Annotation of doc/build/sles10_install.frag, revision 1.8

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
1.5       bisitz      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
1.1       raeburn     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>
1.5       bisitz      9: More information is available at
1.1       raeburn    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>
1.5       bisitz     15: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier.
1.1       raeburn    16: You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
1.5       bisitz     17: some routine Unix commands.  Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl,
1.1       raeburn    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>
1.5       bisitz     26:   <li><a href="#obt">Obtain SLES 10 installation media</a></li>
                     27:   <li><a href="#net">Determine Network Settings</a></li>
                     28:   <li><a href="#lin">Install SLES 10</a></li>
                     29:   <li><a href="#upd">Update your system</a></li>
                     30:   <li><a href="#ilc">Install LON-CAPA</a></li>
                     31:   <li><a href="#cdc">Create a Domain Coordinator</a></li>
                     32:   <li><a href="#sts">Start/Restart services</a></li>
                     33:   <li><a href="#log">Log in to LON-CAPA</a></li>
1.1       raeburn    34: </ol>
                     35: 
1.8     ! bisitz     36: <hr>
1.5       bisitz     37: <h2>1. <a name="obt">Obtain SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10</a></h2>
1.1       raeburn    38: <p>
1.5       bisitz     39: 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>.
                     40: </p>
1.1       raeburn    41: 
1.5       bisitz     42: <h2>2. <a name="net">Determine Network Settings</a></h2>
1.1       raeburn    43: <p>
1.5       bisitz     44: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.
1.1       raeburn    45: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
                     46: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
                     47: </p>
                     48: <ul>
                     49:   <li>ip address </li>
                     50:   <li>netmask </li>
                     51:   <li>hostname </li>
                     52:   <li>gateway </li>
                     53:   <li>domain name server(s) </li>
                     54: </ul>
                     55: 
1.5       bisitz     56: <h2>3. <a name="lin">Minimal SLES 10 Install</a></h2>
1.1       raeburn    57: <p>
                     58: Installing SuSE Linux Enterprise Server is quite easy if you've installed Linux products
1.5       bisitz     59: before.  Some documentation is available from
1.1       raeburn    60: <a href="http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/">
1.8     ! bisitz     61: http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/</a>.<br><br>
1.7       raeburn    62: Most of the installation screens are self explanatory.
1.1       raeburn    63: There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
                     64: </p>
                     65: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
1.3       www        66:    <dt>Installation Language</dt>
                     67:    <dd>Use English as your installation language.</dd>
                     68: 
1.1       raeburn    69:    <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
1.5       bisitz     70:    <dd>For a LON-CAPA library server (i.e., the main server used
                     71:        for permanent storage of course and user data),
                     72:        a separate partition is recommended for /home, as this
1.1       raeburn    73:        simplifies future upgrades of the operating system.
1.5       bisitz     74:        If you are adding an additional access server to an
                     75:        existing LON-CAPA domain, this does not apply as no
1.1       raeburn    76:        permanent data are stored on an access server.
                     77:        As LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory,
1.5       bisitz     78:        the majority of the disk space should be allocated here.
1.1       raeburn    79:        If you have 20 GB of space for SLES10, /home should
1.5       bisitz     80:        receive at least 10 to 12 gigs. Since MySQL uses the /var
                     81:        filesystem to store its databases you should have as least
                     82:        4 gigs of space available on /var.  Be sure to
1.1       raeburn    83:        include adequate swap space.  A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
                     84:        typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.
                     85:        </dd>
                     86:    <dt>Software Selection</dt>
1.5       bisitz     87:    <dd>
1.1       raeburn    88:    Installation of the minimum set of packages is recommended.  This will involve unchecking all checkboxes except for the base SuSE installation.</dd>
                     89: </dl>
                     90: <p>Once you system has rebooted, you will use yast to complete the configuration. Change the following settings:
                     91: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
                     92:    <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
                     93:    <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
                     94:        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.
                     95:    </dd>
                     96:    <dt>Online update</dt>
                     97:    <dd>Indicate "Yes" when prompted to "run online update now?"</dd>
                     98: </dl>
                     99: <p>
                    100: Finish installing your server, read the "readme", reboot and log in as root.
                    101: </p>
1.5       bisitz    102: <h3>Configure Firewall Settings</h3>
1.6       raeburn   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.
1.1       raeburn   104: </p>
1.5       bisitz    105: 
                    106: <h2>4. <a name="upd">Change software sources for your system</a></h2>
1.1       raeburn   107: <p>
1.8     ! bisitz    108: You will use yast to import packages required for LON-CAPA.<br>
1.1       raeburn   109: Execute:
                    110: </p>
                    111: <pre>
                    112: yast
                    113: </pre>
                    114: <p>
1.2       raeburn   115: 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>
                    116: <pre>
                    117: mkdir -p sles10/CD1
                    118: mount -o ro,loop SLES-10-x86-CD1.iso /mnt
                    119: cp -rv /mnt/* sles10/CD1
                    120: umount /mnt
                    121: </pre>
                    122: <p>
1.8     ! bisitz    123: Repeat those steps with CD2, CD3 and CD4.
        !           124: </p>
1.1       raeburn   125: <h3>Add an additional installation source</h3>
1.8     ! bisitz    126: <p>
        !           127: 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:
        !           128: </p>
1.1       raeburn   129: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
                    130: <dd>Protocol</dd>
                    131: <dt>HTTP</dt>
                    132: <dd>Server Name</dd>
                    133: <dt>install.loncapa.org</dt>
                    134: <dd>Directory on server</dd>
                    135: <dt>suse/sles10/</dt>
                    136: <dd>Authentication</dd>
                    137: <dt>Anonymous</dt>
                    138: </dl>
1.8     ! bisitz    139: <p>
1.5       bisitz    140: After saving this configuration information for the LON-CAPA repository, quit yast.
1.1       raeburn   141: </p>
1.5       bisitz    142: 
                    143: <h2>5. <a name="ilc">Installing LON-CAPA</a></h2>
1.1       raeburn   144: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
                    145: <p> Execute: </p>
                    146: <pre>
                    147: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites
                    148: </pre><p>
1.7       raeburn   149: This may take some minutes due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
1.1       raeburn   150: </p>
                    151: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
                    152: <p>
                    153: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with one of the following commands:
                    154: </p>
                    155: <pre>
1.7       raeburn   156: wget http://install.loncapa.org/linux/install.tar
1.1       raeburn   157: </pre>
                    158: <p>
                    159: Extract the archive with the following command:
                    160: </p>
                    161: <pre>
1.7       raeburn   162: tar xf install.tar
1.1       raeburn   163: </pre>
                    164: <p>
                    165: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>.  Change to it and
                    166: execute the setup script with the following commands:
                    167: </p>
                    168: <pre>
                    169: cd installation
                    170: ./install.pl
                    171: </pre>
                    172: <p>
1.7       raeburn   173: The script is used to prepare a Linux system to run LON-CAPA, and can also be
                    174: used to check the configuration of a system on which LON-CAPA has already been installed.  Typically, though, you will run this script only once, when you first install LON-CAPA.
1.1       raeburn   175: </p>
1.7       raeburn   176: <p>
                    177: The script will analyze your system to determine which actions are recommended.  The script will then prompt you to choose the actions you would like taken.
                    178: Once a choice has been entered for all nine possible actions, required changes will be made.
                    179: </p>
                    180: <p>The possible actions are:
                    181: <ul>
                    182: <li>Create the www user/group</li>
                    183: <li>Install the package LON-CAPA uses to authenticate users.</li>
                    184: <li>Set-up the MySQL database</li>
                    185: <li>Set-up MySQL permissions</li>
                    186: <li>Configure Apache web server</li>
                    187: <li>Configure start-up of services</li>
                    188: <li>Check firewall settings</li>
1.8     ! bisitz    189: <li>Stop services not used by LON-CAPA,<br>
1.7       raeburn   190:     e.g., services for a print server: cups daemon</li>
                    191: <li>Download LON-CAPA source code in readiness for installation</li>
                    192: </ul>
                    193: </p>
                    194: 
1.1       raeburn   195: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
                    196: <p>
                    197: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
                    198: for it to function at all.  Below is a list with descriptions.
                    199: </p>
                    200: <dl>
                    201:   <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
                    202:   <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server.  In
                    203:       general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
                    204:       their course content on and run their courses.  Students should connect
1.5       bisitz    205:       to access servers.  If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
1.1       raeburn   206:       your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
                    207:       should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
                    208:   <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
                    209:   <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
                    210:       Here at MSU we use 'msu'.  You should choose something short but
1.5       bisitz    211:       meaningful.  <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
1.1       raeburn   212:       special characters.</i>
                    213:   </dd>
                    214:   <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
                    215:   <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name.  We use names
1.5       bisitz    216:       such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
1.1       raeburn   217:       no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
                    218:   </dd>
                    219:   <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
                    220:   <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal.  Messages
1.5       bisitz    221:       are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
1.1       raeburn   222:       serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
                    223:   </dd>
                    224: </dl>
                    225: 
                    226: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
                    227: <p>
                    228: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
                    229: </p>
                    230: <pre>
1.7       raeburn   231: cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z     (X.Y.Z should correspond to a version number like '2.10.0')
1.1       raeburn   232: ./UPDATE
                    233: </pre>
                    234: <p>
1.5       bisitz    235: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
                    236: in the previous section.
1.1       raeburn   237: </p>
                    238: <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>
                    239: <pre>
1.7       raeburn   240: /sbin/chkconfig --level 35 loncontrol on
1.1       raeburn   241: </pre>
1.5       bisitz    242: 
                    243: <h2>6. <a name="cdc">Creating a Domain Coordinator</a></h2>
1.1       raeburn   244: <p>
                    245: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
                    246: 'domain coordinator'.  This user creates accounts for other users and
                    247: grants them additional privileges.  The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
1.7       raeburn   248: invoked below requires that you enter the user's password. 
                    249: Feel free to use the "passwd username" command to change it later.
                    250: Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an appropriate user name and your domain.
1.1       raeburn   251: </p>
                    252: <pre>
1.7       raeburn   253: cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z/loncom/build
1.1       raeburn   254: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
                    255: </pre>
1.5       bisitz    256: 
                    257: <h2>7. <a name="sts">Start/Restart Services</a></h2>
1.1       raeburn   258: <p>
                    259: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start.  Most misconfigurations
                    260: will be apparent at this step.
                    261: </p>
                    262: <pre>
                    263: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
                    264: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
                    265: </pre>
                    266: <p>
                    267: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
1.5       bisitz    268: please make sure you followed the instructions in
1.1       raeburn   269: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>.  If you still have errors, please
1.4       raeburn   270: contact the LON-CAPA group.
1.1       raeburn   271: </p>
1.5       bisitz    272: 
                    273: <h2>8. <a name="log">Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</a></h2>
1.1       raeburn   274: <p>
                    275: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
                    276: coordinator.  Congratulations!
                    277: </p>
1.5       bisitz    278: 
1.8     ! bisitz    279: <hr>
1.1       raeburn   280: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
                    281: <p>
                    282: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
1.4       raeburn   283: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA group.
1.8     ! bisitz    284: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br>
        !           285: <a href="http://help.loncapa.org/help/">http://help.loncapa.org/help/</a><br>
1.1       raeburn   286: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
                    287: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
                    288: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
                    289: </p>

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