Annotation of doc/build/sles10_install.frag, revision 1.3

1.1       raeburn     1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10</h1>
                      2: <p>
                      3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
                      4: server running SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (SLES 10) with a minimum of packages installed.  
                      5: The computer will be configured solely as a LON-CAPA server and will be 
                      6: expected to have no other services running.  Your server is expected to have
                      7: a reasonably fast connection to the internet.
                      8: </p><p>
                      9: More information is available at 
                     10: <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/">http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>.
                     11: </p>
                     12: 
                     13: <h2>Before you begin</h2>
                     14: <p>
                     15: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier.  
                     16: You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
                     17: some routine Unix commands.  Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl, 
                     18: perl, and MySQL are not required to install and run LON-CAPA.
                     19: </p>
                     20: 
                     21: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
                     22: <p>
                     23: The installation process takes the following steps:
                     24: </p>
                     25: <ol>
                     26:   <li> Obtain SLES 10 installation media</li>
                     27:   <li> Determine Network Settings</li>
                     28:   <li> Install SLES 10</li>
                     29:   <li> Update your system </li>
                     30:   <li> Install LON-CAPA </li>
                     31:   <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li>
                     32:   <li> Start/Restart services </li>
                     33:   <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li>
                     34: </ol>
                     35: 
                     36: <h2>Obtain SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10</h2>
                     37: <p>
                     38: SuSE ISO files can be obtained from the Novell site: <a href="http://www.novell.com/products/server/">http://www.novell.com/products/server/</a>.  
                     39: </p> 
                     40: 
                     41: <h2>Determine Network Settings</h2>
                     42: <p>
                     43: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.  
                     44: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
                     45: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
                     46: </p>
                     47: <ul>
                     48:   <li>ip address </li>
                     49:   <li>netmask </li>
                     50:   <li>hostname </li>
                     51:   <li>gateway </li>
                     52:   <li>domain name server(s) </li>
                     53: </ul>
                     54: 
                     55: <h2>Minimal SLES 10 Install</h2>
                     56: <p>
                     57: Installing SuSE Linux Enterprise Server is quite easy if you've installed Linux products
                     58: before.  Some documentation is available from 
                     59: <a href="http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/">
                     60: http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/</a>.<br /><br />
                     61: Most of the subsequent installation screens are self explanatory.
                     62: There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
                     63: </p>
                     64: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
1.3     ! www        65:    <dt>Installation Language</dt>
        !            66:    <dd>Use English as your installation language.</dd>
        !            67: 
1.1       raeburn    68:    <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
                     69:    <dd>For a LON-CAPA library server (i.e., the main server used 
                     70:        for permanent storage of course and user data), 
                     71:        a separate partition is recommended for /home, as this    
                     72:        simplifies future upgrades of the operating system.
                     73:        If you are adding an additional access server to an 
                     74:        existing LON-CAPA domain, this does not apply as no 
                     75:        permanent data are stored on an access server.
                     76:        As LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory,
                     77:        the majority of the disk space should be allocated here.    
                     78:        If you have 20 GB of space for SLES10, /home should
                     79:        receive at least 10 to 12 gigs. Since MySQL uses the /var 
                     80:        filesystem to store its databases you should have as least 
                     81:        4 gigs of space available on /var.  Be sure to 
                     82:        include adequate swap space.  A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
                     83:        typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.
                     84:        </dd>
                     85:    <dt>Software Selection</dt>
                     86:    <dd> 
                     87:    Installation of the minimum set of packages is recommended.  This will involve unchecking all checkboxes except for the base SuSE installation.</dd>
                     88: </dl>
                     89: <p>Once you system has rebooted, you will use yast to complete the configuration. Change the following settings:
                     90: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
                     91:    <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
                     92:    <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
                     93:        IP address.  When configuring your network card, you should include you static IP address, netmask, host name information (e.g., host name = tmp1, domain = lite.msu.edu), as well as name servers and gateway.
                     94:    </dd>
                     95:    <dt>Online update</dt>
                     96:    <dd>Indicate "Yes" when prompted to "run online update now?"</dd>
                     97:    </dt>
                     98: </dl>
                     99: <p>
                    100: Finish installing your server, read the "readme", reboot and log in as root.
                    101: </p>
                    102: <h2>Configure Firewall Settings</h2>
                    103: <p>After reboot you should start yast, and select Security and Users -> Firewall. At step 2 include the following services: HTTP, HTTP with SSL, and Secure Shell.  Use the "Expert..." option to add additional TCP services on ports 5663 and 8080.    
                    104: </p>
                    105: <h2>Change software sources for your system</h2>
                    106: <p>
                    107: You will use yast to import packages required for LON-CAPA.<br />
                    108: Execute:
                    109: </p>
                    110: <pre>
                    111: yast
                    112: </pre>
                    113: <p>
1.2       raeburn   114: Select "Change Source of Installation". The media you used to install SLES10 will be listed as an installation source. If you do not already have a SLES10 installation source at your location, you may want to consider creating one from the 4 iso files for CDs 1 - 4,  to avoid the need to flip CDs during LON-CAPA installation.  Proceed as follows (e.g., for 32 bit):</p>
                    115: <pre>
                    116: mkdir -p sles10/CD1
                    117: mount -o ro,loop SLES-10-x86-CD1.iso /mnt
                    118: cp -rv /mnt/* sles10/CD1
                    119: umount /mnt
                    120: </pre>
                    121: <p>
                    122: Repeat those steps with CD2, CD3 and CD4.</p>
1.1       raeburn   123: <h3>Add an additional installation source</h3>
1.2       raeburn   124: <p>Add the LON-CAPA SLES 10 repository as an additional installation source, so software installation in yast will have access to at least two repositories - a SuSE/Novell source (for packages included for the standard distribution) and the LON-CAPA repository (for extra packages needed to run LON-CAPA). For the LON-CAPA source you will use:
1.1       raeburn   125: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
                    126: <dd>Protocol</dd>
                    127: <dt>HTTP</dt>
                    128: <dd>Server Name</dd>
                    129: <dt>install.loncapa.org</dt>
                    130: <dd>Directory on server</dd>
                    131: <dt>suse/sles10/</dt>
                    132: <dd>Authentication</dd>
                    133: <dt>Anonymous</dt>
                    134: </dl>
                    135: After saving this configuration information for the LON-CAPA repository, quit yast.  
                    136: </p>
                    137: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
                    138: <p> Execute: </p>
                    139: <pre>
                    140: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites
                    141: </pre><p>
                    142: This may take a moment due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
                    143: </p>
                    144: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
                    145: <p>
                    146: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with one of the following commands:
                    147: </p>
                    148: <pre>
                    149: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/suse/sles10/sles10_install.tar
                    150: </pre>
                    151: <p>
                    152: Extract the archive with the following command:
                    153: </p>
                    154: <pre>
                    155: tar xf sles10_install.tar
                    156: </pre>
                    157: <p>
                    158: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>.  Change to it and
                    159: execute the setup script with the following commands:
                    160: </p>
                    161: <pre>
                    162: cd installation
                    163: ./install.pl
                    164: </pre>
                    165: <p>
                    166: This script will prompt you for the MySQL root password and will download the latest LON-CAPA release.
                    167: </p>
                    168: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
                    169: <p>
                    170: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
                    171: for it to function at all.  Below is a list with descriptions.
                    172: </p>
                    173: <dl>
                    174:   <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
                    175:   <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server.  In
                    176:       general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
                    177:       their course content on and run their courses.  Students should connect
                    178:       to access servers.  If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at 
                    179:       your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
                    180:       should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
                    181:   <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
                    182:   <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
                    183:       Here at MSU we use 'msu'.  You should choose something short but
                    184:       meaningful.  <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or 
                    185:       special characters.</i>
                    186:   </dd>
                    187:   <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
                    188:   <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name.  We use names
                    189:       such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word, 
                    190:       no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
                    191:   </dd>
                    192:   <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
                    193:   <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal.  Messages
                    194:       are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in 
                    195:       serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
                    196:   </dd>
                    197: </dl>
                    198: 
                    199: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
                    200: <p>
                    201: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
                    202: </p>
                    203: <pre>
                    204: cd /root/loncapa-N.N.N     (N.N.N should correspond to a version number like '2.2.2')
                    205: ./UPDATE
                    206: </pre>
                    207: <p>
                    208: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined 
                    209: in the previous section.  
                    210: </p>
                    211: <p>After installing LON-CAPA, and taking any actions included in the WARNINGS file created during installation, it is recommended that you set loncontrol to start automatically on boot, by executing the following command:</p>
                    212: <pre>
                    213: /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 loncontrol on
                    214: </pre>
                    215: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
                    216: <p>
                    217: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
                    218: 'domain coordinator'.  This user creates accounts for other users and
                    219: grants them additional privileges.  The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
                    220: invoked below requires that you enter the users password.  The password will
                    221: show in plaintext as you type it.  Feel free to use the "passwd username"
                    222: command to change it later.  Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an 
                    223: appropriate user name and your domain.
                    224: </p>
                    225: <pre>
                    226: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
                    227: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
                    228: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
                    229: </pre>
                    230: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
                    231: <p>
                    232: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start.  Most misconfigurations
                    233: will be apparent at this step.
                    234: </p>
                    235: <pre>
                    236: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
                    237: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
                    238: </pre>
                    239: <p>
                    240: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
                    241: please make sure you followed the instructions in 
                    242: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>.  If you still have errors, please
                    243: contact the LON-CAPA support team.
                    244: </p>
                    245: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
                    246: <p>
                    247: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
                    248: coordinator.  Congratulations!
                    249: </p>
                    250: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
                    251: <p>
                    252: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
                    253: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA support team.
                    254: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br />
                    255: <a href="http://support.loncapa.org/help/">http://support.loncapa.org/help/</a><br />
                    256: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
                    257: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
                    258: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
                    259: </p>

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