Annotation of doc/build/suse11.1_install.frag, revision 1.4
1.1 raeburn 1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal SuSE Linux 11.1 System</h1>
2: <p>
3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
4: server running SuSE Linux 11.1 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 11.1 installation media (DVD)</a></li>
23: <li><a href="#net">Determine Network Settings</a></li>
24: <li><a href="#lin">Install Suse 11.1</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 11.1</a></h2>
34: <p>
1.2 raeburn 35: A SuSE 11.1 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-11.1-NET-i586.iso for 32 bit) used in a network install, if burning a CD is more convenient for you.
1.1 raeburn 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 11.1 Install</a></h2>
53: <p>
1.4 ! raeburn 54: Installing SuSE 11.1 is quite easy if you've installed Linux products
! 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 11.1, /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>
1.4 ! raeburn 93: <dd>Enable the firewall, and allow login services (SSH).</dd>
1.1 raeburn 94: </dt>
95: </dl>
96: <p>
97: After finishing the online update, the system should reboot, and
98: proceed to have you create a user account, show you the Release Notes,
99: and let you configure any extra hardware, and then finish up the boot
100: process. At the prompt login as root.
101: </p>
102:
103: <h2>4. <a name="upd">Change software sources for your system</a></h2>
104: Next 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 "Installation Source" and change to point at OSS and non-OSS repositories: (http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.1/repo/oss and http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.1/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 11.1 DVD, or you may prefer to continue to point at the installation DVD.
112: </p>
113: <h3>Add an additional installation source</h3>
114: <p>Add the LON-CAPA SuSE 11.1 repository as an additional installation source. Once this is done, software installation in yast should then have access to a minimum of three repositories - a YUM source for SuSE updates (established when you run online update from yast), an installation source (for OSS packages included in 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>Media Type</dd>
117: <dt>HTTP</dt>
118: <dd>Protocol</dd>
119: <dt>HTTP</dt>
120: <dd>Server Name</dd>
121: <dt>install.loncapa.org</dt>
122: <dd>Directory on server</dd>
123: <dt>suse/11.1/</dt>
124: <dd>Authentication</dd>
125: <dt>Anonymous</dt>
126: </dl>
127: After saving this configuration information for the LON-CAPA repository, you will need to import a public LON-CAPA key, before the catalog is read, and the repository is available to you. Quit yast.
128: </p>
129: <p>Use zypper to add 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.
130: <pre>
131: zypper ar -f 'http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:languages:R:patched/openSUSE_11.1' R-patched
1.3 raeburn 132: zypper ar -f 'http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/science/openSUSE_11.1' science
1.1 raeburn 133: </pre>
134: <h2>5. <a name="ilc">Installing LON-CAPA</a></h2>
135: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
136: <p> Execute: </p>
137: <pre>
138: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites
139: </pre><p>
1.4 ! raeburn 140: This may take some minutes due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
! 141: </p>
! 142: <h3>Configure firewall settings for Apache</h3>
! 143: <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).
! 144: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
! 145: <dt>Firewall</dt>
! 146: <dd>Allow the following services: web services (http and https).</dd>
! 147: </dl>
1.1 raeburn 148: </p>
149: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
150: <p>
151: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with the following command:
152: </p>
153: <pre>
1.4 ! raeburn 154: wget http://install.loncapa.org/linux/install.tar
1.1 raeburn 155: </pre>
156: <p>
157: Extract the archive with the following command:
158: </p>
159: <pre>
1.4 ! raeburn 160: tar xf install.tar
1.1 raeburn 161: </pre>
162: <p>
163: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>. Change to it and
164: execute the setup script with the following commands:
165: </p>
166: <pre>
167: cd installation
168: ./install.pl
169: </pre>
170: <p>
1.4 ! raeburn 171: The script is used to prepare a Linux system to run LON-CAPA, and can also be
! 172: 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.
! 173: </p>
! 174: <p>
! 175: 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.
! 176: Once a choice has been entered for all nine possible actions, required changes will be made.
! 177: </p>
! 178: <p>The possible actions are:
! 179: <ul>
! 180: <li>Create the www user/group</li>
! 181: <li>Install the package LON-CAPA uses to authenticate users.</li>
! 182: <li>Set-up the MySQL database</li>
! 183: <li>Set-up MySQL permissions</li>
! 184: <li>Configure Apache web server</li>
! 185: <li>Configure start-up of services</li>
! 186: <li>Check firewall settings</li>
! 187: <li>Stop services not used by LON-CAPA,<br />
! 188: e.g., services for a print server: cups daemon</li>
! 189: <li>Download LON-CAPA source code in readiness for installation</li>
! 190: </ul>
1.1 raeburn 191: </p>
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
1.4 ! raeburn 208: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no underscores or
! 209: special characters (except hyphens).</i>
1.1 raeburn 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,
1.4 ! raeburn 214: no underscores or special characters (except hyphens).</i>
1.1 raeburn 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>
1.4 ! raeburn 228: cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z (X.Y.Z should correspond to a version number like '2.10.0')
1.1 raeburn 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:
236: <h2>6. <a name="cdc">Creating a Domain Coordinator</a></h2>
237: <p>
238: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
239: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
240: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
1.4 ! raeburn 241: invoked below requires that you enter the user's password.
! 242: Feel free to use the "passwd username" command to change it later.
! 243: Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an appropriate user name and your domain.
1.1 raeburn 244: </p>
245: <pre>
1.4 ! raeburn 246: cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z/loncom/build
1.1 raeburn 247: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
248: </pre>
249:
250: <h2>7. <a name="sts">Start/Restart Services</a></h2>
251: <p>
252: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
253: will be apparent at this step.
254: </p>
255: <pre>
256: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
257: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
258: </pre>
259: <p>
260: If you receive warnings about missing perl modules when starting apache2,
261: please make sure you followed the instructions in
262: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
263: contact the MSU LON-CAPA group.
264: </p>
265:
266: <h2>8. <a name="log">Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</a></h2>
267: <p>
268: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
269: coordinator. Congratulations!
270: </p>
271:
272: <hr />
273: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
274: <p>
275: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
276: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the MSU LON-CAPA group.
277: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br />
278: <a href="http://help.loncapa.org/help/">http://help.loncapa.org/help/</a><br />
279: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
280: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
281: Please let us know if any parts of this document are unclear.
282: </p>
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