Using HCP Virtual Machines to use R with SAP HANA running on HCP – Part 3
As outlined in the first blog, we will now install R and Rserve on the HCP Virtual Machine.
Note: The scenario described in this blog is for testing and evaluation purposes only. It is done with a root user which should not be used for productive purposes. For productive scenarios, follow the official R Installation and Administration documentation.
Install R
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To install R for SAP HANA, you must compile the R package from its source code. 1. Execute zypper addrepo -f https://slesrepo.hana.ondemand.com/repo/SUSE/Products/SLE-SERVER/12/x86_64/product/ SUSE12 |
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| 2. Execute zypper addrepo -f https://slesrepo.hana.ondemand.com/repo/SUSE/Products/SLE-SDK/12/x86_64/product/ SUSE12SDKThe steps 1-2 are performed so that we can have the repositories required to install R. |
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| 3. Execute “zypper repos” to list all the added repositories. |  |
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4. Executezypper install gcc gcc-c++ gcc-fortran This command will Install the dependencies required for compiling R. |
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5. Press “1” and enter.When you execute the above step there are some versioning issue with gcc-fortran, to continue the installation you are provided with some solution. This step is done to downgrade the version by pressing the number of the solution as shown in the figure. |
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| 6. Press “y” and enter. This will retrieve the packages and install them. |
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7. Execute the command to download R source package.wget http://ftp.iitm.ac.in/cran/src/base/R-2/R-2.15.0.tar.gz Note: For information about supported versions of R and Rserve, see SAP HANA and R compatibility and support. |
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| 8. Extract the tar.gz file with the command tar zxf R-2.15.0.tar.gz. |  |
| 9. Execute ls | |
| 10. Execute cd R-2.15.0/ to change directory | |
| 11. Execute ./configure –enable-R-shlib –with-readline=no –with-x=no |
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| 12. Execute “make clean” to compile R. |  |
| 13. Execute make Note: This step might take some time. |
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| 14. Execute make install |   |
| 15. Execute “R” to check if R has been installed. You should see the following output. |
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| 16. Execute q() to exit from R. When prompted to Save workspace image: Press “n” and Enter. |
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Summary: You have built R from source and installed it on the virtual machine.
Install and configure Rserve
As a next step, we will install and configure Rserve which is a TCP/IP server which allows other programs to use facilities of R.
| Step | Screenshot |
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| 1. Execute command to download the Rserve package: wget http://cran.rstudio.com/src/contrib/Rserve_1.7-3.tar.gz |
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2. Execute R. 3. Execute “install.packages(“Rserve_1.7-3.tar.gz”, repos = NULL)” |
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| 4. Execute library(“Rserve”) Note: Successful installation should return no output |
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| 5. Execute q() 6. When prompted to Save Workspace image. Press “n” and then press the Enter key. |
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7. Execute vi /etc/Rserv.confFollow the steps below to insert and save the entry. Press I Type remote enable Press the keys in the following order Esc<space>:wq! |
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| 8. Execute useradd –m ruser to create a user. |  |
| 9. Execute passwd ruser to set the password to ruser |  |
| 10. Login as ruser by executing su –l ruser |  |
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11. Execute R CMD Rserve –RS-port 4000 –no-save –RS-encoding “utf8” Once this is executed, Rserve has started in daemon mode. Note: The port that you will provide here is the one that you will create in next exercise “Enabling Communication to Virtual Machine” |
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12. Execute telnet localhost 4000 Note: This command will test whether Rserve is running or not. |
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Summary: You have installed Rserve in your VM and successfully started it in daemon mode.