Relevance Lab - RStudio Server With Amazon DCV on Rocky 9

This AMI delivers a production-ready RStudio Server environment secured behind Amazon DCV pixel-streaming technology. Unlike standard RStudio deployments, data never leaves the instance - users interact with a streamed desktop session, making this ideal for teams handling sensitive research, financial, or healthcare datasets.

The unique combination of Amazon DCV, RStudio Server, and Rocky Linux 9 provides capabilities that manual installations or competing AMIs lack:

• Zero-egress data architecture - Users access RStudio through a high-performance remote desktop stream. Sensitive data remains on the EC2 instance and is never downloaded to local machines, reducing data exfiltration risk.
• Rocky Linux 9 long-term support - Enterprise-grade stability backed by the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation, providing a reliable CentOS replacement with extended maintenance.
• Zero-configuration deployment - Launch and access RStudio Server within minutes rather than spending hours on manual installation, dependency resolution, and security hardening.

• Pre-installed RStudio Server 2024.12.0 - Ready for data analysis and visualization with R and essential libraries pre-configured.
• AWS Service Integration - Configured for use with S3 for data storage, RDS for database connectivity, and IAM for access control.
• Scalable Instance Support - Run on t3.medium for lightweight workloads or scale to compute-optimized and GPU-backed instances (p3, g4) for intensive processing.
• Security Hardening - SSH access with configurable firewall settings and secure remote access through DCV encryption.

The zero-egress design ensures that all data processing occurs entirely within your AWS account boundary. Amazon DCV transmits only encrypted pixels to the end user's browser or client - no raw data, files, or datasets traverse the network to local machines. Combined with IAM-based access control and configurable security groups, this architecture supports organizations operating under strict data residency and exfiltration prevention requirements common in healthcare, financial services, and research environments.

For a detailed walkthrough of the security model and data flow, see our Security Architecture Whitepaper linked in the Additional Resources section below.

• Operating System: Rocky Linux 9
• IDE: RStudio Server 2024.12.0
• Runtime: R with essential libraries pre-installed
• Package Management: Additional packages available via CRAN
• Remote Access: Amazon DCV for encrypted desktop streaming
• Default Access Port: 8787 (RStudio web interface)

• Minimum Instance Type: t3.medium (2 vCPUs, 4 GB RAM) for basic workloads
• GPU Workloads: Use p3 or g4 instance families for machine learning and GPU-accelerated computing
• Networking: Security group must allow inbound traffic on port 8787 (RStudio) and port 22 (SSH)
• Storage: Ensure adequate EBS volume size for your datasets
• IAM Permissions: Configure IAM roles with appropriate S3 and RDS access policies for AWS service integration

1. Subscribe to this product in AWS Marketplace.
2. Launch an EC2 instance using the provided AMI with your preferred instance type.
3. Configure your security group to allow ports 8787 and 22.
4. Access RStudio Server via your web browser at http://[instance-ip]:8787.
5. Customize your environment by installing additional R packages and configuring AWS service connections.

If your organization requires vendor-assisted evaluation to satisfy compliance or security review processes, contact Relevance Lab to schedule a guided deployment walkthrough. Our team can help your security and compliance stakeholders verify data residency controls and validate the zero-egress architecture for your specific regulatory requirements.

To validate the zero-egress architecture and DCV streaming performance for your specific workload, launch a t3.medium instance and test with a representative dataset. This allows your security and compliance teams to verify data residency controls before scaling to larger deployments.

Relevance Lab builds cloud-ready solutions that simplify deployment and management of analytics environments on AWS. Our pre-configured AMIs help teams move from subscription to productive data analysis in minutes rather than days.

Rocky Linux is a free, open-source operating system designed to be a stable and reliable replacement for CentOS, widely used in enterprise and cloud environments. It is maintained by the community and backed by the Rocky Enterprise Software Foundation.