Annotation of doc/build/rh73.frag, revision 1.2

1.1       bowersj2    1: <h1>Setting up a Red Hat 7.3 LON-CAPA Server</h1>
                      2: <h2>Integrated installation</h2>
                      3: <p>
                      4: These instructions combine the installation of RedHat 7.3 and LON-CAPA
                      5: into one straightforward process. 
                      6: More information is available at <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/">
                      7: http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>.
                      8: </p>
                      9: 
                     10: <h2>Before you begin</h2>
                     11: <p>
                     12: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier.  However, it is still a
                     13: non-trivial undertaking and experience with Red Hat Linux will make this 
                     14: process easier.  You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
                     15: some routine Unix commands.  Some familiarity with Linux is assumed.
                     16: </p>
                     17: 
                     18: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
                     19: <p>
                     20: The installation process takes the following steps:
                     21: </p>
                     22: <ol>
                     23:   <li> Obtain Red Hat 7.3 </li>
                     24:   <li> Gather information for installing Red Hat </li>
                     25:   <li> Install Red Hat 7.3 </li>
                     26:   <li> Determine your LON-CAPA Settings </li>
                     27:   <li> Install LON-CAPA </li>
                     28:   <li> Configure LON-CAPA </li>
                     29:   <li> Pick a hosts.tab file </li>
                     30:   <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li>
                     31:   <li> Start/Restart services </li>
                     32:   <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li>
                     33: </ol>
                     34: 
                     35: <h2>Obtain the Red Hat 7.3 installation CDs</h2>
                     36: <p>
                     37: These are freely available on the internet.
                     38: </p>
                     39: 
                     40: <h2>Determine Network settings for your site</h2>
                     41: <p>
                     42: You will need to have the following information for your site.  You must
                     43: have a static IP address (do not use DHCP).
                     44: </p>
                     45: <ul>
                     46:   <li>ip address </li>
                     47:   <li>netmask </li>
                     48:   <li>network </li>
                     49:   <li>broadcast </li>
                     50:   <li>hostname </li>
                     51:   <li>gateway </li>
                     52:   <li>domain name server(s) </li>
                     53: </ul>
                     54: 
                     55: <h2>Install Red Hat 7.3</h2>
                     56: <p>
                     57: When you install RedHat you will need to ensure the following (the list below
                     58: is in the order the issues appear in the installation of Red Hat 7.3):
                     59: </p>
                     60: <dl>
                     61:    <dt>Installation Type</dt>
                     62:    <dd>You should definitely do a "Server" install.  We do not recommend
                     63:        Trying to install LON-CAPA with a different installation type.</dd>
                     64:    <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
                     65:    <dd>You may want to use the automatic partitioning feature of Red Hat,
                     66:        however you should review the results and be prepared to modify them.
                     67:        LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, so the
                     68:        lion's share of the drive should be allocated here.  If you have 8 GB 
                     69:        of space for Red Hat, /home should receive 4 to 6 gigs.  Be sure to 
                     70:        include adequate swap space.  A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
                     71:        typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.</dd>
                     72:    <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
                     73:    <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic 
                     74:        IP address.  When configuring your network card, be sure to unselect
                     75:        the DHCP option and enter in your network information.</dd>
                     76:    <dt>Firewall Configuration</dt>
1.2     ! bowersj2   77:    <dd>The installation script will create a firewall for the install,
        !            78: blocking all unnecessary port for LON-CAPA. <b>Note that you may need
        !            79: to tweak the firewall installation if you have other network services
        !            80: the machine needs to provide, such as Kerberos authentication.</b></dd>
1.1       bowersj2   81:    <dt>Package Group Selection</dt>
                     82:    <dd>At a minimum, install the following packages:
                     83:       <ul>
                     84:         <li>NFS File Server </li>
                     85:         <li>Windows File Server </li>
                     86:         <li>Web Server </li>
                     87:       </ul>
                     88:        Other packages can be installed as you like.</dd>
                     89:    <dt>X Windows Configuration</dt>
                     90:    <dd>If you chose to install the X-windows packages you will need to 
                     91:        configure them.  If you are unsure of the support for your video
                     92:        card you may wish to skip the configuration.</dd>
                     93: </dl>
                     94: <p>
                     95: Other notes:
                     96: </p>
                     97: <ul>
                     98:   <li>Use md5 and shadow passwords if you are given the choice (this is
                     99:       the default). </li>
                    100: </ul>
                    101: 
                    102: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA settings</h2>
                    103: <p>
                    104: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order
                    105: for it to function at all.  Below is a list with descriptions.
                    106: </p>
                    107: <dl>
                    108:   <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
                    109:   <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server.  In
                    110:       general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
                    111:       their course content on and run their courses.  Students should connect
                    112:       to access servers.  If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at 
                    113:       your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification, you
                    114:       should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
                    115:   <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
                    116:   <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
                    117:       Here at MSU we use 'msu'.  You should choose something short but
                    118:       meaningful.
                    119:    <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i>
                    120:   </dd>
                    121:   <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
                    122:   <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name.  We use names
                    123:       such as "msul1" for the first library server. 
                    124:    <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i>
                    125:   </dd>
                    126:   <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
                    127:   <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal.  Messages
                    128:       are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in 
                    129:       serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
                    130:   </dd>
                    131:   <dt>Root password for SQL database</dt>
                    132:   <dd>In order to keep people from corrupting the MYSQL database, a root
                    133:       password is needed.  You'll need to remember this.</dd>
                    134: </dl>
                    135: 
                    136: <h2>Install LON-CAPA</h2>
                    137: <p>
                    138: Log in as root with the password you provided during the Red Hat 
                    139: installation process.
                    140: </p><p>
                    141: Stop the http daemon while we're installing LON-CAPA. (If you're on a
                    142: fresh install, it is probably not running.)
                    143: <pre>
                    144: /etc/init.d/httpd stop
                    145: </pre>
                    146: </p><p>
                    147: Retrieve the LON-CAPA installation package
                    148: <pre>
                    149: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/rh73install/loncapa-rh73install.tar
                    150: tar xf loncapa-rh73install.tar
                    151: cd install
                    152: ./install.pl
                    153: </pre>
                    154: </p>
                    155: 
                    156: <h2>Configure LON-CAPA</h2>
                    157: <p>
                    158: Execute the following commands
                    159: </p>
                    160: <pre>
                    161: cd /root/loncapa-N.N     (N.N should correspond to a version number like '0.6')
                    162: ./UPDATE
                    163: </pre>
                    164: <p>
                    165: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you requested
                    166: above.
                    167: </p>
                    168: 
                    169: <h2>Update your system</h2>
                    170: <p>
                    171: It is very important that you update your LON-CAPA system to use the
                    172: latest RedHat packages.  LON-CAPA uses CHECKRPMS to notify users their system
                    173: needs updating.  
                    174: <pre>
                    175: /usr/local/loncapa/bin/CHECKRPMS
                    176: </pre>
                    177: CHECKRPMS will give you the option of downloading the updates you need.
                    178: Say yes.  Then issue the following commands:
                    179: <pre>
                    180: cd /tmp/loncapa_rpm_updates
                    181: rpm -Uvh *
                    182: </pre>
                    183: </p><p>
                    184: You will need to reboot your system to begin running the new Linux Kernel
                    185: put out by RedHat.  You can wait until the end of the LON-CAPA installation
                    186: process to reboot.
                    187: </p><p>
                    188: Congratulate yourself - your system is up to date.  Please do your best to
                    189: keep it that way!  When LON-CAPA is installed it sets itself up to run 
                    190: CHECKRPMS script every night and email you the results.  
                    191: <b>Please do not ignore these emails.</b>  
                    192: You will need to update the RPMs yourself when it notifies you.  
                    193: Keeping your system up-to-date goes a long way towards ensuring the 
                    194: integrity of your student records.
                    195: </p>
                    196: 
                    197: <h2>Picking a hosts.tab file</h2>
                    198: <p>
                    199: The "hosts.tab" file controls which LON-CAPA servers your server attempts 
                    200: to access and which servers it will respond to.  If this is your first 
                    201: install of LON-CAPA on your network, we suggest choosing a 'standalone' 
                    202: "hosts.tab".  On a laptop, you must choose 'standalone'.
                    203: Please contact the support staff at www.loncapa.org for
                    204: information about adding more hosts to your "hosts.tab" file.
                    205: </p>
                    206: <p>
                    207: <b>Note:</b> for <b>non</b>-standalone configurations, you do need to add 
                    208: yourself  to the <tt>/home/httpd/lonTabs/hosts.tab</tt> to initially test your 
                    209: configuration. Eventually, you will be added to the general cluster tables by
                    210: LON-CAPA staff, so this is temporary. A <tt>hosts.tab</tt> entry has the 
                    211: format
                    212: </p>
                    213: <pre>
                    214: lonHostID:domain:hosttype:dns-name:ipaddress
                    215: </pre>
                    216: <p>
                    217: for example
                    218: </p>
                    219: <pre>
                    220: 103l5:library:s17.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.27
                    221: </pre>
                    222: <p>
                    223: Please edit this file with a UNIX editor, not a PC or Mac one, so that the 
                    224: linebreaks are correct.
                    225: </p>
                    226: 
                    227: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
                    228: <p>
                    229: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
                    230: 'domain coordinator'.  This user creates accounts for other users and
                    231: grants them additional privileges.  The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
                    232: invoked below requires that you enter the users password.  The password will
                    233: show in plaintext as you type it.  Feel free to use the "passwd username"
                    234: command to change it later.  Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an 
                    235: appropriate user name and your domain.
                    236: </p>
                    237: <pre>
                    238: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
                    239: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
                    240: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
                    241: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html
                    242: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html
                    243: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html
                    244: chmod a+x ~USERNAME
                    245: </pre>
                    246: 
                    247: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
                    248: <p>
                    249: The LON-CAPA network services take about a minute to start.
                    250: </p>
                    251: <pre>
                    252: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
                    253: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
                    254: </pre>
                    255: 
                    256: <h2>Make Sure that Services Autostart on Boot</h2>
                    257: <p>On Redhat 7.3 it is not guaranteed that Apache and MySQL automatically 
                    258: restart on boot.  You should run /usr/sbin/ntsysv and set the following 
                    259: daemons to be started at boot:
                    260: </p>
                    261: <pre>
                    262: httpd
                    263: mysqld
                    264: </pre>
                    265: <p>
                    266: It is not necessary to reboot after doing this as they should already be 
                    267: running by this point in the installation.  
                    268: </p>
                    269: <pre>
                    270: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
                    271: /etc/init.d/mysqld restart
                    272: </pre>
                    273: 
                    274: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
                    275: <p>
                    276: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
                    277: coordinator.  Congratulations!
                    278: </p>
                    279: 

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