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><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>
34: </ol>
35:
36: <hr />
37: <h2>1. <a name="obt">Obtain SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10</a></h2>
38: <p>
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>
41:
42: <h2>2. <a name="net">Determine Network Settings</a></h2>
43: <p>
44: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.
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:
56: <h2>3. <a name="lin">Minimal SLES 10 Install</a></h2>
57: <p>
58: Installing SuSE Linux Enterprise Server is quite easy if you've installed Linux products
59: before. Some documentation is available from
60: <a href="http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/">
61: http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/</a>.<br /><br />
62: Most of the subsequent installation screens are self explanatory.
63: There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
64: </p>
65: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
66: <dt>Installation Language</dt>
67: <dd>Use English as your installation language.</dd>
68:
69: <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
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
73: simplifies future upgrades of the operating system.
74: If you are adding an additional access server to an
75: existing LON-CAPA domain, this does not apply as no
76: permanent data are stored on an access server.
77: As LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory,
78: the majority of the disk space should be allocated here.
79: If you have 20 GB of space for SLES10, /home should
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
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>
87: <dd>
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: </dt>
99: </dl>
100: <p>
101: Finish installing your server, read the "readme", reboot and log in as root.
102: </p>
103: <h3>Configure Firewall Settings</h3>
104: <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.
105: </p>
106:
107: <h2>4. <a name="upd">Change software sources for your system</a></h2>
108: <p>
109: You will use yast to import packages required for LON-CAPA.<br />
110: Execute:
111: </p>
112: <pre>
113: yast
114: </pre>
115: <p>
116: 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>
117: <pre>
118: mkdir -p sles10/CD1
119: mount -o ro,loop SLES-10-x86-CD1.iso /mnt
120: cp -rv /mnt/* sles10/CD1
121: umount /mnt
122: </pre>
123: <p>
124: Repeat those steps with CD2, CD3 and CD4.</p>
125: <h3>Add an additional installation source</h3>
126: <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:
127: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
128: <dd>Protocol</dd>
129: <dt>HTTP</dt>
130: <dd>Server Name</dd>
131: <dt>install.loncapa.org</dt>
132: <dd>Directory on server</dd>
133: <dt>suse/sles10/</dt>
134: <dd>Authentication</dd>
135: <dt>Anonymous</dt>
136: </dl>
137: After saving this configuration information for the LON-CAPA repository, quit yast.
138: </p>
139:
140: <h2>5. <a name="ilc">Installing LON-CAPA</a></h2>
141: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
142: <p> Execute: </p>
143: <pre>
144: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites
145: </pre><p>
146: This may take a moment due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
147: </p>
148: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
149: <p>
150: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with one of the following commands:
151: </p>
152: <pre>
153: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/suse/sles10/sles10_install.tar
154: </pre>
155: <p>
156: Extract the archive with the following command:
157: </p>
158: <pre>
159: tar xf sles10_install.tar
160: </pre>
161: <p>
162: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>. Change to it and
163: execute the setup script with the following commands:
164: </p>
165: <pre>
166: cd installation
167: ./install.pl
168: </pre>
169: <p>
170: This script will prompt you for the MySQL root password and will download the latest LON-CAPA release.
171: </p>
172: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
173: <p>
174: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
175: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
176: </p>
177: <dl>
178: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
179: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
180: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
181: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
182: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
183: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
184: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
185: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
186: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
187: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
188: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
189: special characters.</i>
190: </dd>
191: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
192: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
193: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
194: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
195: </dd>
196: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
197: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
198: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
199: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
200: </dd>
201: </dl>
202:
203: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
204: <p>
205: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
206: </p>
207: <pre>
208: cd /root/loncapa-N.N.N (N.N.N should correspond to a version number like '2.2.2')
209: ./UPDATE
210: </pre>
211: <p>
212: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
213: in the previous section.
214: </p>
215: <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>
216: <pre>
217: /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 loncontrol on
218: </pre>
219:
220: <h2>6. <a name="cdc">Creating a Domain Coordinator</a></h2>
221: <p>
222: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
223: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
224: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
225: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
226: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
227: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
228: appropriate user name and your domain.
229: </p>
230: <pre>
231: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
232: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
233: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
234: </pre>
235:
236: <h2>7. <a name="sts">Start/Restart Services</a></h2>
237: <p>
238: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
239: will be apparent at this step.
240: </p>
241: <pre>
242: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
243: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
244: </pre>
245: <p>
246: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
247: please make sure you followed the instructions in
248: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
249: contact the LON-CAPA group.
250: </p>
251:
252: <h2>8. <a name="log">Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</a></h2>
253: <p>
254: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
255: coordinator. Congratulations!
256: </p>
257:
258: <hr />
259: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
260: <p>
261: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
262: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA group.
263: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br />
264: <a href="http://help.loncapa.org/help/">http://help.loncapa.org/help/</a><br />
265: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
266: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
267: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
268: </p>
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