Annotation of doc/build/rh73.frag, revision 1.2
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>
1.2 ! bowersj2 77: <dd>The installation script will create a firewall for the install,
! 78: blocking all unnecessary port for LON-CAPA. <b>Note that you may need
! 79: to tweak the firewall installation if you have other network services
! 80: the machine needs to provide, such as Kerberos authentication.</b></dd>
1.1 bowersj2 81: <dt>Package Group Selection</dt>
82: <dd>At a minimum, install the following packages:
83: <ul>
84: <li>NFS File Server </li>
85: <li>Windows File Server </li>
86: <li>Web Server </li>
87: </ul>
88: Other packages can be installed as you like.</dd>
89: <dt>X Windows Configuration</dt>
90: <dd>If you chose to install the X-windows packages you will need to
91: configure them. If you are unsure of the support for your video
92: card you may wish to skip the configuration.</dd>
93: </dl>
94: <p>
95: Other notes:
96: </p>
97: <ul>
98: <li>Use md5 and shadow passwords if you are given the choice (this is
99: the default). </li>
100: </ul>
101:
102: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA settings</h2>
103: <p>
104: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order
105: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
106: </p>
107: <dl>
108: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
109: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
110: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
111: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
112: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
113: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification, you
114: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
115: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
116: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
117: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
118: meaningful.
119: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i>
120: </dd>
121: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
122: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
123: such as "msul1" for the first library server.
124: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i>
125: </dd>
126: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
127: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
128: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
129: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
130: </dd>
131: <dt>Root password for SQL database</dt>
132: <dd>In order to keep people from corrupting the MYSQL database, a root
133: password is needed. You'll need to remember this.</dd>
134: </dl>
135:
136: <h2>Install LON-CAPA</h2>
137: <p>
138: Log in as root with the password you provided during the Red Hat
139: installation process.
140: </p><p>
141: Stop the http daemon while we're installing LON-CAPA. (If you're on a
142: fresh install, it is probably not running.)
143: <pre>
144: /etc/init.d/httpd stop
145: </pre>
146: </p><p>
147: Retrieve the LON-CAPA installation package
148: <pre>
149: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/rh73install/loncapa-rh73install.tar
150: tar xf loncapa-rh73install.tar
151: cd install
152: ./install.pl
153: </pre>
154: </p>
155:
156: <h2>Configure LON-CAPA</h2>
157: <p>
158: Execute the following commands
159: </p>
160: <pre>
161: cd /root/loncapa-N.N (N.N should correspond to a version number like '0.6')
162: ./UPDATE
163: </pre>
164: <p>
165: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you requested
166: above.
167: </p>
168:
169: <h2>Update your system</h2>
170: <p>
171: It is very important that you update your LON-CAPA system to use the
172: latest RedHat packages. LON-CAPA uses CHECKRPMS to notify users their system
173: needs updating.
174: <pre>
175: /usr/local/loncapa/bin/CHECKRPMS
176: </pre>
177: CHECKRPMS will give you the option of downloading the updates you need.
178: Say yes. Then issue the following commands:
179: <pre>
180: cd /tmp/loncapa_rpm_updates
181: rpm -Uvh *
182: </pre>
183: </p><p>
184: You will need to reboot your system to begin running the new Linux Kernel
185: put out by RedHat. You can wait until the end of the LON-CAPA installation
186: process to reboot.
187: </p><p>
188: Congratulate yourself - your system is up to date. Please do your best to
189: keep it that way! When LON-CAPA is installed it sets itself up to run
190: CHECKRPMS script every night and email you the results.
191: <b>Please do not ignore these emails.</b>
192: You will need to update the RPMs yourself when it notifies you.
193: Keeping your system up-to-date goes a long way towards ensuring the
194: integrity of your student records.
195: </p>
196:
197: <h2>Picking a hosts.tab file</h2>
198: <p>
199: The "hosts.tab" file controls which LON-CAPA servers your server attempts
200: to access and which servers it will respond to. If this is your first
201: install of LON-CAPA on your network, we suggest choosing a 'standalone'
202: "hosts.tab". On a laptop, you must choose 'standalone'.
203: Please contact the support staff at www.loncapa.org for
204: information about adding more hosts to your "hosts.tab" file.
205: </p>
206: <p>
207: <b>Note:</b> for <b>non</b>-standalone configurations, you do need to add
208: yourself to the <tt>/home/httpd/lonTabs/hosts.tab</tt> to initially test your
209: configuration. Eventually, you will be added to the general cluster tables by
210: LON-CAPA staff, so this is temporary. A <tt>hosts.tab</tt> entry has the
211: format
212: </p>
213: <pre>
214: lonHostID:domain:hosttype:dns-name:ipaddress
215: </pre>
216: <p>
217: for example
218: </p>
219: <pre>
220: 103l5:library:s17.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.27
221: </pre>
222: <p>
223: Please edit this file with a UNIX editor, not a PC or Mac one, so that the
224: linebreaks are correct.
225: </p>
226:
227: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
228: <p>
229: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
230: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
231: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
232: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
233: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
234: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
235: appropriate user name and your domain.
236: </p>
237: <pre>
238: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
239: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
240: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
241: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html
242: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html
243: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html
244: chmod a+x ~USERNAME
245: </pre>
246:
247: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
248: <p>
249: The LON-CAPA network services take about a minute to start.
250: </p>
251: <pre>
252: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
253: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
254: </pre>
255:
256: <h2>Make Sure that Services Autostart on Boot</h2>
257: <p>On Redhat 7.3 it is not guaranteed that Apache and MySQL automatically
258: restart on boot. You should run /usr/sbin/ntsysv and set the following
259: daemons to be started at boot:
260: </p>
261: <pre>
262: httpd
263: mysqld
264: </pre>
265: <p>
266: It is not necessary to reboot after doing this as they should already be
267: running by this point in the installation.
268: </p>
269: <pre>
270: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
271: /etc/init.d/mysqld restart
272: </pre>
273:
274: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
275: <p>
276: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
277: coordinator. Congratulations!
278: </p>
279:
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