Accessing RStudio Server via port 8787

[d.j.studholme]

I have created an Ubuntu 18 server on CLIMB and have installed RStudio server. I know that RStudio server is running OK because I can reach it via lynx localhost:8787. However, if I try to access it externally from a web browser running on my desktop pointing at http://137.205.69.xxx:8787 then I just get a '“This site can’t be reached” message.

So, my question is, does CLIMB prevent access to web-servers running on CLIMB instances?

• Do I need to somehow open port 8787 on my instance? I think I would need a CLIMB admin person to do that for me?
• Or is it more likely that there is an issue with my configuration inside my server, i.e. something I can fix myself?

[bedfordc1]

While direct access is great when you’re using local services, opening ports on publicly available servers poses quite a security risk, and we do not support it.

There is another way though. Have you ever heard of ssh tunneling? That’s how we access a lot of internal services remotely, so we use it all the time, and you can too.

Here’s what came up for me on Google:

How to use SSH tunnels and SSH port forwarding

Let me know if you need further assistance.

Thanks

~~ Charles

[d.j.studholme]

Thank you, @bedfordc1. Yes, SSH tunnels might be a good solution and I will investigate this. In the meantime, I am just launching a web-browser on the Linux VM and navigating to localhost:8787, which is working just fine.