Annotation of doc/shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt, revision 1.4

1.4     ! harris41    1: $Id: shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt,v 1.3 2002/04/22 00:07:19 harris41 Exp $
1.1       harris41    2: 
1.4     ! harris41    3: INSTALLING LON-CAPA ON A REDHAT 7.2/7.3 SYSTEM
1.1       harris41    4: 
                      5: Scott Harrison
                      6: 
                      7: * Quick Instructions
                      8: * Support
                      9: * System Requirements
                     10: * Strategy
                     11: * Testing
                     12: * Acknowledgements
                     13: 
                     14: Quick Instructions
                     15: ------------------
                     16: 
1.4     ! harris41   17: PLEASE contact sharrison@users.sourceforge.net if these instructions
1.1       harris41   18: do not work.
                     19: PLEASE subscribe yourself to the ANNOUNCE MAILING LIST!
                     20: Go to http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-announce 
                     21: 
1.4     ! harris41   22: 1. Download the current version of LON-CAPA from
        !            23:    http://install.lon-capa.org/downloads/
        !            24: 2. tar xzvf loncapa-N.N.tar.gz (where N.N is the current version number)
1.1       harris41   25: 3. cd loncapa
                     26: 4. Read the README file (this file).
                     27: 5. EXECUTE: ./UPDATE
                     28: 6. EXECUTE: ./TEST
                     29: 
                     30: Please follow the instructions that are given
                     31: to you by the TEST command.  You will probably
                     32: have to make a few changes and continue to run
                     33: TEST until all the system-critical steps are
                     34: taken care of.
                     35: 
                     36: Support
                     37: -------
                     38: 
                     39: LON-CAPA is a GPL-based project which originally was, and in a
                     40: significant sense still is, located at Michigan State University.  
                     41: The installation, software versioning, and specification is
                     42: currently maintained by the freeware community which includes
1.2       harris41   43: the author of this document and more importantly you!
1.1       harris41   44: 
                     45: Your interest, questions and suggestions are enthusiastically
                     46: invited for the specific development of the GPL code.
                     47: 
                     48: We do our best to help get you started with a 100% operational
1.4     ! harris41   49: system.  Please e-mail sharrison@users.sourceforge.net or
        !            50: helen@lon-capa.org for help with software installation.
1.1       harris41   51: 
1.2       harris41   52: Hardware Recommendation
                     53: -----------------------
1.1       harris41   54: 
1.2       harris41   55: For full-time, classroom usage, an adequate LON-CAPA server
                     56: should be/have:
1.1       harris41   57: 
1.2       harris41   58: * a multiprocessor machine,
                     59: * a CPU speed of 1 gigahertz,
                     60: * a gigabyte of memory,
                     61: * and at least 40 to 80 gigabytes of hard disk space.
                     62: 
                     63: A lesser machine can be used for toying around with LON-CAPA
                     64: (LON-CAPA will run for a single user on most any machine).
                     65: 
                     66: LON-CAPA servers experience significant peaks of activity
                     67: before a homework submission deadline.  To support these critical
                     68: peaks of activity, it is strongly advised that LON-CAPA machines
                     69: fit the above recommendation.
1.1       harris41   70: 
1.4     ! harris41   71: If thousands of students start accessing the box as a web server,
        !            72: then you may want to consider more options.  The design of the LON-CAPA
1.2       harris41   73: system is to naturally and transparently load-balance on multiple
                     74: computer clusters.  So, a simple solution for running an entire
                     75: college campus is to just have an adequate plurality of LON-CAPA
                     76: servers rather than a single, particularly monstrous server.
                     77: 
1.4     ! harris41   78: We like to think of high web server usage as "a good problem" though.... :)
1.2       harris41   79: 
                     80: More Information on Hardware and System Administration
                     81: ------------------------------------------------------
                     82: 
                     83: I find that LON-CAPA works nicely (for development purposes)
                     84: on a Pentium II, 20 gigabytes of hard-disk space, 256M RAM,
                     85: and 400MHz.  The consensus is though, that this may only
                     86: be adequate for a class of a dozen students. 
                     87: 
                     88: If you are making a serious investment, we suggest you
                     89: join our mailing list by visiting
                     90: http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users.
                     91: By posting to this mailing list, you can learn about what
                     92: solutions have worked for others.
                     93: 
                     94: LON-CAPA works on any Intel-based RedHat-compatible
                     95: hardware.  Unlike other software systems, it works
                     96: comparatively well on dusty old crippled machines without
                     97: much RAM or processing.
1.1       harris41   98: 
                     99: We support Linux OS.  LON-CAPA has been shown to work on Debian,
                    100: Mandrake, and RedHat.  Instructions are based on RedHat-centric
                    101: installs.  Given the current level of new LON-CAPA feature requests
                    102: and frequency of new software versions, we suggest that you stick
1.2       harris41  103: with RedHat to reduce high-frequency system administration overhead.
1.1       harris41  104: 
1.4     ! harris41  105: Critical system software: a "strategic" outlook
        !           106: ---------------------------------------------
        !           107: 
        !           108: In this section, issues related to LON-CAPA server software
        !           109: are discussed.  (The section after this section describes how to test
        !           110: and fix problems associated with the issues described below.)
        !           111: 
        !           112: In general, you should expect that LON-CAPA "completely overtakes"
        !           113: a Linux server system.  Using the same LON-CAPA server computer to disseminate
        !           114: other unrelated services to your institution is not recommended.
1.1       harris41  115: 
                    116: *** PERL ***
1.4     ! harris41  117: A LON-CAPA system needs to have all the
        !           118: necessary perl modules inside /usr/lib/perl5/.
1.1       harris41  119: 
1.4     ! harris41  120: *** RPMs ***
        !           121: RPMs are the software packages on a RedHat linux system (the standard,
        !           122: supported operating system for LON-CAPA).  For security reasons, you need
        !           123: to keep your RPMs up to date.  For security and performance reasons, a
        !           124: knowledgeable system administrator at your institution should try to have
        !           125: a reasonably minimal set; e.g. a LON-CAPA server probably does not need the
        !           126: "pine" RPM (an e-mail client).
1.1       harris41  127: 
                    128: *** MYSQL ***
1.4     ! harris41  129: The MySQL database facilitates fast transactions by passing information on
        !           130: the LON-CAPA server to the world-wide web.  Important point: in order to
        !           131: prevent problems associated with 1) corrupted database files,
        !           132: 2) database crashes, 3) changing versions of MySQL, and 4) information export
        !           133: and import, the information in the MySQL database IS NOT AUTHORITATIVE.
        !           134: In other words, if the MySQL database gets wiped out, YOU HAVE NOT LOST
        !           135: CRITICAL DATA.  The authoritative data exists on the filesystem and
        !           136: the MySQL database is dynamically repopulated and refreshed by 
        !           137: /home/httpd/perl/searchcat.pl.
1.1       harris41  138: 
                    139: *** APACHE ***
1.4     ! harris41  140: LON-CAPA expects that conf/loncapa_apache.conf will be the last Apache
        !           141: configuration file to be processed before launching the httpd server.  This
        !           142: may interfere with other ways in which you utilize your web server.  For
        !           143: instance, LON-CAPA requires that httpd run as user=www and group=www.
1.1       harris41  144: 
                    145: Testing
                    146: -------
1.4     ! harris41  147: 
        !           148: The ./TEST command automates five different kinds of tests.
1.1       harris41  149: 
                    150: 1. Perl
                    151: 
                    152: 2. MySQL
                    153: 
                    154: 3. Web Layer
                    155: 
                    156: 4. File Status
                    157: 
                    158: 5. RPM Status
                    159: 
                    160: Acknowledgements
                    161: ----------------
                    162: 
                    163: Many thanks to Matthew Hall (Michigan State University),
                    164: Guy Albertelli (Michigan State University), Felicia
                    165: Berryman (Michigan State University), Gerd Kortemeyer
                    166: (Michigan State University) and Martin Siegert (Simon
                    167: Frasier University) for their responsive feedback regarding
                    168: ideas in this document.
                    169: 

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