Azure container - simple R plumber deployment question? - r

Question

I am deploying simple plumber API in Azure container which executes simple SQL query and returns results. Here is my Dockerfile.
# start from the rocker/r-ver:4.0.2 image
# minor change to one branch to test deployment
FROM rocker/r-ver:4.0.2
# install the linux libraries needed for plumber
RUN apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y \
libssl-dev \
libcurl4-gnutls-dev \
libsodium-dev \
unixodbc-dev \
r-cran-rodbc \
curl\
libxml2-dev
# libiodbc2-dev
# We need to update Dockerfile to install ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server for
# Ubuntu 20.04 or different version
# here is link: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/connect/odbc/linux-mac/installing-the-microsoft-odbc-driver-for-sql-server?view=sql-server-ver15#ubuntu17
RUN curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | apt-key add -
RUN curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/20.04/prod.list > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-release.list
RUN apt-get update
RUN ACCEPT_EULA=Y apt-get install -y msodbcsql17
RUN ACCEPT_EULA=Y apt-get install -y mssql-tools
RUN echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bash_profile
RUN echo 'export PATH="$PATH:/opt/mssql-tools/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc
# RUN source /etc/bash.bashrc
RUN mkdir -p ~/application
# copy everything from the current directory into the container
COPY "/" "application/"
# I probably do not even have to set up WORKDIR
WORKDIR "application/"
# open port 80 to traffic
EXPOSE 80
# install plumber
RUN R -e "install.packages('plumber')"
RUN R -e "install.packages('renv')"
RUN R -e "install.packages('RODBC')"
RUN R -e 'renv::restore()'
# when the container starts, start the main.R script
ENTRYPOINT ["Rscript", "execute_plumber.R"]
API works fine. However, when I connect to container, run R and execute library(RODBC) I get back error about library not found. This is puzzling since it is already mentioned in Dockerfile, but maybe it has something to do with renv. I proceed with installation install.packages('RODBC') and it generates error which I can fix by running apt-get install unixodbc-dev and apt-get install r-cran-rodbc. Those lines are again already present in Dockerfile. Then when I try to connect to SQL server I get error about driver. And again I can fix it by re-executing lines from Dockerfile (related to SQL Server 17 driver).
So I am puzzled why I need to re-execute some items already present in Dockerfile. Or maybe when I click "Connect" in Azure it actually connects me to host and not to container?