11 ways to deploy R Server on HDInsight Cluster

First published on MSDN on Mar 21, 2017
In this article, we will discuss 11 possible ways to deploy R Server on HDInsight Cluster. Some of these ways will help in automating the cluster creation (using scripts). Majority of them are related to deployment using Azure Resource Manager Templates . ARM Templates are very useful and can be deployed in several ways. Here are the 11 ways :

1. Azure Portal


2. .NET SDK


3. ARM Template + Azure Portal


4. ARM Template + Powershell


5. ARM Template + Azure CLI 1.0


6. ARM Template + Azure CLI 2.0


7. ARM Template + Ruby


8. ARM Template + C#


9. ARM Template + Visual Studio


10. ARM Template + REST API


11. AzureSMR package

Let us discuss the above ways. I am not going into detailed description of all the ways - have provided guidance links and required code snippet wherever possible.

Azure Portal

Basic way is to use Azure Portal . Here is an extensive guide : Create the cluster

.NET SDK

Using the Nuget Package Microsoft.Azure.Management.HDInsight . The C# program is provided below. Replace with appropriate values for variables and run it. This program will create a Resource Group, a Storage Account and R Server on HDInsight Cluster.

ARM Template

We will be using the following template.json and parameters.json for #3 to #10. Save the following 2 json files in your local disk. Replace values in parameters.json with your own values.

ARM Template + Azure Portal

Using Template Deployment .  More information here : Deploy resources with Resource Manager templates and Azure portal .

ARM Template + Powershell

Save the following powershell code in the same location as template.json and parameters.json. Run the powershell script as administrator.

ARM Template + Azure CLI 1.0

Install the Azure CLI 1.0

Save the following bash script in the same location as template.json and parameters.json and run the bash script.

ARM Template + Azure CLI 2.0

Install the Azure CLI 2.0

Save the following bash script in the same location as template.json and parameters.json and run the bash script.

ARM Template + Ruby

Using the Microsoft Azure Resource Management Client Library for Ruby . Save the following ruby script in the same location as template.json and parameters.json and run the ruby script. More information : azure_mgmt_resources .

ARM Template + C#

Using the Nuget Package Microsoft.Azure.Management.ResourceManager

ARM Template + Visual Studio

Using Azure Resource Group Project . Visual Studio gives you a nice UI experience to invoke the script and provide some parameter values. More help here : Azure Resource Group for Visual Studio

ARM Template + REST API

Use this guide : Deploy with the REST API

AzureSMR package

This method lets you deploy a R Server HDInsight Cluster from your R session.

Using AzureSMR package, you can either deploy the above provided ARM templates using azureDeployTemplate () function (OR) create HDI cluster directly using azureCreateHDI() function.

More details here: Introducing the AzureSMR package: Manage Azure services from your R session .

Here is the code using azureCreateHDI() function :





I will update this document as when I find more new ways to create R Server on HDInsight Cluster. Please use the comments section to report any issues (OR) provide feedback on the above ways.