Annotation of doc/build/rh73.frag, revision 1.3
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
1.3 ! matthew 68: lion's share of the drive should be allocated here. If you have 20 GB
! 69: of space for Red Hat, /home should receive at least 10 to 12 gigs.
! 70: Since MySQL uses the /var filesystem to store its databases you should
! 71: have at least 4 gigs of space available on /var. Be sure to
1.1 bowersj2 72: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
73: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.</dd>
74: <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
75: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
76: IP address. When configuring your network card, be sure to unselect
77: the DHCP option and enter in your network information.</dd>
78: <dt>Firewall Configuration</dt>
1.2 bowersj2 79: <dd>The installation script will create a firewall for the install,
80: blocking all unnecessary port for LON-CAPA. <b>Note that you may need
81: to tweak the firewall installation if you have other network services
82: the machine needs to provide, such as Kerberos authentication.</b></dd>
1.1 bowersj2 83: <dt>Package Group Selection</dt>
84: <dd>At a minimum, install the following packages:
85: <ul>
86: <li>NFS File Server </li>
87: <li>Windows File Server </li>
88: <li>Web Server </li>
89: </ul>
90: Other packages can be installed as you like.</dd>
91: <dt>X Windows Configuration</dt>
92: <dd>If you chose to install the X-windows packages you will need to
93: configure them. If you are unsure of the support for your video
94: card you may wish to skip the configuration.</dd>
95: </dl>
96: <p>
97: Other notes:
98: </p>
99: <ul>
100: <li>Use md5 and shadow passwords if you are given the choice (this is
101: the default). </li>
102: </ul>
103:
104: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA settings</h2>
105: <p>
106: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order
107: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
108: </p>
109: <dl>
110: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
111: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
112: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
113: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
114: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
115: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification, you
116: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
117: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
118: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
119: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
120: meaningful.
121: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i>
122: </dd>
123: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
124: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
125: such as "msul1" for the first library server.
126: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i>
127: </dd>
128: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
129: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
130: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
131: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
132: </dd>
133: <dt>Root password for SQL database</dt>
134: <dd>In order to keep people from corrupting the MYSQL database, a root
135: password is needed. You'll need to remember this.</dd>
136: </dl>
137:
138: <h2>Install LON-CAPA</h2>
139: <p>
140: Log in as root with the password you provided during the Red Hat
141: installation process.
142: </p><p>
143: Stop the http daemon while we're installing LON-CAPA. (If you're on a
144: fresh install, it is probably not running.)
145: <pre>
146: /etc/init.d/httpd stop
147: </pre>
148: </p><p>
149: Retrieve the LON-CAPA installation package
150: <pre>
151: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/rh73install/loncapa-rh73install.tar
152: tar xf loncapa-rh73install.tar
153: cd install
154: ./install.pl
155: </pre>
156: </p>
157:
158: <h2>Configure LON-CAPA</h2>
159: <p>
160: Execute the following commands
161: </p>
162: <pre>
163: cd /root/loncapa-N.N (N.N should correspond to a version number like '0.6')
164: ./UPDATE
165: </pre>
166: <p>
167: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you requested
168: above.
169: </p>
170:
171: <h2>Update your system</h2>
172: <p>
173: It is very important that you update your LON-CAPA system to use the
174: latest RedHat packages. LON-CAPA uses CHECKRPMS to notify users their system
175: needs updating.
176: <pre>
177: /usr/local/loncapa/bin/CHECKRPMS
178: </pre>
179: CHECKRPMS will give you the option of downloading the updates you need.
180: Say yes. Then issue the following commands:
181: <pre>
182: cd /tmp/loncapa_rpm_updates
183: rpm -Uvh *
184: </pre>
185: </p><p>
186: You will need to reboot your system to begin running the new Linux Kernel
187: put out by RedHat. You can wait until the end of the LON-CAPA installation
188: process to reboot.
189: </p><p>
190: Congratulate yourself - your system is up to date. Please do your best to
191: keep it that way! When LON-CAPA is installed it sets itself up to run
192: CHECKRPMS script every night and email you the results.
193: <b>Please do not ignore these emails.</b>
194: You will need to update the RPMs yourself when it notifies you.
195: Keeping your system up-to-date goes a long way towards ensuring the
196: integrity of your student records.
197: </p>
198:
199: <h2>Picking a hosts.tab file</h2>
200: <p>
201: The "hosts.tab" file controls which LON-CAPA servers your server attempts
202: to access and which servers it will respond to. If this is your first
203: install of LON-CAPA on your network, we suggest choosing a 'standalone'
204: "hosts.tab". On a laptop, you must choose 'standalone'.
205: Please contact the support staff at www.loncapa.org for
206: information about adding more hosts to your "hosts.tab" file.
207: </p>
208: <p>
209: <b>Note:</b> for <b>non</b>-standalone configurations, you do need to add
210: yourself to the <tt>/home/httpd/lonTabs/hosts.tab</tt> to initially test your
211: configuration. Eventually, you will be added to the general cluster tables by
212: LON-CAPA staff, so this is temporary. A <tt>hosts.tab</tt> entry has the
213: format
214: </p>
215: <pre>
216: lonHostID:domain:hosttype:dns-name:ipaddress
217: </pre>
218: <p>
219: for example
220: </p>
221: <pre>
222: 103l5:library:s17.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.27
223: </pre>
224: <p>
225: Please edit this file with a UNIX editor, not a PC or Mac one, so that the
226: linebreaks are correct.
227: </p>
228:
229: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
230: <p>
231: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
232: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
233: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
234: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
235: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
236: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
237: appropriate user name and your domain.
238: </p>
239: <pre>
240: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
241: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
242: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
243: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html
244: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html
245: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html
246: chmod a+x ~USERNAME
247: </pre>
248:
249: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
250: <p>
251: The LON-CAPA network services take about a minute to start.
252: </p>
253: <pre>
254: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
255: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
256: </pre>
257:
258: <h2>Make Sure that Services Autostart on Boot</h2>
259: <p>On Redhat 7.3 it is not guaranteed that Apache and MySQL automatically
260: restart on boot. You should run /usr/sbin/ntsysv and set the following
261: daemons to be started at boot:
262: </p>
263: <pre>
264: httpd
265: mysqld
266: </pre>
267: <p>
268: It is not necessary to reboot after doing this as they should already be
269: running by this point in the installation.
270: </p>
271: <pre>
272: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
273: /etc/init.d/mysqld restart
274: </pre>
275:
276: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
277: <p>
278: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
279: coordinator. Congratulations!
280: </p>
281:
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