Annotation of doc/build/suse11.4_install.frag, revision 1.2
1.1 raeburn 1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal SuSE Linux 11.4 System</h1>
2: <p>
3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
4: server running SuSE Linux 11.4 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 11.4 installation media (DVD)</a></li>
23: <li><a href="#net">Determine Network Settings</a></li>
24: <li><a href="#lin">Install Suse 11.4</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 11.4</a></h2>
34: <p>
35: A SuSE 11.4 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-11.4-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 11.4 Install</a></h2>
53: <p>
54: Installing SuSE 11.4 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 11.4, /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/11.4/repo/oss and http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.4/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 11.4 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 11.4 repository as an additional installation source.</p>
114: <p>Use zypper to add the LON-CAPA SuSE 11.4 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/11.4' LON-CAPA
117: zypper ar -f 'http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:languages:R:patched/openSUSE_11.4' R-patched
118: zypper ar -f 'http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/science/openSUSE_11.4' 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 11.4 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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