1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a Fedora Core 2 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 2 (FC2). 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>Server Configuration Tools</li>
101: <li>Development Tools</li>
102: <li>Administration Tools</li>
103: <li>Printing Support</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. Errors generated by RPMs which are
138: already should not be considered a problem, although you will have to ensure
139: the other rpms in the directory get installed.
140: </p><p>
141: First, we need to make sure the web server and mod_perl have not been
142: installed. Use the following commands to remove them if they exist:
143: </p><p>
144: <pre>
145: rpm -e `rpm -q -a | grep httpd`
146: rpm -e `rpm -q -a | grep mod_perl`
147: </pre>
148: </p><p>
149: If the above commands returns no output (the usual indicator of success), or an
150: error message 'rpm: no packages given for erase' (meaning there were no
151: packages that contain httpd or mod_perl), you are good to go.
152: </p><p>
153: To install the many LON-CAPA dependencies, execute the following commands:
154: </p>
155: <pre>
156: cd installation
157: cd mysql
158: rpm -Uvh *rpm
159: cd ../apache
160: rpm -Uvh *rpm
161: cd ../mod_perl
162: rpm -Uvh *rpm
163: cd ../perl_dependencies
164: rpm -Uvh *rpm
165: cd ../GD
166: rpm -Uvh *rpm
167: cd ../gnuplot
168: rpm --install --oldpackage readline-2.2.1-6.i386.rpm
169: rpm --install --oldpackage --excludedocs libpng-1.0.12-2.i386.rpm
170: rpm -Uvh gnuplot-3.7.1-5.i386.rpm libgd-1.3-4.i386.rpm ncurses4-5.0-5.i386.rpm
171: cd ../misc
172: rpm -Uvh *rpm
173: cd ..
174: </pre>
175: <p>
176: <b>Notes:</b>
177: <ul>
178: <li>MySQL is used to store caches of data, not original copies.
179: Administering LON-CAPA machines does not yet mean becoming a
180: database administrator.</li>
181: <li>Apache 1.3 and mod_perl 1.x are required by LON-CAPA. These are
182: provided in the installation package. The mod_perl package has been
183: repackaged from the Redhat sources with the name 'mod_perl_1' in
184: order to prevent version 1.99 of mod_perl from being installed by
185: yum or other package managers.</li>
186: <li>A specific version of Gnuplot is required by LON-CAPA. Do not
187: install a version different from the one included in the LON-CAPA
188: installation package. We're still working on using gnuplot 4.0 which
189: recently came out.</li>
190: </ul>
191: </p>
192:
193: <h2>Configuring LON-CAPA Dependencies</h2>
194: <p>
195: We have prepared a script which takes care of most of the configuration that
196: must be done to get the newly installed packages working with LON-CAPA.
197: This script will retrieve the latest LON-CAPA release from
198: <a href="http://install.loncapa.org">http://install.loncapa.org</a>.
199: You will be prompted for a root password for your MySQL server. You
200: will need to remember this password in case you should ever need to make
201: changes the the server.
202: </p><p>
203: Execute the script as follows:
204: </p>
205: <pre>
206: cd setup;
207: ./install.pl
208: </pre>
209:
210: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h2>
211: <p>
212: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order
213: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
214: </p>
215: <dl>
216: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
217: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
218: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
219: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
220: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
221: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
222: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
223: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
224: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
225: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
226: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
227: special characters.</i>
228: </dd>
229: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
230: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
231: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
232: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
233: </dd>
234: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
235: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
236: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
237: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
238: </dd>
239: </dl>
240:
241: <h2>Configuring LON-CAPA</h2>
242: <p>
243: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
244: </p>
245: <pre>
246: cd /root/loncapa-N.N (N.N should correspond to a version number like '1.2')
247: ./UPDATE
248: </pre>
249: <p>
250: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
251: in the previous section.
252: </p>
253:
254: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
255: <p>
256: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
257: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
258: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
259: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
260: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
261: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
262: appropriate user name and your domain.
263: </p>
264: <pre>
265: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
266: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
267: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
268: </pre>
269:
270: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
271: <p>
272: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
273: will be appearant at this step.
274: </p>
275: <pre>
276: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
277: /etc/init.d/httpd start
278: </pre>
279: <p>
280: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
281: please make sure you followed the instructions in
282: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
283: contact the LON-CAPA development team.
284: </p>
285: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
286: <p>
287: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
288: coordinator. Congratulations!
289: </p>
290:
291: <h2>If Things aren't working right</h2>
292: <p>
293: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
294: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA developers.
295: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
296: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
297: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
298: </p>
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