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> Uninstall the http server </li>
31: <li> Install LON-CAPA Dependencies </li>
32: <li> Determine your LON-CAPA Settings </li>
33: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li>
34: <li> Configure LON-CAPA </li>
35: <li> Pick a hosts.tab file </li>
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
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
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>
101: <li>Server Configuration Tools</li>
102: <li>Development Tools</li>
103: <li>Administration Tools</li>
104: <li>Printing Support</li>
105: </ul>
106: </dd>
107: </dl>
108: <p>
109: Finish installing your server, reboot it, and log in as root.
110: </p>
111:
112: <h2>Retrieving the LON-CAPA Installation Archive</h2>
113: <p>
114: Execute the following command:
115: </p>
116: <pre>
117: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/fedora/fedora_install.tar
118: </pre>
119: <p>
120: This will retrieve from the LON-CAPA website all the packages needed to get
121: LON-CAPA running on your system, except for the LON-CAPA source itself.
122: </p>
123: <p>
124: Extract the archive with the following command:
125: </p>
126: <pre>
127: tar xf fedora_install.tar
128: </pre>
129: <p>
130: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>.
131: </p>
132:
133: <h2>Uninstall the http server</h2>
134: <p>
135: Fedora Core 2 installs the http server even if you have not chosen it in
136: the package selection part of the install. LON-CAPA will not work with this
137: web server installed. It must be removed.
138: Use the following commands to remove the http and mod_perl packages if they
139: exist: (<b>Note:</b>
140: <i>The commands below use backticks, not single quotes.</i>:
141: </p>
142: <p>
143: <pre>
144: rpm -e `rpm -q -a | grep httpd`
145: rpm -e `rpm -q -a | grep mod_perl`
146: </pre>
147: </p><p>
148: If the above commands returns no output (the usual indicator of success), or an
149: error message 'rpm: no packages given for erase' (meaning there were no
150: packages that contain httpd or mod_perl), you are good to go.
151: </p>
152:
153: <h2>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</h2>
154: <p>
155: This section walks you through installing the packages which LON-CAPA requires.
156: There are a lot of dependencies. They have been grouped in a
157: somewhat logical fashion to make them easier to deal with. When installing
158: the rpms you should watch for errors. Errors generated by RPMs which are
159: already should not be considered a problem, although you will have to ensure
160: the other rpms in the directory get installed.
161: </p>
162:
163: <p>
164: To install the many LON-CAPA dependencies, execute the following commands:
165: </p>
166: <pre>
167: cd installation
168: cd mysql
169: rpm -Uvh *rpm
170: cd ../apache
171: rpm -Uvh *rpm
172: cd ../mod_perl
173: rpm -Uvh *rpm
174: cd ../perl_dependencies
175: rpm -Uvh *rpm
176: cd ../GD
177: rpm -Uvh *rpm
178: cd ../gnuplot
179: rpm --install --oldpackage readline-2.2.1-6.i386.rpm
180: rpm --install --oldpackage --excludedocs libpng-1.0.12-2.i386.rpm
181: rpm -Uvh gnuplot-3.7.1-5.i386.rpm libgd-1.3-4.i386.rpm ncurses4-5.0-5.i386.rpm
182: cd ../misc
183: rpm -Uvh *rpm
184: cd ..
185: </pre>
186: <p>
187: <b>Notes:</b>
188: <ul>
189: <li>MySQL is used to store caches of data, not original copies.
190: Administering LON-CAPA machines does not yet mean becoming a
191: database administrator.</li>
192: <li>Apache 1.3 and mod_perl 1.x are required by LON-CAPA. These are
193: provided in the installation package. The mod_perl package has been
194: repackaged from the Redhat sources with the name 'mod_perl_1' in
195: order to prevent version 1.99 of mod_perl from being installed by
196: yum or other package managers.</li>
197: <li>A specific version of Gnuplot is required by LON-CAPA. Do not
198: install a version different from the one included in the LON-CAPA
199: installation package. We're still working on using gnuplot 4.0 which
200: recently came out.</li>
201: </ul>
202: </p>
203:
204: <h2>Configuring LON-CAPA Dependencies</h2>
205: <p>
206: We have prepared a script which takes care of most of the configuration that
207: must be done to get the newly installed packages working with LON-CAPA.
208: This script will retrieve the latest LON-CAPA release from
209: <a href="http://install.loncapa.org">http://install.loncapa.org</a>.
210: You will be prompted for a root password for your MySQL server. You
211: will need to remember this password in case you should ever need to make
212: changes the the server.
213: </p><p>
214: Execute the script as follows:
215: </p>
216: <pre>
217: cd setup;
218: ./install.pl
219: </pre>
220:
221: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h2>
222: <p>
223: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order
224: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
225: </p>
226: <dl>
227: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
228: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
229: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
230: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
231: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
232: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
233: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
234: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
235: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
236: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
237: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
238: special characters.</i>
239: </dd>
240: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
241: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
242: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
243: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
244: </dd>
245: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
246: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
247: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
248: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
249: </dd>
250: </dl>
251:
252: <h2>Configuring LON-CAPA</h2>
253: <p>
254: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
255: </p>
256: <pre>
257: cd /root/loncapa-N.N (N.N should correspond to a version number like '1.2')
258: ./UPDATE
259: </pre>
260: <p>
261: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
262: in the previous section.
263: </p>
264:
265: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
266: <p>
267: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
268: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
269: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
270: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
271: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
272: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
273: appropriate user name and your domain.
274: </p>
275: <pre>
276: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
277: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
278: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
279: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html
280: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html
281: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html
282: chmod a+x ~USERNAME
283: </pre>
284:
285: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
286: <p>
287: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
288: will be appearant at this step.
289: </p>
290: <pre>
291: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
292: /etc/init.d/httpd start
293: </pre>
294: <p>
295: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
296: please make sure you followed the instructions in
297: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
298: contact the LON-CAPA development team.
299: </p>
300: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
301: <p>
302: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
303: coordinator. Congratulations!
304: </p>
305:
306: <h2>If Things aren't working right</h2>
307: <p>
308: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
309: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA developers.
310: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
311: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
312: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
313: </p>
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