   • Need to use terminal or puTTY
   • Add your SSH key to the keychain (if terminal)
   • ssh ubuntu@${PUBLIC_IP}

Security Group Information

	* port 22 TCP (for SSH)
	* port 3838 TCP (for Shiny)
	* port 80 TCP (if installing nginx)
	* port 443 TCP (if installing nginx)

Installing R

1. sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys E298A3A825C0D65DFD57CBB651716619E084DAB9
2. sudo add-apt-repository 'deb [arch=amd64,i386] https://cran.rstudio.com/bin/linux/ubuntu xenial/'
3. sudo apt-get update
4. sudo apt-get install r-base
5. sudo -i R (test your installation)

Installing Shiny and Shiny Server

1. sudo R -e "install.packages(c('shiny', 'rmarkdown'), repos='http://cran.rstudio.com/')"
2. sudo apt-get install gdebi-core
3. wget https://download3.rstudio.org/ubuntu-14.04/x86_64/shiny-server-1.5.7.907-amd64.deb
4. sudo gdebi shiny-server-1.5.7.907-amd64.deb

Starting and Stopping the Server

Start

sudo systemctl start shiny-server

Stop

sudo systemctl stop shiny-server

Deploy Your App

1. scp -r ${REPO}/ ubuntu@${PUBLIC_IP}:/home/ubuntu
2. ssh ubuntu@${PUBLIC_IP}
3. sudo mv /home/ubuntu/${REPO} /srv/shiny-server/

Advanced Setup

Running Behind a Reverse Proxy

Installation and Configuration

1. sudo apt-get install -y nginx

2. Make the following configuration changes: A) To /etc/nginx/nginx.conf: add: map $http_upgrade $connection_upgrade { default upgrade; '' close; }

   below # Basic Settings in the http {} block B) Create /etc/nginx/conf.d/shiny.conf (see shiny.conf file)

Logs

Access and Error logs

• /var/log/nginx/access.log
  • /var/log/nginx/error.log

Shiny Logs

• /var/log/shiny-server/${app}.log

Setting Up A Domain Name

Getting A Domain Name

1. Navigate to www.freenom.com
2. Find a domain name you would like (for free!)
3. Checkout

DNS Management (Connecting Your Instance To Your Domain Name)

1. https://my.freenom.com/knowledgebase.php?action=displayarticle&id=33
2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpyAJkhXFFc

Super Advanced

More AWS Infrastructure

• Consider using a load balancer and auto-scaling group
• Consider writing a script to install R and your dependencies and adding it to your instance's userdata
• Consider hosting your apps in S3 for versioning
• Consider creating a base AMI that has R, Shiny Server installed, nginx configuration set up
  • Spin up an instance, install these dependencies, create an AMI
    • Select your Instance --> Image --> Create Image
• Consider adding an EIP (Elastic IP) to your instance so your DNS records do not need to change

shiny.conf

server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name ${PUBLIC_IP};

    location / {
         proxy_pass http://localhost:3838/;
         proxy_redirect http://localhost:3838/ $scheme://$host/;
         proxy_http_version 1.1;
         proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
         proxy_set_header Connection $connection_upgrade;
         proxy_read_timeout 20d;
    }
}