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>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
66: <dd>For a LON-CAPA library server (i.e., the main server used
67: for permanent storage of course and user data),
68: a separate partition is recommended for /home, as this
69: simplifies future upgrades of the operating system.
70: If you are adding an additional access server to an
71: existing LON-CAPA domain, this does not apply as no
72: permanent data are stored on an access server.
73: As LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory,
74: the majority of the disk space should be allocated here.
75: If you have 20 GB of space for SLES10, /home should
76: receive at least 10 to 12 gigs. Since MySQL uses the /var
77: filesystem to store its databases you should have as least
78: 4 gigs of space available on /var. Be sure to
79: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
80: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.
81: </dd>
82: <dt>Software Selection</dt>
83: <dd>
84: Installation of the minimum set of packages is recommended. This will involve unchecking all checkboxes except for the base SuSE installation.</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 you static IP address, netmask, host name information (e.g., host name = tmp1, domain = lite.msu.edu), as well as name servers and gateway.
91: </dd>
92: <dt>Online update</dt>
93: <dd>Indicate "Yes" when prompted to "run online update now?"</dd>
94: </dt>
95: </dl>
96: <p>
97: Finish installing your server, read the "readme", reboot and log in as root.
98: </p>
99: <h2>Configure Firewall Settings</h2>
100: <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.
101: </p>
102: <h2>Change software sources for your system</h2>
103: <p>
104: You will use yast to import packages required for LON-CAPA.<br />
105: Execute:
106: </p>
107: <pre>
108: yast
109: </pre>
110: <p>
111: Select "Change Source of Installation". The media you used to install SLES10 will be listed as an installation source. You may also wish to create a local repository by copying the contents of the RPM directories on the five CDs to a local directory to avoid the need to flip CDs during LON-CAPA installation. Information about building a local repository is available at:<a href="http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/02/yast_instsrc.html">http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2004/02/yast_instsrc.html</a>.
112: </p>
113: <h3>Add an additional installation source</h3>
114: <p>Add the LON-CAPA SLES 10 repository as an additional installation source, so software installation in yast will have access to 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:
115: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
116: <dd>Protocol</dd>
117: <dt>HTTP</dt>
118: <dd>Server Name</dd>
119: <dt>install.loncapa.org</dt>
120: <dd>Directory on server</dd>
121: <dt>suse/sles10/</dt>
122: <dd>Authentication</dd>
123: <dt>Anonymous</dt>
124: </dl>
125: After saving this configuration information for the LON-CAPA repository, quit yast.
126: </p>
127: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
128: <p> Execute: </p>
129: <pre>
130: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites
131: </pre><p>
132: This may take a moment due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
133: </p>
134: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
135: <p>
136: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with one of the following commands:
137: </p>
138: <pre>
139: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/suse/sles10/sles10_install.tar
140: </pre>
141: <p>
142: Extract the archive with the following command:
143: </p>
144: <pre>
145: tar xf sles10_install.tar
146: </pre>
147: <p>
148: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>. Change to it and
149: execute the setup script with the following commands:
150: </p>
151: <pre>
152: cd installation
153: ./install.pl
154: </pre>
155: <p>
156: This script will prompt you for the MySQL root password and will download the latest LON-CAPA release.
157: </p>
158: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
159: <p>
160: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
161: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
162: </p>
163: <dl>
164: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
165: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
166: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
167: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
168: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
169: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
170: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
171: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
172: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
173: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
174: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
175: special characters.</i>
176: </dd>
177: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
178: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
179: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
180: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
181: </dd>
182: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
183: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
184: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
185: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
186: </dd>
187: </dl>
188:
189: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
190: <p>
191: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
192: </p>
193: <pre>
194: cd /root/loncapa-N.N.N (N.N.N should correspond to a version number like '2.2.2')
195: ./UPDATE
196: </pre>
197: <p>
198: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
199: in the previous section.
200: </p>
201: <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>
202: <pre>
203: /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 loncontrol on
204: </pre>
205: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
206: <p>
207: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
208: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
209: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
210: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
211: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
212: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
213: appropriate user name and your domain.
214: </p>
215: <pre>
216: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
217: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
218: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
219: </pre>
220: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
221: <p>
222: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
223: will be apparent at this step.
224: </p>
225: <pre>
226: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
227: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
228: </pre>
229: <p>
230: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
231: please make sure you followed the instructions in
232: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
233: contact the LON-CAPA support team.
234: </p>
235: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
236: <p>
237: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
238: coordinator. Congratulations!
239: </p>
240: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
241: <p>
242: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
243: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA support team.
244: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br />
245: <a href="http://support.loncapa.org/help/">http://support.loncapa.org/help/</a><br />
246: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
247: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
248: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
249: </p>
FreeBSD-CVSweb <freebsd-cvsweb@FreeBSD.org>