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(this is currently used as the README file); improve comments
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    1: $Id: shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt,v 1.4 2002/07/18 21:30:21 harris41 Exp $
    2: 
    3: INSTALLING LON-CAPA ON A REDHAT 7.2/7.3 SYSTEM
    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: 
   17: PLEASE contact sharrison@users.sourceforge.net if these instructions
   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: 
   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)
   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
   43: the author of this document and more importantly you!
   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
   49: system.  Please e-mail sharrison@users.sourceforge.net or
   50: helen@lon-capa.org for help with software installation.
   51: 
   52: Hardware Recommendation
   53: -----------------------
   54: 
   55: For full-time, classroom usage, an adequate LON-CAPA server
   56: should be/have:
   57: 
   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.
   70: 
   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
   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: 
   78: We like to think of high web server usage as "a good problem" though.... :)
   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.
   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
  103: with RedHat to reduce high-frequency system administration overhead.
  104: 
  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.
  115: 
  116: *** PERL ***
  117: A LON-CAPA system needs to have all the
  118: necessary perl modules inside /usr/lib/perl5/.
  119: 
  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).
  127: 
  128: *** MYSQL ***
  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.
  138: 
  139: *** APACHE ***
  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.
  144: 
  145: Testing
  146: -------
  147: 
  148: The ./TEST command automates five different kinds of tests.
  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: