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- Update SLES10 and SLES11  installation instructions to use generic install.pl
  included in linux/install.tar
- Update instructions for creating Domain Coordinator to reflect changes
  in loncom/build/make_domain_coordinator.pl script in 2.10

    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 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 some minutes 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/linux/install.tar
  154: </pre>
  155: <p>
  156: Extract the archive with the following command:
  157: </p>
  158: <pre>
  159: tar xf 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: The script is used to prepare a Linux system to run LON-CAPA, and can also be
  171: 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.
  172: </p>
  173: <p>
  174: 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.
  175: Once a choice has been entered for all nine possible actions, required changes will be made.
  176: </p>
  177: <p>The possible actions are:
  178: <ul>
  179: <li>Create the www user/group</li>
  180: <li>Install the package LON-CAPA uses to authenticate users.</li>
  181: <li>Set-up the MySQL database</li>
  182: <li>Set-up MySQL permissions</li>
  183: <li>Configure Apache web server</li>
  184: <li>Configure start-up of services</li>
  185: <li>Check firewall settings</li>
  186: <li>Stop services not used by LON-CAPA,<br />
  187:     e.g., services for a print server: cups daemon</li>
  188: <li>Download LON-CAPA source code in readiness for installation</li>
  189: </ul>
  190: </p>
  191: 
  192: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
  193: <p>
  194: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
  195: for it to function at all.  Below is a list with descriptions.
  196: </p>
  197: <dl>
  198:   <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
  199:   <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server.  In
  200:       general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
  201:       their course content on and run their courses.  Students should connect
  202:       to access servers.  If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
  203:       your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
  204:       should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
  205:   <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
  206:   <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
  207:       Here at MSU we use 'msu'.  You should choose something short but
  208:       meaningful.  <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
  209:       special characters.</i>
  210:   </dd>
  211:   <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
  212:   <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name.  We use names
  213:       such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
  214:       no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
  215:   </dd>
  216:   <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
  217:   <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal.  Messages
  218:       are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
  219:       serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
  220:   </dd>
  221: </dl>
  222: 
  223: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
  224: <p>
  225: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
  226: </p>
  227: <pre>
  228: cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z     (X.Y.Z should correspond to a version number like '2.10.0')
  229: ./UPDATE
  230: </pre>
  231: <p>
  232: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
  233: in the previous section.
  234: </p>
  235: <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>
  236: <pre>
  237: /sbin/chkconfig --level 35 loncontrol on
  238: </pre>
  239: 
  240: <h2>6. <a name="cdc">Creating a Domain Coordinator</a></h2>
  241: <p>
  242: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
  243: 'domain coordinator'.  This user creates accounts for other users and
  244: grants them additional privileges.  The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
  245: invoked below requires that you enter the user's password. 
  246: Feel free to use the "passwd username" command to change it later.
  247: Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an appropriate user name and your domain.
  248: </p>
  249: <pre>
  250: cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z/loncom/build
  251: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
  252: </pre>
  253: 
  254: <h2>7. <a name="sts">Start/Restart Services</a></h2>
  255: <p>
  256: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start.  Most misconfigurations
  257: will be apparent at this step.
  258: </p>
  259: <pre>
  260: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
  261: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
  262: </pre>
  263: <p>
  264: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
  265: please make sure you followed the instructions in
  266: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>.  If you still have errors, please
  267: contact the LON-CAPA group.
  268: </p>
  269: 
  270: <h2>8. <a name="log">Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</a></h2>
  271: <p>
  272: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
  273: coordinator.  Congratulations!
  274: </p>
  275: 
  276: <hr />
  277: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
  278: <p>
  279: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
  280: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA group.
  281: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br />
  282: <a href="http://help.loncapa.org/help/">http://help.loncapa.org/help/</a><br />
  283: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
  284: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
  285: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
  286: </p>