Apparent incorrect location of .tex template chosen by rstudio server

While connected to RStudio Server version 1.1.453 serving R version 3.5.0 on CentOS7

I get an error knitting the default RMarkdown file:

...
output file: delme.knit.md

/usr/lib/rstudio-server/bin/pandoc/pandoc +RTS -K512m -RTS delme.utf8.md --to latex --from markdown+autolink_bare_uris+ascii_identifiers+tex_math_single_backslash --output delme.tex --template /n/apps/CentOS7/install/r-3.5.0/lib64/R/library/rmarkdown/rmd/latex/default-1.17.0.2.tex --highlight-style tango --latex-engine pdflatex --variable graphics=yes --variable 'geometry:margin=1in' --variable 'compact-title:yes' 
Error: Failed to compile delme.tex.
Execution halted

Can anyone see what is amiss in my installation/configuration?

What is odd to me is the location of the --template which I might have expected to be found within /usr/lib/rstudio-server since "RStudio is bundled with a binary archive of the rmarkdown package".

Thanks!