Annotation of doc/build/FC4_install.frag, revision 1.2
1.1 albertel 1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal Fedora Core 4 Linux System</h1>
2: <p>
3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
4: server running Fedora Core 4 (FC4) with a minimum of packages installed.
5: The computer will be configured solely as a LON-CAPA server and will be
6: expected to have no other services running. Your server is expected to have
7: a reasonably fast connection to the internet.
8: </p><p>
9: More information is available at
10: <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/">http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>.
11: </p>
12:
13: <h2>Before you begin</h2>
14: <p>
15: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier. However, it is still a
16: non-trivial undertaking and experience with Red Hat Linux will make this
17: process easier. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
18: some routine Unix commands.Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl,
19: perl, and MySQL are not required to install and run LON-CAPA.
20: </p>
21:
22: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
23: <p>
24: The installation process takes the following steps:
25: </p>
26: <ol>
27: <li> Obtain Fedora Core 4 installation CDs</li>
28: <li> Determine Network Settings</li>
29: <li> Install Fedora Core 4 </li>
30: <li> Update your system </li>
31: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li>
32: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li>
33: <li> Start/Restart services </li>
34: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li>
35: </ol>
36:
37: <h2>Obtain Fedora Core 4</h2>
38: <p>
39: FC4 ISO files can be obtained from the projects main site,
40: <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">http://fedora.redhat.com/</a>.
41: For the minimal install you will need only the first ISO image (e.g., FC4-i386-disc1.iso CD for x86-compatible 32-bit).
42: </p>
43:
44: <h2>Determine Network Settings</h2>
45: <p>
46: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.
47: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
48: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
49: </p>
50: <ul>
51: <li>ip address </li>
52: <li>netmask </li>
53: <li>hostname </li>
54: <li>gateway </li>
55: <li>domain name server(s) </li>
56: </ul>
57:
58: <h2>Minimal FC4 Install</h2>
59: <p>
60: Installing Fedora is quite easy if you've installed any of the Red Hat products
61: before. Some documentation is available from
62: <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/anaconda-installer/">
63: http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/anaconda-installer/</a>.
64: Most of the installation screens are self explanatory.
65: There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
66: </p>
67: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
68: <dt>Installation Type</dt>
69: <dd>Choose "Server" installation
70: <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
71: <dd>You may want to use the automatic partitioning feature of the installer,
72: however you should review the results and be prepared to modify them.
73: LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, so the
74: majority of the disk space should be allocated here. If you have 20 GB
75: of space for FC4, /home should receive at least 10 to 12 gigs.
76: Since MySQL uses the /var filesystem to store its databases you should
77: have at least 4 gigs of space available on /var. Be sure to
78: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
79: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.</dd>
80: <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
81: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
82: IP address. When configuring your network card, be sure to unselect
83: the DHCP option and enter in your network information.</dd>
84: <dt>Firewall Configuration</dt>
85: <dd>Select SSH (remote login), HTTP/HTTPS (web server).</dd>
86: <dt>SELinux Configuration</dt>
87: <dd>Choose an SElinux setting of 'disabled' or 'warn', unless you are
88: familiar with SElinux and writing security policies
89: <b>and want to help us write a security policy for LON-CAPA</b>.
90: <dt>Package Group Selection</dt>
91: <dd>Choose 'Minimal' which is the last item on the list.</dd>
92: </dl>
93: <p>
94: Finish installing your server, reboot it, and log in as root.
95: </p>
96:
97: <!---
98:
99: The firewall should be customized to allow incoming ssh and www.
100: Additional ports used by LON-CAPA are 5663 and 8080.
101: Enter these in the entry box as <nobr>"5663:tcp, 8080:tcp"</nobr>.</dd>
102:
103: -->
104:
105: <h2>Update your system</h2>
106: <p>
107: Update your system to the latest versions of the system software using yum.
108: Yum is configured to check encyption keys for the packages it installs, so
109: you need to import the keys before invoking yum.
110: </p>
111: <pre>
112: rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora
113: rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-fedora-extras
114: yum update
115: </pre>
116: <p>
117: Reboot your system before continuing with the installation.
118: </p>
119: <p>
120: Retrieve the FC4_loncapa_yum file from the LON-CAPA install site:
121: </p>
122: <pre>
123: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/fedora/4/FC4_loncapa_yum.conf
124: </pre>
125: <p>
126: Install the FC4_loncapa_yum.conf
127: </p>
128: <pre>
129: mv /etc/yum.conf /etc/yum.conf.backup
130: cp FC4_loncapa_yum.conf /etc/yum.conf
131: yum update
132: </pre>
133: </p>
134:
135:
136: <h2>Installing LON-CAPA</h2>
137: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
138: <p> Execute: </p>
139: <pre>
140: yum install LONCAPA-prerequisites
141: </pre><p>
142: This may take a moment due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
143: </p>
144: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
145: <p>
146: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with the following command:
147: </p>
148: <pre>
149: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/fedora/4/fedora_install.tar
150: </pre>
151: <p>
152: Extract the archive with the following command:
153: </p>
154: <pre>
155: tar xf fedora_install.tar
156: </pre>
157: <p>
158: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>. Change to it and
159: execute the setup script with the following commands:
160: </p>
161: <pre>
162: cd installation
163: ./install.pl
164: </pre>
165: <p>
166: This script will prompt you for the MySQL root password and will download the latest LON-CAPA release.<br />
167: You can safely ignore the following warnings from gcc 4 when compiling pwauth:<br />
168: <tt>
169: pwauth.c: In function ‘lastlog’:
170: <ul>
171: <li>pwauth.c:541: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘strncpy’</li>
172: <li>pwauth.c:543: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘strlen’</li>
173: </ul>
174: pwauth.c: In function ‘main’:
175: <ul>
176: <li>pwauth.c:692: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘strlen’</li>
177: </ul>
178: </tt>
179:
180: </p>
181:
182: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
183: <p>
184: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
185: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
186: </p>
187: <dl>
188: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
189: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
190: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
191: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
192: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
193: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
194: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
195: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
196: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
197: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
198: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
199: special characters.</i>
200: </dd>
201: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
202: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
203: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
204: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
205: </dd>
206: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
207: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
208: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
209: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
210: </dd>
211: </dl>
212:
213: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
214: <p>
215: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
216: </p>
217: <pre>
218: cd /root/loncapa-N.N (N.N should correspond to a version number like '1.3')
219: ./UPDATE
220: </pre>
221: <p>
222: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
223: in the previous section.
224: </p>
225:
226: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
227: <p>
228: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
229: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
230: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
231: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
232: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
233: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
234: appropriate user name and your domain.
235: </p>
236: <pre>
237: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
238: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
239: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
240: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html
241: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html
242: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html
243: chmod a+x ~USERNAME
244: </pre>
245:
246: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
247: <p>
248: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
249: will be appearant at this step.
250: </p>
251: <pre>
252: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
253: /etc/init.d/httpd start
254: </pre>
255: <p>
256: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
257: please make sure you followed the instructions in
258: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
259: contact the LON-CAPA development team.
260: </p>
261: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
262: <p>
263: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
264: coordinator. Congratulations!
265: </p>
266:
267: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
268: <p>
269: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
270: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA developers.
271: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
272: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
273: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
274: </p>
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