RStudio server on Synology DiskStation

Another use for your Synology NAS and the Docker app: run a docker instance of rocker/RStudio. I just used the following YAML:

version: "3"

services:
  rstudio:
    image: rocker/rstudio:latest
    container_name: rstudio
    network_mode: "bridge"
    restart: on-failure
    volumes:
      - /volume1/docker/rstudio:/home/rstudio/LOOKATMEEE
      - /volume1/docker/rstudio/libs:/usr/local/lib/R/site-library
      - /volume1/docker/rstudio/libs:/home/rstudio/R/x86_64-pc-linux-gnu-library/4.1
      - /volume1/docker/rstudio/projects:/home/rstudio/projects
    environment:
      - PASSWORD=abcd
    expose:
      - 8787
    ports:
      - "8787:8787"

Just save in in the main Docker folder as “rstudio.yml”.

I’ve set up the folders beforehand: on my “Docker” volume created “rstudio” folder and within that folder two subfolders: “libs” and “projects”. Then I changed the user on these folders – just SSH to the DiskStation, go to the Docker volume and issue the commands:

sudo chown root:root ./rstudio
cd rstudio
sudo chown root:root ./libs
sudo chown root:root ./projects

Perhaps this is not the most elegant solution, but it works for me. Then I just started the container with

sudo docker-compose -f rstudio.yml up

And then went to the url of my NAS: http://my-nas-url-or-IP:8787 and logged into RStudio with username=”rstudio” and password=”abcd”.

And off we go!