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'Error reading launcher key' After Running Diagnostics Command

Emily Crisan
  • Updated

Issue

After running the rstudio-server run-diagnostics command on a Posit Workbench node, the node enters an error state with the message 'Error reading launcher key'. This can occur in load-balanced environments when the diagnostics command is executed.

Description

This issue occurs because when running the diagnostic script, Workbench performs an rstudio-server reload. During the reload, the rserver process has already lowered its privileges to the server user (typically rstudio-server), which then cannot access launcher.pem when it's owned by root with restrictive (0600) permissions.

The issue was fixed in Workbench version 2024.12.1.

Solution

If you encounter this error, you can:

Temporary fix:

  1. Check the permissions of the launcher key file:

    ls -la /etc/rstudio/launcher.pem

  2. If the file is owned by root and not readable by rstudio-server, update the ownership:

    chown rstudio-server /etc/rstudio/launcher.pem

  3. Alternatively, restart the Workbench services:

    sudo rstudio-server restart

Permanent fix:

Upgrade to Posit Workbench version 2024.12.1 or later, which includes a fix for this issue.

If you're still having issues, you can reach out to Support by opening a ticket here.

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