Annotation of doc/build/rh73.frag, revision 1.1
1.1 ! bowersj2 1: <h1>Setting up a Red Hat 7.3 LON-CAPA Server</h1>
! 2: <h2>Integrated installation</h2>
! 3: <p>
! 4: These instructions combine the installation of RedHat 7.3 and LON-CAPA
! 5: into one straightforward process.
! 6: More information is available at <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/">
! 7: http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>.
! 8: </p>
! 9:
! 10: <h2>Before you begin</h2>
! 11: <p>
! 12: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier. However, it is still a
! 13: non-trivial undertaking and experience with Red Hat Linux will make this
! 14: process easier. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
! 15: some routine Unix commands. Some familiarity with Linux is assumed.
! 16: </p>
! 17:
! 18: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
! 19: <p>
! 20: The installation process takes the following steps:
! 21: </p>
! 22: <ol>
! 23: <li> Obtain Red Hat 7.3 </li>
! 24: <li> Gather information for installing Red Hat </li>
! 25: <li> Install Red Hat 7.3 </li>
! 26: <li> Determine your LON-CAPA Settings </li>
! 27: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li>
! 28: <li> Configure LON-CAPA </li>
! 29: <li> Pick a hosts.tab file </li>
! 30: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li>
! 31: <li> Start/Restart services </li>
! 32: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li>
! 33: </ol>
! 34:
! 35: <h2>Obtain the Red Hat 7.3 installation CDs</h2>
! 36: <p>
! 37: These are freely available on the internet.
! 38: </p>
! 39:
! 40: <h2>Determine Network settings for your site</h2>
! 41: <p>
! 42: You will need to have the following information for your site. You must
! 43: have a static IP address (do not use DHCP).
! 44: </p>
! 45: <ul>
! 46: <li>ip address </li>
! 47: <li>netmask </li>
! 48: <li>network </li>
! 49: <li>broadcast </li>
! 50: <li>hostname </li>
! 51: <li>gateway </li>
! 52: <li>domain name server(s) </li>
! 53: </ul>
! 54:
! 55: <h2>Install Red Hat 7.3</h2>
! 56: <p>
! 57: When you install RedHat you will need to ensure the following (the list below
! 58: is in the order the issues appear in the installation of Red Hat 7.3):
! 59: </p>
! 60: <dl>
! 61: <dt>Installation Type</dt>
! 62: <dd>You should definitely do a "Server" install. We do not recommend
! 63: Trying to install LON-CAPA with a different installation type.</dd>
! 64: <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
! 65: <dd>You may want to use the automatic partitioning feature of Red Hat,
! 66: however you should review the results and be prepared to modify them.
! 67: LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, so the
! 68: lion's share of the drive should be allocated here. If you have 8 GB
! 69: of space for Red Hat, /home should receive 4 to 6 gigs. Be sure to
! 70: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
! 71: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.</dd>
! 72: <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
! 73: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
! 74: IP address. When configuring your network card, be sure to unselect
! 75: the DHCP option and enter in your network information.</dd>
! 76: <dt>Firewall Configuration</dt>
! 77: <dd>The installation script will remove and disable your firewall.</dd>
! 78: <dt>Package Group Selection</dt>
! 79: <dd>At a minimum, install the following packages:
! 80: <ul>
! 81: <li>NFS File Server </li>
! 82: <li>Windows File Server </li>
! 83: <li>Web Server </li>
! 84: </ul>
! 85: Other packages can be installed as you like.</dd>
! 86: <dt>X Windows Configuration</dt>
! 87: <dd>If you chose to install the X-windows packages you will need to
! 88: configure them. If you are unsure of the support for your video
! 89: card you may wish to skip the configuration.</dd>
! 90: </dl>
! 91: <p>
! 92: Other notes:
! 93: </p>
! 94: <ul>
! 95: <li>Use md5 and shadow passwords if you are given the choice (this is
! 96: the default). </li>
! 97: </ul>
! 98:
! 99: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA settings</h2>
! 100: <p>
! 101: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order
! 102: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
! 103: </p>
! 104: <dl>
! 105: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
! 106: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
! 107: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
! 108: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
! 109: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
! 110: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification, you
! 111: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
! 112: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
! 113: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
! 114: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
! 115: meaningful.
! 116: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i>
! 117: </dd>
! 118: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
! 119: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
! 120: such as "msul1" for the first library server.
! 121: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i>
! 122: </dd>
! 123: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
! 124: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
! 125: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
! 126: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
! 127: </dd>
! 128: <dt>Root password for SQL database</dt>
! 129: <dd>In order to keep people from corrupting the MYSQL database, a root
! 130: password is needed. You'll need to remember this.</dd>
! 131: </dl>
! 132:
! 133: <h2>Install LON-CAPA</h2>
! 134: <p>
! 135: Log in as root with the password you provided during the Red Hat
! 136: installation process.
! 137: </p><p>
! 138: Stop the http daemon while we're installing LON-CAPA. (If you're on a
! 139: fresh install, it is probably not running.)
! 140: <pre>
! 141: /etc/init.d/httpd stop
! 142: </pre>
! 143: </p><p>
! 144: Retrieve the LON-CAPA installation package
! 145: <pre>
! 146: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/rh73install/loncapa-rh73install.tar
! 147: tar xf loncapa-rh73install.tar
! 148: cd install
! 149: ./install.pl
! 150: </pre>
! 151: </p>
! 152:
! 153: <h2>Configure LON-CAPA</h2>
! 154: <p>
! 155: Execute the following commands
! 156: </p>
! 157: <pre>
! 158: cd /root/loncapa-N.N (N.N should correspond to a version number like '0.6')
! 159: ./UPDATE
! 160: </pre>
! 161: <p>
! 162: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you requested
! 163: above.
! 164: </p>
! 165:
! 166: <h2>Update your system</h2>
! 167: <p>
! 168: It is very important that you update your LON-CAPA system to use the
! 169: latest RedHat packages. LON-CAPA uses CHECKRPMS to notify users their system
! 170: needs updating.
! 171: <pre>
! 172: /usr/local/loncapa/bin/CHECKRPMS
! 173: </pre>
! 174: CHECKRPMS will give you the option of downloading the updates you need.
! 175: Say yes. Then issue the following commands:
! 176: <pre>
! 177: cd /tmp/loncapa_rpm_updates
! 178: rpm -Uvh *
! 179: </pre>
! 180: </p><p>
! 181: You will need to reboot your system to begin running the new Linux Kernel
! 182: put out by RedHat. You can wait until the end of the LON-CAPA installation
! 183: process to reboot.
! 184: </p><p>
! 185: Congratulate yourself - your system is up to date. Please do your best to
! 186: keep it that way! When LON-CAPA is installed it sets itself up to run
! 187: CHECKRPMS script every night and email you the results.
! 188: <b>Please do not ignore these emails.</b>
! 189: You will need to update the RPMs yourself when it notifies you.
! 190: Keeping your system up-to-date goes a long way towards ensuring the
! 191: integrity of your student records.
! 192: </p>
! 193:
! 194: <h2>Picking a hosts.tab file</h2>
! 195: <p>
! 196: The "hosts.tab" file controls which LON-CAPA servers your server attempts
! 197: to access and which servers it will respond to. If this is your first
! 198: install of LON-CAPA on your network, we suggest choosing a 'standalone'
! 199: "hosts.tab". On a laptop, you must choose 'standalone'.
! 200: Please contact the support staff at www.loncapa.org for
! 201: information about adding more hosts to your "hosts.tab" file.
! 202: </p>
! 203: <p>
! 204: <b>Note:</b> for <b>non</b>-standalone configurations, you do need to add
! 205: yourself to the <tt>/home/httpd/lonTabs/hosts.tab</tt> to initially test your
! 206: configuration. Eventually, you will be added to the general cluster tables by
! 207: LON-CAPA staff, so this is temporary. A <tt>hosts.tab</tt> entry has the
! 208: format
! 209: </p>
! 210: <pre>
! 211: lonHostID:domain:hosttype:dns-name:ipaddress
! 212: </pre>
! 213: <p>
! 214: for example
! 215: </p>
! 216: <pre>
! 217: 103l5:library:s17.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.27
! 218: </pre>
! 219: <p>
! 220: Please edit this file with a UNIX editor, not a PC or Mac one, so that the
! 221: linebreaks are correct.
! 222: </p>
! 223:
! 224: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</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
! 229: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
! 230: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
! 231: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
! 232: appropriate user name and your domain.
! 233: </p>
! 234: <pre>
! 235: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
! 236: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
! 237: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
! 238: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html
! 239: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html
! 240: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html
! 241: chmod a+x ~USERNAME
! 242: </pre>
! 243:
! 244: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
! 245: <p>
! 246: The LON-CAPA network services take about a minute to start.
! 247: </p>
! 248: <pre>
! 249: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
! 250: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
! 251: </pre>
! 252:
! 253: <h2>Make Sure that Services Autostart on Boot</h2>
! 254: <p>On Redhat 7.3 it is not guaranteed that Apache and MySQL automatically
! 255: restart on boot. You should run /usr/sbin/ntsysv and set the following
! 256: daemons to be started at boot:
! 257: </p>
! 258: <pre>
! 259: httpd
! 260: mysqld
! 261: </pre>
! 262: <p>
! 263: It is not necessary to reboot after doing this as they should already be
! 264: running by this point in the installation.
! 265: </p>
! 266: <pre>
! 267: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
! 268: /etc/init.d/mysqld restart
! 269: </pre>
! 270:
! 271: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
! 272: <p>
! 273: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
! 274: coordinator. Congratulations!
! 275: </p>
! 276:
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