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updating dates of change

1: <H1>LON-CAPA Installation Instructions</H1> 2: <CENTER>for the 05/24/2001 developer's release 3: Scott Harrison, last updated 05/19/2001</CENTER> 4: 5: What you need: 6: <UL> 7: <LI>a RedHat Linux compatible computer that is hooked up to the ethernet 8: with a working IP address, 9: <LI>a LON-CAPA installation CD, 10: <LI>and an installation boot floppy. 11: </UL> 12: 13: 14: Starting instructions: 15: <UL> 16: <LI>Turn the computer off. 17: <LI>Insert the "LON-CAPA Installation Boot Floppy" 18: <LI>Turn the computer on. 19: <LI>During boot-up, insert the "LON-CAPA Installation CD-ROM" 20: <LI>(For systems with bootable CD-ROM devices, you can just use 21: the CD-ROM and not use the installation boot floppy). 22: </UL> 23: 24: 25: Warnings: 26: <UL> 27: <LI>Installation will remove all data on your computer. 28: <LI>This is a prototype installation release of a developing software system. 29: <LI>We are developing documentation on the LON-CAPA installation 30: at http://install.lon-capa.org/. Documentation is not well developed 31: on these pages, but it may be of some help in understanding the system 32: internals. 33: <LI>Standard legal disclaimer: Use this software at your own risk. By 34: using this software you assume all liability for its operation. 35: </UL> 36: 37: 38: Installation screens: 39: 40: The following installation screens present an example 41: installation for a computer grover.morphy.edu (12.34.56.99) done by a 42: Doctor Herbert Sherbert. Since this is the first installation 43: of a LON-CAPA server at Morphy University, Dr. Sherbert chooses 44: to install a library server which can store educational resources 45: (as opposed to an access server which simply load-balances high 46: amounts of web server requests). For those experienced with 47: RedHat-type installations, there are really only two screens which are 48: specific to setting LON-CAPA system parameters. 49: <UL> 50: <LI>Installation Welcome Screen. Just press the 51: "Enter/Return" key at this first screen. 52: <LI>Language Selection. Choose English. (It is the 53: only supported language so far in the translation tables associated 54: with the installation). Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 55: <LI>Keyboard Selection. Most likely, you have a "us" 56: keyboard which is the default setting. Select "OK" to advance to the 57: next screen. 58: <LI>Welcome to Learning Online!. This screen 59: directs you to look for more information at http://install.lon-capa.org/. 60: Please be advised that documentation on these pages is not highly 61: developed. Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 62: <LI>Installation Type. Five options are presented on this 63: installation screen. 64: <UL> 65: <LI>Install LON-CAPA Library Server 66: <LI>Install LON-CAPA Access Server 67: <LI>Install LON-CAPA Library Development Server 68: <LI>Install LON-CAPA Access Development System 69: <LI>Upgrade Existing Installation 70: </UL> 71: If this is the first LON-CAPA machine you are setting up at your 72: institution, I strongly recommend you select "Install LON-CAPA Library 73: Development Server". The first two choices are run-time servers which 74: are significantly more secure (for instance, do not support telnet, 75: just ssh). These choices do not support X-windows or other system 76: amenities which will make tinkering and learning about the LON-CAPA 77: system more difficult. Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 78: <LI>Manual Partitioning. Read the screen. Write down 79: the amount of RAM on your system. Multiply the RAM by ten and 80: calculate the number of MEGAbytes (not kilobytes) of swap space 81: your system is recommended to be on your hard drive. 82: Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 83: <LI>Current Disk Partitions. More information 84: on using disk druid to properly configure a linux system is present on 85: many different internet sites that you can find with an internet 86: search engine like www.google.com. One such site is 87: http://www.linuxinfor.com/rhl70/s1-textmode-partition.html. 88: Partition your hard disk. Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 89: <LI>Choose Partitions to Format. Select all your partitions 90: and select "OK". (You probably do not need to check for bad blocks 91: during the format). 92: <LI>Hostname Configuration. Dr. Sherbert would 93: enter grover.morphy.edu. You would enter the host name corresponding 94: to the working IP address attached by ethernet to your computer. 95: Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 96: <LI>Network Configuration. Do NOT use bootp/dhcp. 97: LON-CAPA only works with static IP. Enter in the IP address of 98: your computer (e.g. 12.34.56.99). Find out the correct values 99: for netmask, gateway, and primary nameserver from other personnel 100: at your institution (or look at information present on currently 101: connected computers). Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 102: <LI>Library Server Configuration. "LON Host ID" can be 103: any set of alphanumeric characters. This host id must be unique (per computer) 104: in terms of the entire worldwide LON-CAPA network. The system administrator 105: e-mail is where periodic status reports are e-mailed in the event of 106: system startup, shutdown, malfunction, and routine checks. The domain 107: is a set of alphanumeric characters unique to a given institution. 108: The final two fields, "Load Limit" and "Expiration Time", allow 109: for the handling of server load and cached educational resources. 110: We recommend that you leave these two fields at their default values. 111: <IMG ALIGN="TOP" SRC="libraryserverconfiguration.gif" ALT="library server configuration graphic"> 112:   113: <LI>Library System Settings. Many different kinds 114: of computers are used at Morphy University: Macintosh, Linux, BSD, and Windows 115: 3.1/95/98/2000/Me/NT. To provide flexible and easy access to the library 116: server for faculty participants, Samba is selected to enable Windows/Network 117: Neighborhood file shares (e.g. Loncapa_morphy/Morphyl1). Apple Shares 118: is selected to enable Apple Share connection with the Apple "Chooser" 119: (e.g. LONCAPA_MORPHYL1). NFS is selected to enable user-specific network 120: file services for Linux (and other) computers with NFS client utilities. 121: NTP Server allows for the synchronization of time and should be set to 122: an IP address that supports the XNTP version 3 protocol; if left blank, 123: there will be no time synchronization on the server, though it's 124: time is expected to remain relatively constant (and correct if the machine 125: is configured properly). Kerberos realm allows for authenticating students 126: and instructors based on an institution's Kerberos version 4 password-checking 127: scheme (if supported by the institution). IMPORTANT: You will 128: need to add an entry to hosts.tab (second "Add" key) corresponding to 129: your new installation. Dr. Sherbert would enter something corresponding to 130: morphyl1:morphy:library:grover.morphy.edu:12.34.56.99. 131: <IMG ALIGN="TOP" SRC="librarysystemsettings.gif" ALT="library server configuration graphic"> 132:   133: <LI>Mouse Selection. Enter the appropriate values 134: for describing the model mouse attached to your computer. 135: Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 136: <LI>Time Zone Selection. You probably do not want to select 137: the GMT option. Just enter in the time zone of your institution. 138: (If the time is incorrect upon system bootup, and you cannot or do not want 139: to connect to an NTP server, you can always reconfigure the system time 140: with the command, as root, /usr/sbin/timeconfig). 141: Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 142: <LI>Root Password. Enter in your machine's root password. 143: Be creative and decide on something non-guessable. 144: Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 145: <LI>Web Server Password. Enter in your machine's 146: password for a user 'www'. Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 147: <LI>Add User. Add a user to the machine. 148: Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 149: <LI>User Account Setup. Perform any additional 150: changes to the user accounts on your machine. 151: Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 152: <LI>X probe results. (We assume you have a detectable 153: video card). Select "OK" to advance to the next screen. 154: <LI>Warning, Installation to begin. You will 155: now erase all data on your hard disk and install the LON-CAPA 156: system. Select "OK" to courageously begin. 157: <LI>Package Installation. A carefully selected 158: set of RPMs is being installed that provides full LON-CAPA system 159: functionality. 160: <LI>Bootdisk. If you want (though it is probably 161: not necessary), you can insert a fresh (NOT your LON-CAPA installation 162: boot floppy) floppy disk to help ensure you can boot up your LON-CAPA 163: server system. 164: <LI>Monitor Setup. Select what kind of monitor is 165: attached to your computer (or just choose custom). Several screens 166: will follow which guide your configuration of your computer monitor. 167: (Note that this configuration only occurs with development servers, 168: since the other servers do not support X-windows). It probably 169: makes sense to start "X" up when booting if it appears it is 170: correctly configuring your computer monitor. 171: <LI>Note about hosts.allow. To enable various kinds 172: of network connectivity (including appleshares, network neighborhood, 173: telnet, ftp, nfs) from other computers on the internet, you may want 174: to adjust your /etc/hosts.allow table after boot-time. (The web server 175: and the LON-CAPA network layer do not depend on /etc/hosts.allow however.) 176: Dr. Sherbert added the following line to his /etc/hosts.allow file to make sure 177: other computers at Morphy University could access grover.morphy.edu: 178: <PRE> 179: ALL: .morphy.edu 180: </PRE> 181: Alternatively, to allow wide access (though password-protected) to anyone 182: in the world, Dr. Sherbert could have added 183: <PRE> 184: ALL: ALL 185: </PRE> 186: <LI>Complete. Select "OK" to reboot the system. 187: Be sure to remove your installation medium (both the CD-ROM and installation 188: floppy) before boot-up. 189: </UL> 190: Booting up for the first time: 191: <UL> 192: <LI>It will probably say "Cannot connect to the database!" after the 193: loncontrol server process runs upon boot-up. You need to edit 194: /etc/httpd/conf/access.conf and replace the line 195: <pre>PerlSetVar lonSqlAccess {[[[[lonSqlAccess]]]]}</pre> 196: with 197: <pre>PerlSetVar lonSqlAccess 123</pre> 198: <LI>Please, as root, run "sh /usr/sbin/loncapa_configure". This is a one-time 199: action that synchronizes the system services on the machine. 200: </UL> 201: Feedback: 202: <UL> 203: <LI>Specific ideas on how to manage the installation can be sent to 204: harris41@msu.edu. In terms of bug reports, we would also like to hear 205: from you, but there is no need for great detail (or despair?) since the 206: bug is most likely already on our "to-do" list. 207: </UL>