Annotation of doc/build/fedora_install.frag, revision 1.12

1.12    ! matthew     1: <html>
        !             2: <head><title>New installation instructions</title></head>
        !             3: <body>
        !             4: 
1.5       matthew     5: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a Fedora Core 2 Linux System</h1>
1.1       matthew     6: <p>
                      7: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
1.5       matthew     8: server running Fedora Core 2 (FC2).  The computer will be configured solely as
1.1       matthew     9: a LON-CAPA server and will be expected to have no other services running
                     10: on it.
                     11: </p><p>
                     12: More information is available at <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/">
                     13: http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>.
                     14: </p>
                     15: 
                     16: <h2>Before you begin</h2>
                     17: <p>
                     18: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier.  However, it is still a
                     19: non-trivial undertaking and experience with Red Hat Linux will make this 
                     20: process easier.  You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
                     21: some routine Unix commands.  Some familiarity with Linux is assumed.  
                     22: Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl, perl, and MySQL are not 
                     23: required to install and run LON-CAPA.
                     24: </p>
                     25: 
                     26: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
                     27: <p>
                     28: The installation process takes the following steps:
                     29: </p>
                     30: <ol>
                     31:   <li> Obtain Fedora Linux </li>
                     32:   <li> Determine Network Settings</li>
                     33:   <li> Install Fedora </li>
1.12    ! matthew    34:   <li> Updating your system </li>
        !            35:   <li> Installing LON-CAPA </li>
1.1       matthew    36:   <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li>
                     37:   <li> Start/Restart services </li>
                     38:   <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li>
                     39: </ol>
                     40: 
                     41: <h2>Obtain Fedora Linux</h2>
                     42: <p>
                     43: Fedora linux ISO files can be obtained from the projects main site,
                     44: <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">http://fedora.redhat.com/</a>.
                     45: </p>
                     46: 
                     47: <h2>Determine Network Settings</h2>
                     48: <p>
                     49: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.  
                     50: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
                     51: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
                     52: </p>
                     53: <ul>
                     54:   <li>ip address </li>
                     55:   <li>netmask </li>
                     56:   <li>hostname </li>
                     57:   <li>gateway </li>
                     58:   <li>domain name server(s) </li>
                     59: </ul>
                     60: 
                     61: <h2>Install Fedora</h2>
                     62: <p>
                     63: Installing Fedora is quite easy if you've installed any of the Red Hat products
                     64: before.  Some documentation is available from 
                     65: <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/anaconda-installer/">
                     66: http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/anaconda-installer/</a>.
                     67: There are a few sections that require comment.
                     68: </p>
                     69: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
                     70:    <dt>Installation Type</dt>
                     71:    <dd>You should do a "Server" install.  We do not recommend
                     72:        trying to install LON-CAPA with a different installation type.</dd>
                     73:    <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
                     74:    <dd>You may want to use the automatic partitioning feature of the installer,
                     75:        however you should review the results and be prepared to modify them.
                     76:        LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, so the
                     77:        lion's share of the drive should be allocated here.  If you have 20 GB 
1.2       matthew    78:        of space for Red Hat, /home should receive at least 10 to 12 gigs.  
                     79:        Since MySQL uses the /var filesystem to store its databases you should
                     80:        have at least 4 gigs of space available on /var.  Be sure to 
1.1       matthew    81:        include adequate swap space.  A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
                     82:        typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.</dd>
                     83:    <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
                     84:    <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic 
                     85:        IP address.  When configuring your network card, be sure to unselect
                     86:        the DHCP option and enter in your network information.</dd>
                     87:    <dt>Firewall Configuration</dt>
                     88:    <dd>The firewall should be customized to allow incoming ssh and www.  
                     89:        Additional ports used by LON-CAPA are 5663 and 8080.  
                     90:        Enter these in the entry box as <nobr>"5663:tcp, 8080:tcp"</nobr>.</dd>
                     91:    <dt>Package Group Selection</dt>
                     92:    <dd>
                     93:        <b>Do not</b> install a web server.  It is intentially omitted from
                     94:        this list.  Installing packages not listed below is not recommended.
                     95:        If you install packages not listed below you should expect difficulties
                     96:        when installing the LON-CAPA dependencies.
                     97:       <ul>
                     98:          <li>Editors</li>
                     99:          <li>Text Based Internet</li>
                    100:          <li>Authoring and Publishing</li>
1.5       matthew   101:          <li>Server Configuration Tools</li>
1.4       matthew   102:          <li>Development Tools</li>
                    103:          <li>Administration Tools</li>
                    104:          <li>Printing Support</li>
1.1       matthew   105:       </ul>
                    106:    </dd>
                    107: </dl>
                    108: <p>
                    109: Finish installing your server, reboot it, and log in as root.
                    110: </p>
                    111: 
1.12    ! matthew   112: <h2>Updating your system</h2>
1.1       matthew   113: <p>
1.12    ! matthew   114: Retrieve the loncapa_yum.conf file from the LON-CAPA install site:
1.1       matthew   115: </p>
                    116: <pre>
1.12    ! matthew   117: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/fedora/loncapa_yum.conf 
1.1       matthew   118: </pre>
                    119: <p>
1.12    ! matthew   120: Update your system to the latest versions of the system software:
1.1       matthew   121: </p>
                    122: <pre>
1.12    ! matthew   123: yum -c ./loncapa_yum.conf update
1.1       matthew   124: </pre>
                    125: <p>
1.12    ! matthew   126: You will probably need to reboot your system, specifically when a new kernel is
        !           127: installed.  Reboot your system before proceeding with the LON-CAPA install.
1.1       matthew   128: </p>
                    129: 
1.12    ! matthew   130: <h2>Installing LON-CAPA</h2>
        !           131: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
1.6       matthew   132: <p>
1.12    ! matthew   133: On our test install we needed to remove the httpd and system-config-httpd 
        !           134: packages using the command: 
        !           135: </p><pre>
        !           136: rpm -e httpd system-config-httpd
        !           137: </pre>
1.6       matthew   138: <p>
1.12    ! matthew   139: Installating the LON-CAPA prerequisites is pretty straightforward.  Execute:
        !           140: </p><pre>
        !           141: yum -c ./loncapa_yum.conf install LONCAPA-prerequisites
        !           142: </pre><p>
        !           143: This may take a moment due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
1.5       matthew   144: </p><p>
1.12    ! matthew   145: If yum complains of conflicting packages you will need to uninstall them 
        !           146: using 'rpm -e <packagename>'.
1.7       matthew   147: </p>
1.12    ! matthew   148: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
1.7       matthew   149: <p>
1.12    ! matthew   150: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with the following command:
1.7       matthew   151: </p>
1.12    ! matthew   152: <pre>
        !           153: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/fedora/fedora_install.tar
        !           154: </pre>
1.7       matthew   155: <p>
1.12    ! matthew   156: Extract the archive with the following command:
1.1       matthew   157: </p>
                    158: <pre>
1.12    ! matthew   159: tar xf fedora_install.tar
1.1       matthew   160: </pre>
                    161: <p>
1.12    ! matthew   162: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>.  Change to it and
        !           163: execute the setup script with the following commands:
1.1       matthew   164: </p>
                    165: <pre>
1.12    ! matthew   166: cd installation
1.1       matthew   167: ./install.pl
                    168: </pre>
1.12    ! matthew   169: <p>
        !           170: This script will prompt you for the MySQL root password and will download the latest LON-CAPA release.
        !           171: </p>
1.1       matthew   172: 
1.12    ! matthew   173: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
1.1       matthew   174: <p>
                    175: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order
                    176: for it to function at all.  Below is a list with descriptions.
                    177: </p>
                    178: <dl>
                    179:   <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
                    180:   <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server.  In
                    181:       general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
                    182:       their course content on and run their courses.  Students should connect
                    183:       to access servers.  If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at 
                    184:       your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
                    185:       should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
                    186:   <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
                    187:   <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
                    188:       Here at MSU we use 'msu'.  You should choose something short but
                    189:       meaningful.  <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or 
                    190:       special characters.</i>
                    191:   </dd>
                    192:   <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
                    193:   <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name.  We use names
                    194:       such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word, 
                    195:       no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
                    196:   </dd>
                    197:   <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
                    198:   <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal.  Messages
                    199:       are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in 
                    200:       serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
                    201:   </dd>
                    202: </dl>
                    203: 
1.12    ! matthew   204: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
1.1       matthew   205: <p>
                    206: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
                    207: </p>
                    208: <pre>
1.5       matthew   209: cd /root/loncapa-N.N     (N.N should correspond to a version number like '1.2')
1.1       matthew   210: ./UPDATE
                    211: </pre>
                    212: <p>
                    213: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined 
                    214: in the previous section.  
                    215: </p>
                    216: 
                    217: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
                    218: <p>
                    219: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
                    220: 'domain coordinator'.  This user creates accounts for other users and
                    221: grants them additional privileges.  The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
                    222: invoked below requires that you enter the users password.  The password will
                    223: show in plaintext as you type it.  Feel free to use the "passwd username"
                    224: command to change it later.  Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an 
                    225: appropriate user name and your domain.
                    226: </p>
                    227: <pre>
                    228: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
                    229: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
                    230: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
1.8       matthew   231: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html
                    232: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html
                    233: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html
                    234: chmod a+x ~USERNAME
1.1       matthew   235: </pre>
                    236: 
                    237: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
                    238: <p>
                    239: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start.  Most misconfigurations
                    240: will be appearant at this step.
                    241: </p>
                    242: <pre>
                    243: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
                    244: /etc/init.d/httpd start
                    245: </pre>
1.5       matthew   246: <p>
                    247: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
                    248: please make sure you followed the instructions in 
                    249: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>.  If you still have errors, please
                    250: contact the LON-CAPA development team.
                    251: </p>
1.1       matthew   252: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
                    253: <p>
                    254: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
                    255: coordinator.  Congratulations!
                    256: </p>
1.4       matthew   257: 
                    258: <h2>If Things aren't working right</h2>
                    259: <p>
                    260: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think 
                    261: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA developers.
                    262: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
                    263: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
                    264: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
                    265: </p>
1.12    ! matthew   266: 
        !           267: </body>

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