Annotation of doc/build/suse11.3_install.frag, revision 1.2

1.1       raeburn     1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal SuSE Linux 11.3 System</h1>
                      2: <p>
                      3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
                      4: server running SuSE Linux 11.3 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 a reasonably fast connection to the internet.
                      7: </p><p>
                      8: More information is available at
                      9: <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/">http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>.
                     10: </p>
                     11: 
                     12: <h2>Before you begin</h2>
                     13: <p>
                     14: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute some routine Unix commands.  Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl, perl, and MySQL are not required to install and run LON-CAPA.
                     15: </p>
                     16: 
                     17: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
                     18: <p>
                     19: The installation process takes the following steps:
                     20: </p>
                     21: <ol>
                     22:   <li><a href="#obt">Obtain SuSE 11.3 installation media (DVD)</a></li>
                     23:   <li><a href="#net">Determine Network Settings</a></li>
                     24:   <li><a href="#lin">Install Suse 11.3</a></li>
                     25:   <li><a href="#upd">Update your system</a></li>
                     26:   <li><a href="#ilc">Install LON-CAPA</a></li>
                     27:   <li><a href="#cdc">Create a Domain Coordinator</a></li>
                     28:   <li><a href="#sts">Start/Restart services</a></li>
                     29:   <li><a href="#log">Log in to LON-CAPA</a></li>
                     30: </ol>
                     31: <hr />
                     32: 
                     33: <h2>1. <a name="obt">Obtain SuSE Linux 11.3</a></h2>
                     34: <p>
                     35: A SuSE 11.3 iso for burning to DVD can be obtained from the opensuse download site: <a href="http://software.opensuse.org/">http://software.opensuse.org/</a>, or from an opensuse mirror site - <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/">http://download.opensuse.org/</a>.  You will also find links there to sites with iso files for burning a Start-CD-Image (e.g., openSUSE-11.3-NET-i586.iso for 32 bit) used in a network install, if burning a CD is more convenient for you.
                     36: </p>
                     37: 
                     38: <h2>2. <a name="net">Determine Network Settings</a></h2>
                     39: <p>
                     40: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.
                     41: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
                     42: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
                     43: </p>
                     44: <ul>
                     45:   <li>ip address </li>
                     46:   <li>netmask </li>
                     47:   <li>hostname </li>
                     48:   <li>gateway </li>
                     49:   <li>domain name server(s) </li>
                     50: </ul>
                     51: 
                     52: <h2>3. <a name="lin">Minimal SuSE 11.3 Install</a></h2>
                     53: <p>
                     54: Installing SuSE 11.3 is quite easy if you've installed Linux products
1.2     ! raeburn    55: before.  Some documentation is available from the 
        !            56: <a href="http://doc.opensuse.org/products/opensuse/openSUSE/opensuse-startup/art.osuse.installquick.html">
        !            57: Installation Quick Start</a> guide.<br /><br />
        !            58: Most of the installation screens are self explanatory.
1.1       raeburn    59: There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
                     60: </p>
                     61: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
                     62:    <dt>Installation Language</dt>
                     63:    <dd>Use English as your installation language.</dd>
                     64:    <dt>Desktop Selection</dt>
                     65:    <dd>Click <i>Other</i> and choose <i>Text Mode</i></dd>
                     66:    <dt>Software Selection</dt>
                     67:    <dd>Choose Expert Mode and for Software enable Base System, Yast Installation Packages and Software Management</dd>
                     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:        permenent 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 SuSE 11.3, /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: </dl>
                     86: <p>Once you system has rebooted, you will use yast to complete the configuration. Change the following settings:
                     87: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
                     88:    <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
                     89:    <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
                     90:        IP address.  When configuring your network card, you should include host name information (e.g., host name = tmp1, domain = lite.msu.edu), as well as name server. Other settings (ip address, gateway, netmask will have been set when you included them in the boot configuration).
                     91:    </dd>
                     92:    <dt>Firewall</dt>
1.2     ! raeburn    93:    <dd>Enable the firewall, and allow login services (SSH).</dd>
1.1       raeburn    94: </dl>
                     95: <p>
                     96: After finishing the online update, the system should reboot, and
                     97: proceed to have you create a user account, show you the Release Notes,
                     98: and let you configure any extra hardware, and then finish up the boot
                     99: process. At the prompt login as root.
                    100: </p>
                    101: 
                    102: <h2>4. <a name="upd">Change software sources for your system</a></h2>
                    103: Next you will use yast to import packages required for LON-CAPA.<br />
                    104: Execute:
                    105: </p>
                    106: <pre>
                    107: yast
                    108: </pre>
                    109: <p>
                    110: Select "Installation Source" and change to point at OSS and non-OSS repositories: (http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.3/repo/oss and http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.3/repo/non-oss) or alternatively at iternet installation repositories close to your location (see <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/Mirrors_Released_Version">http://en.opensuse.org/Mirrors_Released_Version</a>), or a local institutional source you have built from the SuSE 11.3 DVD, or you may prefer to continue to point at the installation DVD.
                    111: </p>
                    112: <h3>Add additional installation sources</h3>
                    113: <p>Add the LON-CAPA SuSE 11.3 repository as an additional installation source.</p>
                    114: <p>Use zypper to add the LON-CAPA SuSE 11.3 repository and two additional repositiories provide by openSuSE - one for the R statistics package (the R-patched repo), and one for the Maxima computer algebra system (the science repo).  Use the following commands to add them.
                    115: <pre>
                    116: zypper ar -f 'http://install.loncapa.org/suse/11.3' LON-CAPA
                    117: zypper ar -f 'http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:languages:R:patched/openSUSE_11.3' R-patched
                    118: zypper ar -f 'http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/science/openSUSE_11.3' science
                    119: </pre>
                    120: You will need to confirm that you wish to trust the key used to sign the packages in the LON-CAPA SuSE 11.3 repository.
                    121: </p>
                    122: <h2>5. <a name="ilc">Installing LON-CAPA</a></h2>
                    123: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
                    124: <p> Execute: </p>
                    125: <pre>
                    126: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites
                    127: </pre><p>
1.2     ! raeburn   128: This may take some minutes due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
        !           129: </p>
        !           130: <h3>Configure firewall settings for Apache</h3>
        !           131: <p>After Apache has been installed use yast to configure the Firewall to open port 80 for http (and port 443 for https, if you plan to use Apache with SSL).
        !           132: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
        !           133:    <dt>Firewall</dt>
        !           134:    <dd>Allow the following services: web services (http and https).</dd>
        !           135: </dl>
1.1       raeburn   136: </p>
                    137: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
                    138: <p>
                    139: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with the following command:
                    140: </p>
                    141: <pre>
1.2     ! raeburn   142: wget http://install.loncapa.org/linux/install.tar
1.1       raeburn   143: </pre>
                    144: <p>
                    145: Extract the archive with the following command:
                    146: </p>
                    147: <pre>
1.2     ! raeburn   148: tar xf install.tar
1.1       raeburn   149: </pre>
                    150: <p>
                    151: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>.  Change to it and
                    152: execute the setup script with the following commands:
                    153: </p>
                    154: <pre>
                    155: cd installation
                    156: ./install.pl
                    157: </pre>
                    158: <p>
1.2     ! raeburn   159: The script is used to prepare a Linux system to run LON-CAPA, and can also be
        !           160: 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.
        !           161: </p>
        !           162: <p>
        !           163: 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.
        !           164: Once a choice has been entered for all nine possible actions, required changes will be made.
        !           165: </p>
        !           166: <p>The possible actions are:
        !           167: <ul>
        !           168: <li>Create the www user/group</li>
        !           169: <li>Install the package LON-CAPA uses to authenticate users.</li>
        !           170: <li>Set-up the MySQL database</li>
        !           171: <li>Set-up MySQL permissions</li>
        !           172: <li>Configure Apache web server</li>
        !           173: <li>Configure start-up of services</li>
        !           174: <li>Check firewall settings</li>
        !           175: <li>Stop services not used by LON-CAPA,<br />
        !           176:     e.g., services for a print server: cups daemon</li>
        !           177: <li>Download LON-CAPA source code in readiness for installation</li>
        !           178: </ul>
1.1       raeburn   179: </p>
                    180: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
                    181: <p>
                    182: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
                    183: for it to function at all.  Below is a list with descriptions.
                    184: </p>
                    185: <dl>
                    186:   <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
                    187:   <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server.  In
                    188:       general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
                    189:       their course content on and run their courses.  Students should connect
                    190:       to access servers.  If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
                    191:       your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
                    192:       should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
                    193:   <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
                    194:   <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
                    195:       Here at MSU we use 'msu'.  You should choose something short but
                    196:       meaningful.  <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
                    197:       special characters.</i>
                    198:   </dd>
                    199:   <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
                    200:   <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name.  We use names
                    201:       such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
                    202:       no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
                    203:   </dd>
                    204:   <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
                    205:   <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal.  Messages
                    206:       are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
                    207:       serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
                    208:   </dd>
                    209: </dl>
                    210: 
                    211: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
                    212: <p>
                    213: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
                    214: </p>
                    215: <pre>
1.2     ! raeburn   216: cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z     (X.Y.Z should correspond to a version number like '2.10.0')
1.1       raeburn   217: ./UPDATE
                    218: </pre>
                    219: <p>
                    220: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
                    221: in the previous section.
                    222: </p>
                    223: 
                    224: <h2>6. <a name="cdc">Creating a Domain Coordinator</a></h2>
                    225: <p>
                    226: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
                    227: 'domain coordinator'.  This user creates accounts for other users and
                    228: grants them additional privileges.  The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
1.2     ! raeburn   229: invoked below requires that you enter the user's password. 
        !           230: Feel free to use the "passwd username" command to change it later.
        !           231: Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an appropriate user name and your domain.
1.1       raeburn   232: </p>
                    233: <pre>
1.2     ! raeburn   234: cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z/loncom/build
1.1       raeburn   235: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
                    236: </pre>
                    237: 
                    238: <h2>7. <a name="sts">Start/Restart Services</a></h2>
                    239: <p>
                    240: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start.  Most misconfigurations
                    241: will be apparent at this step.
                    242: </p>
                    243: <pre>
                    244: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
                    245: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
                    246: </pre>
                    247: <p>
                    248: If you receive warnings about missing perl modules when starting apache2,
                    249: please make sure you followed the instructions in
                    250: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>.  If you still have errors, please
                    251: contact the MSU LON-CAPA group.
                    252: </p>
                    253: 
                    254: <h2>8. <a name="log">Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</a></h2>
                    255: <p>
                    256: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
                    257: coordinator.  Congratulations!
                    258: </p>
                    259: 
                    260: <hr />
                    261: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
                    262: <p>
                    263: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
                    264: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the MSU LON-CAPA group.
                    265: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br />
                    266: <a href="http://help.loncapa.org/help/">http://help.loncapa.org/help/</a><br />
                    267: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
                    268: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
                    269: Please let us know if any parts of this document are unclear.
                    270: </p>

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