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Thu May 22 21:39:15 2008 UTC (15 years, 11 months ago) by www
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CVS tags: version_2_7_X, version_2_7_1, version_2_7_0, version_2_6_99_1, version_2_6_99_0, HEAD

Use English as installation language.

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"> 65: <dt>Installation Language</dt> 66: <dd>Use English as your installation language.</dd> 67: 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> 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> 123: <h3>Add an additional installation source</h3> 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: 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>