Invoke R on a server to extract data, from within R session on host?

Question

Background

I have an R script that runs on a host, and starts jobs on a server. The jobs output large hdf5 files.

The rest of my work is done on the host. However, the R hdf5 libraries only work on the server and not the host (because of a known bug).

From R on the host, can I connect to an R session on the server, load the R hdf5 libraries, extract data from an hdf5 file, and then pass this object to the host?

Current approach

My current kludge is to call a bash script from within R that invokes an R script on the server and does the extraction to Rdata files, and then use rsync to bring it back to the host (all within system())

Question

Is there a better way to extract data from these hdf5 files on the server?

I am thinking of something like entering a server R session in the same way that I can enter the browser session when debugging.