Annotation of doc/build/sles10_install.frag, revision 1.4
1.1 raeburn 1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10</h1>
2: <p>
3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
4: server running SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (SLES 10) 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
7: a reasonably fast connection to the internet.
8: </p><p>
9: More information is available at
10: <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/">http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>.
11: </p>
12:
13: <h2>Before you begin</h2>
14: <p>
15: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier.
16: You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
17: some routine Unix commands. Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl,
18: perl, and MySQL are not required to install and run LON-CAPA.
19: </p>
20:
21: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
22: <p>
23: The installation process takes the following steps:
24: </p>
25: <ol>
26: <li> Obtain SLES 10 installation media</li>
27: <li> Determine Network Settings</li>
28: <li> Install SLES 10</li>
29: <li> Update your system </li>
30: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li>
31: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li>
32: <li> Start/Restart services </li>
33: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li>
34: </ol>
35:
36: <h2>Obtain SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10</h2>
37: <p>
38: SuSE ISO files can be obtained from the Novell site: <a href="http://www.novell.com/products/server/">http://www.novell.com/products/server/</a>.
39: </p>
40:
41: <h2>Determine Network Settings</h2>
42: <p>
43: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.
44: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
45: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
46: </p>
47: <ul>
48: <li>ip address </li>
49: <li>netmask </li>
50: <li>hostname </li>
51: <li>gateway </li>
52: <li>domain name server(s) </li>
53: </ul>
54:
55: <h2>Minimal SLES 10 Install</h2>
56: <p>
57: Installing SuSE Linux Enterprise Server is quite easy if you've installed Linux products
58: before. Some documentation is available from
59: <a href="http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/">
60: http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/</a>.<br /><br />
61: Most of the subsequent installation screens are self explanatory.
62: There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
63: </p>
64: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
1.3 www 65: <dt>Installation Language</dt>
66: <dd>Use English as your installation language.</dd>
67:
1.1 raeburn 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: permanent 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 SLES10, /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: <dt>Software Selection</dt>
86: <dd>
87: Installation of the minimum set of packages is recommended. This will involve unchecking all checkboxes except for the base SuSE installation.</dd>
88: </dl>
89: <p>Once you system has rebooted, you will use yast to complete the configuration. Change the following settings:
90: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
91: <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
92: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
93: IP address. When configuring your network card, you should include you static IP address, netmask, host name information (e.g., host name = tmp1, domain = lite.msu.edu), as well as name servers and gateway.
94: </dd>
95: <dt>Online update</dt>
96: <dd>Indicate "Yes" when prompted to "run online update now?"</dd>
97: </dt>
98: </dl>
99: <p>
100: Finish installing your server, read the "readme", reboot and log in as root.
101: </p>
102: <h2>Configure Firewall Settings</h2>
103: <p>After reboot you should start yast, and select Security and Users -> Firewall. At step 2 include the following services: HTTP, HTTP with SSL, and Secure Shell. Use the "Expert..." option to add additional TCP services on ports 5663 and 8080.
104: </p>
105: <h2>Change software sources for your system</h2>
106: <p>
107: You will use yast to import packages required for LON-CAPA.<br />
108: Execute:
109: </p>
110: <pre>
111: yast
112: </pre>
113: <p>
1.2 raeburn 114: Select "Change Source of Installation". The media you used to install SLES10 will be listed as an installation source. If you do not already have a SLES10 installation source at your location, you may want to consider creating one from the 4 iso files for CDs 1 - 4, to avoid the need to flip CDs during LON-CAPA installation. Proceed as follows (e.g., for 32 bit):</p>
115: <pre>
116: mkdir -p sles10/CD1
117: mount -o ro,loop SLES-10-x86-CD1.iso /mnt
118: cp -rv /mnt/* sles10/CD1
119: umount /mnt
120: </pre>
121: <p>
122: Repeat those steps with CD2, CD3 and CD4.</p>
1.1 raeburn 123: <h3>Add an additional installation source</h3>
1.2 raeburn 124: <p>Add the LON-CAPA SLES 10 repository as an additional installation source, so software installation in yast will have access to at least two repositories - a SuSE/Novell source (for packages included for the standard distribution) and the LON-CAPA repository (for extra packages needed to run LON-CAPA). For the LON-CAPA source you will use:
1.1 raeburn 125: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
126: <dd>Protocol</dd>
127: <dt>HTTP</dt>
128: <dd>Server Name</dd>
129: <dt>install.loncapa.org</dt>
130: <dd>Directory on server</dd>
131: <dt>suse/sles10/</dt>
132: <dd>Authentication</dd>
133: <dt>Anonymous</dt>
134: </dl>
135: After saving this configuration information for the LON-CAPA repository, quit yast.
136: </p>
137: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
138: <p> Execute: </p>
139: <pre>
140: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites
141: </pre><p>
142: This may take a moment due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
143: </p>
144: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
145: <p>
146: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with one of the following commands:
147: </p>
148: <pre>
149: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/suse/sles10/sles10_install.tar
150: </pre>
151: <p>
152: Extract the archive with the following command:
153: </p>
154: <pre>
155: tar xf sles10_install.tar
156: </pre>
157: <p>
158: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>. Change to it and
159: execute the setup script with the following commands:
160: </p>
161: <pre>
162: cd installation
163: ./install.pl
164: </pre>
165: <p>
166: This script will prompt you for the MySQL root password and will download the latest LON-CAPA release.
167: </p>
168: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
169: <p>
170: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
171: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
172: </p>
173: <dl>
174: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
175: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
176: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
177: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
178: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
179: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
180: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
181: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
182: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
183: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
184: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
185: special characters.</i>
186: </dd>
187: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
188: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
189: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
190: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
191: </dd>
192: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
193: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
194: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
195: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
196: </dd>
197: </dl>
198:
199: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
200: <p>
201: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
202: </p>
203: <pre>
204: cd /root/loncapa-N.N.N (N.N.N should correspond to a version number like '2.2.2')
205: ./UPDATE
206: </pre>
207: <p>
208: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
209: in the previous section.
210: </p>
211: <p>After installing LON-CAPA, and taking any actions included in the WARNINGS file created during installation, it is recommended that you set loncontrol to start automatically on boot, by executing the following command:</p>
212: <pre>
213: /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 loncontrol on
214: </pre>
215: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
216: <p>
217: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
218: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
219: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
220: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
221: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
222: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
223: appropriate user name and your domain.
224: </p>
225: <pre>
226: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
227: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
228: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
229: </pre>
230: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
231: <p>
232: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
233: will be apparent at this step.
234: </p>
235: <pre>
236: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
237: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
238: </pre>
239: <p>
240: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
241: please make sure you followed the instructions in
242: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
1.4 ! raeburn 243: contact the LON-CAPA group.
1.1 raeburn 244: </p>
245: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
246: <p>
247: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
248: coordinator. Congratulations!
249: </p>
250: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
251: <p>
252: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
1.4 ! raeburn 253: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA group.
1.1 raeburn 254: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br />
1.4 ! raeburn 255: <a href="http://help.loncapa.org/help/">http://help.loncapa.org/help/</a><br />
1.1 raeburn 256: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
257: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
258: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
259: </p>
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