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File: [LON-CAPA] / doc / build / fedora_install.frag
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Fri May 21 13:04:43 2004 UTC (19 years, 11 months ago) by matthew
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Misc updates - mostly addition of 'let us know if there is a problem' text.

1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a Fedora Linux System</h1> 2: <p> 3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA 4: server running Fedora Linux. The computer will be configured solely as 5: a LON-CAPA server and will be expected to have no other services running 6: on it. 7: </p><p> 8: More information is available at <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/"> 9: http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>. 10: </p> 11: 12: <h2>Before you begin</h2> 13: <p> 14: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier. However, it is still a 15: non-trivial undertaking and experience with Red Hat Linux will make this 16: process easier. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute 17: some routine Unix commands. Some familiarity with Linux is assumed. 18: Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl, perl, and MySQL are not 19: 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 Linux </li> 28: <li> Determine Network Settings</li> 29: <li> Install Fedora </li> 30: <li> Install LON-CAPA Dependencies </li> 31: <li> Determine your LON-CAPA Settings </li> 32: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li> 33: <li> Configure LON-CAPA </li> 34: <li> Pick a hosts.tab file </li> 35: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li> 36: <li> Start/Restart services </li> 37: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li> 38: </ol> 39: 40: <h2>Obtain Fedora Linux</h2> 41: <p> 42: Fedora linux ISO files can be obtained from the projects main site, 43: <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">http://fedora.redhat.com/</a>. 44: </p> 45: 46: <h2>Determine Network Settings</h2> 47: <p> 48: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation. 49: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA. 50: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported. 51: </p> 52: <ul> 53: <li>ip address </li> 54: <li>netmask </li> 55: <li>hostname </li> 56: <li>gateway </li> 57: <li>domain name server(s) </li> 58: </ul> 59: 60: <h2>Install Fedora</h2> 61: <p> 62: Installing Fedora is quite easy if you've installed any of the Red Hat products 63: before. Some documentation is available from 64: <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/anaconda-installer/"> 65: http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/anaconda-installer/</a>. 66: There are a few sections that require comment. 67: </p> 68: <dl style="list-style:square outside none"> 69: <dt>Installation Type</dt> 70: <dd>You should do a "Server" install. We do not recommend 71: trying to install LON-CAPA with a different installation type.</dd> 72: <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt> 73: <dd>You may want to use the automatic partitioning feature of the installer, 74: however you should review the results and be prepared to modify them. 75: LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, so the 76: lion's share of the drive should be allocated here. If you have 20 GB 77: of space for Red Hat, /home should receive at least 10 to 12 gigs. 78: Since MySQL uses the /var filesystem to store its databases you should 79: have at least 4 gigs of space available on /var. Be sure to 80: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should 81: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.</dd> 82: <dt>Network Configuration</dt> 83: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic 84: IP address. When configuring your network card, be sure to unselect 85: the DHCP option and enter in your network information.</dd> 86: <dt>Firewall Configuration</dt> 87: <dd>The firewall should be customized to allow incoming ssh and www. 88: Additional ports used by LON-CAPA are 5663 and 8080. 89: Enter these in the entry box as <nobr>"5663:tcp, 8080:tcp"</nobr>.</dd> 90: <dt>Package Group Selection</dt> 91: <dd> 92: <b>Do not</b> install a web server. It is intentially omitted from 93: this list. Installing packages not listed below is not recommended. 94: If you install packages not listed below you should expect difficulties 95: when installing the LON-CAPA dependencies. 96: <ul> 97: <li>Editors</li> 98: <li>Text Based Internet</li> 99: <li>Authoring and Publishing</li> 100: <li>Development Tools</li> 101: <li>Administration Tools</li> 102: <li>Printing Support</li> 103: <li>Server Configuration Tools</li> 104: </ul> 105: </dd> 106: </dl> 107: <p> 108: Finish installing your server, reboot it, and log in as root. 109: </p> 110: 111: <h2>Retrieving the LON-CAPA Installation Archive</h2> 112: <p> 113: Execute the following command: 114: </p> 115: <pre> 116: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/fedora/fedora_install.tar 117: </pre> 118: <p> 119: This will retrieve from the LON-CAPA website all the packages needed to get 120: LON-CAPA running on your system, except for the LON-CAPA source itself. 121: </p> 122: <p> 123: Extract the archive with the following command: 124: </p> 125: <pre> 126: tar xf fedora_install.tar 127: </pre> 128: <p> 129: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>. 130: </p> 131: 132: <h2>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</h2> 133: <p> 134: This section walks you through installing the packages which LON-CAPA requires. 135: There are a lot of dependencies. They have been grouped in a 136: somewhat logical fashion to make them easier to deal with. When installing 137: the rpms you should watch for errors. 138: </p><p> 139: The quick instructions are: 140: </p> 141: <pre> 142: cd installation 143: cd mysql 144: rpm -Uvh *rpm 145: cd ../apache 146: rpm -Uvh *rpm 147: cd ../mod_perl 148: rpm -Uvh *rpm 149: cd ../perl_dependencies 150: rpm -Uvh *rpm 151: cd ../GD 152: rpm -Uvh *rpm 153: cd ../gnuplot 154: rpm --install --oldpackage readline-2.2.1-6.i386.rpm 155: rpm --install --oldpackage --excludedocs libpng-1.0.12-2.i386.rpm 156: rpm -Uvh gnuplot-3.7.1-5.i386.rpm libgd-1.3-4.i386.rpm ncurses4-5.0-5.i386.rpm 157: cd ../misc 158: rpm -Uvh *rpm 159: cd .. 160: </pre> 161: <p> 162: <b>Notes:</b> 163: <ul> 164: <li>MySQL is used to store caches of data, not original copies. 165: Administering LON-CAPA machines does not yet mean becoming a 166: database administrator.</li> 167: <li>Apache 1.3 and mod_perl 1.x are required by LON-CAPA. These are 168: provided in the installation package. 169: <li>A specific version of Gnuplot is required by LON-CAPA. Do not 170: install a version different from the one included in the LON-CAPA 171: installation package.</li> 172: </ul> 173: </p> 174: 175: <h2>Configuring LON-CAPA Dependencies</h2> 176: <p> 177: We have prepared a script which takes care of most of the configuration that 178: must be done to get the newly installed packages working with LON-CAPA. 179: This script will retrieve the latest LON-CAPA release from 180: <a href="http://install.loncapa.org">http://install.loncapa.org</a>. 181: You will be prompted for a root password for your MySQL server. You 182: will need to remember this password in case you should ever need to make 183: changes the the server. 184: </p><p> 185: Execute the script as follows: 186: </p> 187: <pre> 188: cd setup; 189: ./install.pl 190: </pre> 191: 192: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h2> 193: <p> 194: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order 195: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions. 196: </p> 197: <dl> 198: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt> 199: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In 200: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create 201: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect 202: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at 203: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you 204: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd> 205: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt> 206: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain. 207: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but 208: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or 209: special characters.</i> 210: </dd> 211: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt> 212: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names 213: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word, 214: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i> 215: </dd> 216: <dt>Host administrator email</dt> 217: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages 218: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in 219: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>. 220: </dd> 221: </dl> 222: 223: <h2>Configuring LON-CAPA</h2> 224: <p> 225: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands: 226: </p> 227: <pre> 228: cd /root/loncapa-N.N (N.N should correspond to a version number like '1.1') 229: ./UPDATE 230: </pre> 231: <p> 232: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined 233: in the previous section. 234: </p> 235: 236: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2> 237: <p> 238: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of 239: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and 240: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script 241: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will 242: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username" 243: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an 244: appropriate user name and your domain. 245: </p> 246: <pre> 247: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build 248: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN 249: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE) 250: </pre> 251: 252: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2> 253: <p> 254: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations 255: will be appearant at this step. 256: </p> 257: <pre> 258: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start 259: /etc/init.d/httpd start 260: </pre> 261: 262: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2> 263: <p> 264: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain 265: coordinator. Congratulations! 266: </p> 267: 268: <h2>If Things aren't working right</h2> 269: <p> 270: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think 271: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA developers. 272: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the 273: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible. 274: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know. 275: </p>