Annotation of doc/install/redhat7.3/new_install_rh73.html, revision 1.5
1.1 matthew 1: <html><head><title>Setting up a Red Hat7.3 LON-CAPA Server</title></head><body>
1.5 ! matthew 2: <!-- $Id: new_install_rh73.html,v 1.4 2002/06/03 13:27:37 www Exp $ -->
1.3 www 3: <h1>Setting up a Red Hat 7.3 LON-CAPA Server</h1>
1.1 matthew 4:
5: <h2>Before you begin</h2>
6: <p>
7: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier. However, it is still a
8: non-trivial undertaking and experience with Red Hat Linux will make this
9: process easier. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
10: some routine Unix commands. Some familiarity with Linux is assumed.
11: </p>
12:
13: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
14: <p>
15: The installation process takes the following steps:
16: <ol>
1.2 matthew 17: <li> Obtain Red Hat 7.3 </li>
18: <li> Gather information for installing Red Hat </li>
19: <li> Install Red Hat 7.3 </li>
20: <li> Determine your LON-CAPA Settings </li>
21: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li>
22: <li> Configure LON-CAPA </li>
23: <li> Pick a hosts.tab file </li>
24: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li>
25: <li> Start/Restart services </li>
26: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li>
1.1 matthew 27: </ol>
28: </p>
29:
30: <h2>Obtain the Red Hat 7.3 installation CDs</h2>
31: <p>
32: If you like, you may contact the LON-CAPA development staff and we can
33: mail the CDs to you. Another option is to download the cd images and
1.3 www 34: burn them yourself, or install from a mirror site using ftp or http.
1.1 matthew 35: </p>
36:
1.2 matthew 37: <h2>Determine Network settings for your site</h2>
1.1 matthew 38: <p>
1.2 matthew 39: You will need to have the following information for your site. You must
40: have a static IP address (do not use DHCP).
1.1 matthew 41: <ul>
1.2 matthew 42: <li>ip address </li>
43: <li>netmask </li>
44: <li>network </li>
45: <li>broadcast </li>
46: <li>hostname </li>
47: <li>gateway </li>
48: <li>domain name server(s) </li>
1.1 matthew 49: </ul>
50: </p>
51:
52: <h2>Install Red Hat 7.3</h2>
53: <p>
54: When you install RedHat you will need to ensure the following (the list below
55: is in the order the issues appear in the installation of Red Hat 7.3):
56: <dl>
57: <dt>Installation Type
58: <dd>You should definitely do a "Server" install. We do not recommend
59: Trying to install LON-CAPA with a different installation type.
60: <dt>Partitioning your Drive
61: <dd>You may want to use the automatic partitioning feature of Red Hat,
62: however you should review the results and be prepared to modify them.
63: LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, so the
64: lion's share of the drive should be allocated here. If you have 8 GB
65: of space for Red Hat, /home should receive 4 to 6 gigs. Be sure to
66: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
67: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.
68: <dt>Network Configuration
69: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
70: IP address. When configuring your network card, be sure to unselect
71: the DHCP option and enter in your network information.
72: <dt>Firewall Configuration
73: <dd>The installation script will remove and disable your firewall.
74: <dt>Package Group Selection
75: <dd>At a minimum, install the following packages:
76: <ul>
1.2 matthew 77: <li>NFS File Server </li>
78: <li>Windows File Server </li>
79: <li>Web Server </li>
1.1 matthew 80: </ul>
81: Other packages can be installed as you like.
82: <dt>X Windows Configuration
83: <dd>If you chose to install the X-windows packages you will need to
84: configure them. If you are unsure of the support for your video
85: card you may wish to skip the configuration.
86: </dl>
87: Other notes:
88: <ul>
89: <li>Use md5 and shadow passwords if you are given the choice (this is
1.2 matthew 90: the default). </li>
1.1 matthew 91: </ul>
92: </p>
93:
94: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA settings</h2>
95: <p>
96: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order
97: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
98: <dl>
99: <dt>Host Type (library or access)
100: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
101: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
102: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
103: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
104: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification, you
105: should make your machine a 'library' server.
106: <dt>LON-CAPA domain
107: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
108: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
1.3 www 109: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters!</i>
1.1 matthew 110: <dt>LON-CAPA host id
111: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
1.3 www 112: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction:
113: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters!</i>
1.1 matthew 114: <dt>Host administrator email
115: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
1.3 www 116: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in serious
117: trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
1.1 matthew 118: <dt>Root password for SQL database
119: <dd>In order to keep people from corrupting the MYSQL database, a root
120: password is needed. You'll need to remember this.
121: </dl>
122: </p>
123:
124: <h2>Install LON-CAPA</h2>
125: <p>
126: Log in as root with the password you provided during the Red Hat
127: installation process.
128: <pre>
129: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/rh73install/loncapa-rh73install.tar
130: tar xf loncapa-rh73install.tar
131: cd install
132: ./install.pl
133: </pre>
134: </p>
135:
136: <h2>Configure LON-CAPA</h2>
137: <p>
138: Execute the following commands
139: <pre>
140: cd /root/loncapa/
141: ./UPDATE
142: </pre>
143: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you requested
144: above. Additionally, you will need to enter the following information
1.3 www 145: (options 5 and 6 in the menu, recommended settings):
1.1 matthew 146: <dl>
147: <dt>Cache Expiration Time
148: <dd>86400
149: <dt>Server Load
150: <dd>2.0
151: </dl>
1.3 www 152: You can deviate from the above settings if you know what you are doing.
1.1 matthew 153: </p>
154:
155: <h2>Picking a hosts.tab file</h2>
156: The "hosts.tab" file controls which LON-CAPA servers your server attempts
157: to access and which servers it will respond to. If this is your first
158: install of LON-CAPA on your network, we suggest choosing a 'standalone'
1.3 www 159: "hosts.tab". On a laptop, you must choose 'standalone'.
160: Please contact the support staff at www.loncapa.org for
1.1 matthew 161: information about adding more hosts to your "hosts.tab" file.
1.3 www 162: <p>
163: <b>Note:</b> for <b>non</b>-standalone configurations, you do need to add
164: yourself to the <tt>/home/httpd/lonTabs/hosts.tab</tt> to initially test your
165: configuration. Eventually, you will be added to the general cluster tables by
166: LON-CAPA staff, so this is temporary. A <tt>hosts.tab</tt> entry has the
167: format
168: <pre>
169: lonHostID:domain:hosttype:dns-name:ipaddress
170: </pre>
171: for example
172: <pre>
173: 103l5:library:s17.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.27
174: </pre>
175: Please edit this file with a UNIX editor, not a PC or Mac one, so that the
176: linebreaks are correct.
177:
178: </p>
1.1 matthew 179: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
180: <p>
181: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
182: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
183: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
184: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
1.2 matthew 185: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
1.1 matthew 186: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
187: appropriate user name and your domain.
188: <pre>
189: cd /root/loncapa/loncom/build
190: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
1.3 www 191: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
1.1 matthew 192: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html
193: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html
194: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html
195: </pre>
196: </p>
197:
198: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
199: <p>
200: The services take about 10 minutes to start.
201: <pre>
202: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
203: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
204: </pre>
205: </p>
206:
1.4 www 207: <h2>Make Sure that Services Autostart on Boot</h2>
208: <p>On Redhat 7.3 it is not guaranteed that Apache and MySQL automatically
1.5 ! matthew 209: restart on boot. You should run /usr/sbin/ntsysv and set the following
! 210: daemons to be started at boot:
! 211: <pre>
! 212: httpd
! 213: mysqld
! 214: </pre>
! 215: It is not necessary to reboot after doing this as they should already be
! 216: running by this point in the installation.
! 217: <pre>
! 218: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
! 219: /etc/init.d/mysqld restart
! 220: </pre>
1.4 www 221: </p>
1.1 matthew 222: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
223: <p>
224: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
225: coordinator. Congratulations!
226: </p>
227:
228:
229:
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