Welcome to the DataSHIELD installation instructions for Linux. Click below for the table of contents, specifying all the stages needed to get set up and ready to go.

Help

DataSHIELD support is freely available in the DataSHIELD forum by the DataSHIELD community. Please use this as the first port of call for any problems you may be having, it is monitored closely for new threads.

The minimum computer specification for installing the DataSHIELD training environment is:

12GB+ of RAM.
- Each VM is allocated 4GB RAM, and some needs to be spare for other applications.
Reasonably powerful processor (for example: Intel i5 or i7).
16GB space on the hard disk.
- 7GB per VM + VirtualBox installation requirement (80 MB)

Installing the Virtual Servers

Install VirtualBox

To run the virtual servers you will need to install VirtualBox (click here for more about what Virtualbox is).

There are three ways to install.

Via web browser: go to the download page for linux distributions and choose the one corresponding to your machine.
Via Ubuntu Software app: in the applications search, type "Ubuntu Software" (called "software store" in Ubuntu 18), then click on "install".
Via terminal:

$ sudo apt-get install virtualbox

Download the Virtual Servers

Two virtual servers are available for you to test DataSHIELD with. The virtual servers require 4GB RAM each and about 5GB hard-disk space each.
You can download the VMs from google drive:

Download Training VMs

dstutorial-100 (Opal Server 1)

dstutorial-101 (Opal Server 2)

Import the Virtual Servers into VirtualBox

You will need to import the VMs into Virtualbox. Open Virtualbox, and in the top menu, on the left:

File > Import Appliance...
Navigate to the directory the VM files were saved to (e.g. Downloads...)
Click "Next", to move onto "Appliance Settings"
Nothing needs to be changed here, so click "Import"
- the import should take around 1 minute
Repeat for the second downloaded VM file.

Setting up the Virtual Servers

Setting up the VirtualBox network adapter

Connect to the Virtual Servers

Boot the Virtual Machines

Now that the two virtual machines have been downloaded, imported and configured, it's time to launch them. What is happening when the VM launches is that it is booting up a mini-computer (within your computer) which plays the role of an Opal server as if it were online and you were remotely connecting to the data stored on it.

To start a VM (i.e. a Virtual Opal Server):

When in VirtualBox:
left-click on a server
click on the green arrow that says start
- (or just double click on the Opal server name).
Repeat for the second VM

Depending on how powerful your computer is, the Opal servers may take a few minutes to boot and for Opal to start.

On first launching the VMs (Virtual Opal Servers) you will observe several grey warning messages. These can be suppressed by clicking the "x" in the top right corner. This will trap your mouse-

Clicking inside them can cause your mouse pointer to become captured within the mini-computer environment. The default key to escape this is Right-Ctrl

Note

For ordinary use, once the VMs have booted there is no cause to type commands within them, as they are just acting as a server while you do analysis on the web or on R, just connecting to them.

However if you are learning DataSHIELD for development purposes, you may wish to log in to the VM. Once the machines have been started you can use the credentials:

username: administrator
password: datashield_test&

for tasks such as reviewing logs produced on the server, instructions here.

Now that your VMs are launched you should check they are ready to be used before getting set up in R.

Virtual Servers' IP addresses

By default, machines on the host-only network can be found at 192.168.56.xxx:

Your computer (the host) will be at 192.168.56.1
The virtual servers have been configured as follows:

dstesting-100 – 192.168.56.100
dstesting-101 – 192.168.56.101

Web Access to the Opal Server (How to look inside the VM)

The opal web interface is accessed in you browser. Simply type the IP address of the VM, followed by the port number.

For example: to access the web interface for dstesting-100, go to:

v6.1 Linux Installation Instructions