Deploy a local DataSHIELD server with Opal

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This tutorial starts a local DataSHIELD server with Docker, so you can try {dsROCrate} (or anything else that talks to DataSHIELD) without touching a production system. It uses Opal, the data repository developed by OBiBa and the reference implementation of the DataSHIELD infrastructure.

Local testing only: the accounts and passwords below are public defaults. Never expose this deployment to a network, and change them if you reuse it for anything else.

1. Start the containers

We assume Docker is installed and configured on your computer; if not, see Get started with Docker.

The easiest option is to clone FederatedMethods/datashield_dev_install, which has a step by step guide and a ready to use docker-compose.yml. On Linux or macOS:

git clone https://github.com/FederatedMethods/datashield_dev_install
cd datashield_dev_install/docker
docker compose up -d

In the Docker GUI you should see something like the following:

Docker containers started by docker-compose

2. The accounts

The docker-compose.yml file defines two accounts (you can change them by editing the variables OPAL_DEMO_USER_NAME and OPAL_DEMO_USER_PASSWORD):

Account	Password	Used for
`administrator`	`password`	Logging in to the Opal web interface; auditing with `{dsROCrate}`
`dsuser`	`P@ssw0rd`	Running DataSHIELD analyses (the user whose activity is audited)

3. Test the deployment

In a web browser, go to http://localhost:8880 and log in as administrator.
In RStudio (or your preferred IDE), connect to the server from R:
```
con <- opalr::opal.login(
  username = "administrator",
  password = "password",
  url = "http://localhost:8880"
)
print(con)
```
You should see something like:
```
url: http://localhost:8880
name: localhost
version: X.Y.Z
username: administrator
```
{dsROCrate} requires Opal 5.7.2 or later (6.0 or later to capture RESOLVE operations in the outputs). If the version shown is older, update the Opal image in docker-compose.yml.

The containers also expose HTTPS on port 8843. That endpoint usually uses a self-signed certificate, which R clients may reject unless certificate verification is relaxed, so we use plain HTTP on port 8880 for local testing.

(Optional) Run some commands as dsuser with {dsBaseClient}. This also creates activity in the server logs, which the audit in the next section will find:

# registers the OpalDriver class in the current session
DSOpal::Opal()

# create the login object
builder <- DSI::newDSLoginBuilder()
builder$append(
  server = "study1",
  url = "http://localhost:8880",
  user = "dsuser",
  password = "P@ssw0rd",
  driver = "OpalDriver"
)
conns <- DSI::datashield.login(logins = builder$build())

# assign a table to the symbol `test`
DSI::datashield.assign.table(
  conns["study1"],
  symbol = "test",
  table = "CNSIM.CNSIM1",
  errors.print = TRUE
)

dsBaseClient::ds.ls(datasources = conns["study1"])
dsBaseClient::ds.summary("test", datasources = conns["study1"])

DSI::datashield.logout(conns)

4. Audit your local server

With the connection con from step 3.2:

dsROCrate::check_permissions(con, verbose = TRUE)

crate <- dsROCrate::audit(
  con,
  project = "CNSIM",
  tables = "CNSIM1",
  user = "dsuser"
)

dsROCrate::report(crate, title = "Local DataSHIELD audit")

opalr::opal.logout(con)

See vignette("getting-started", package = "dsROCrate") for what these functions do, and vignette("audit-permissions", package = "dsROCrate") to create a dedicated auditor account instead of using administrator.

5. Stop the server

From the same docker directory:

docker compose down

These binaries (installable software) and packages are in development.
They may not be fully stable and should be used with caution. We make no claims about them.