Annotation of doc/build/suse10.1_install.frag, revision 1.5
1.2 raeburn 1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal SuSE Linux 10.1 System</h1>
1.1 raeburn 2: <p>
3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
1.2 raeburn 4: server running SuSE Linux 10.1 with a minimum of packages installed.
1.1 raeburn 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>
1.2 raeburn 15: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute some routine Unix commands. Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl, perl, and MySQL are not required to install and run LON-CAPA.
1.1 raeburn 16: </p>
17:
18: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
19: <p>
20: The installation process takes the following steps:
21: </p>
22: <ol>
1.2 raeburn 23: <li> Obtain SuSE 10.1 installation media (DVD, or CDs)</li>
1.1 raeburn 24: <li> Determine Network Settings</li>
1.2 raeburn 25: <li> Install Suse 10.1</li>
1.1 raeburn 26: <li> Update your system </li>
27: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li>
28: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li>
29: <li> Start/Restart services </li>
30: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li>
31: </ol>
32:
1.2 raeburn 33: <h2>Obtain SuSE Linux 10.1</h2>
1.1 raeburn 34: <p>
1.3 raeburn 35: A SuSE 10.1 iso for burning to DVD can be obtained from the Novell download site: <a href="http://download.novell.com/index.jsp">http://download.novell.com/index.jsp</a>, or from an opensuse mirror site - <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/Mirrors_Released_Version">http://en.opensuse.org/Mirrors_Released_Version</a>. You will also find links there to sites with iso files for burning to CD, if burning CDs is more convenient for you.
1.1 raeburn 36: </p>
37: <h2>Determine Network Settings</h2>
38: <p>
39: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.
40: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
41: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
42: </p>
43: <ul>
44: <li>ip address </li>
45: <li>netmask </li>
46: <li>hostname </li>
47: <li>gateway </li>
48: <li>domain name server(s) </li>
49: </ul>
50:
1.2 raeburn 51: <h2>Minimal SuSE 10.1 Install</h2>
1.1 raeburn 52: <p>
1.2 raeburn 53: Installing SuSE 10.1 is quite easy if you've installed Linux products
1.1 raeburn 54: before. Some documentation is available from
1.2 raeburn 55: <a href="http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse101/">
56: http://www.novell.com/documentation/suse101/</a>.<br /><br />
1.1 raeburn 57: Most of the subsequent installation screens are self explanatory.
58: There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
59: </p>
60: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
1.2 raeburn 61: <dt>Desktop Selection</dt>
62: <dd>Click <i>Select</i> and choose <i>Text Mode</i>
1.1 raeburn 63: <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
64: <dd>For a LON-CAPA library server (i.e., the main server used
65: for permanent storage of course and user data),
66: a separate partition is recommended for /home, as this
67: simplifies future upgrades of the operating system.
68: If you are adding an additional access server to an
69: existing LON-CAPA domain, this does not apply as no
1.2 raeburn 70: permenent data are stored on an access server.
1.1 raeburn 71: As LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory,
72: the majority of the disk space should be allocated here.
1.2 raeburn 73: If you have 20 GB of space for SuSE 10.1, /home should
1.1 raeburn 74: receive at least 10 to 12 gigs. Since MySQL uses the /var
75: filesystem to store its databases you should have as least
76: 4 gigs of space available on /var. Be sure to
77: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
78: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.
79: </dd>
80: </dl>
81: <p>Once you system has rebooted, you will use yast to complete the configuration. Change the following settings:
82: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
1.2 raeburn 83: <dt>Firewall</dt>
1.5 ! raeburn 84: <dd>Enable the firewall, and allow the the following services: web services (http and https) and login services (secure shell).</dd>
1.2 raeburn 85: </p>
86: <p>
1.1 raeburn 87: <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
88: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
1.2 raeburn 89: IP address. When configuring your network card, you should include host name information (e.g., host name = tmp1, domain = lite.msu.edu), as well as name server. Other settings (ip address, gateway, netmask will have been set when you included them in the boot configuration).
1.1 raeburn 90: </dd>
1.2 raeburn 91: <dt>Registration</dt>
92: <dd>It is recommended that you register your server with Novell, for future updates during the installation process, however it is recommended that you indicate "No" when prompted to "run online update now?" after completing the registration process.</dd>
1.1 raeburn 93: </dt>
94: </dl>
95: <p>
1.2 raeburn 96: Finish installing your server, read the "readme", reboot and log in as root. Follow the instructions found in the article: <a href="http://susewiki.org/index.php?title=Wrestling_Zen_to_Work">Wrestling Zen to Work</a> to fix package management and to run the online update, and lastly ensure that the zen management daemon is running by executing:
1.1 raeburn 97: </p>
1.2 raeburn 98: <pre>
99: /etc/init.d/novell-zmd start
100: </pre>
1.1 raeburn 101: <h2>Change software sources for your system</h2>
1.2 raeburn 102: <p>If you do not already have a SuSE 10.1 installation source at your location, you may want to consider creating one from the 5 iso files for CDs 1 - 5. Proceed as follows (e.g., for 32 bit):</p>
103: <pre>
104: mkdir -p suse101/CD1
105: mount -o ro,loop SUSE-Linux-10.1-GM-i386-CD1.iso /mnt
106: cp -rv /mnt/* suse101/CD1
107: umount /mnt
108: </pre>
109: <p>
110: Repeat those steps with CD2, CD3, CD4 and CD5.</p>
1.1 raeburn 111: <p>
1.2 raeburn 112: Next you will use yast to import packages required for LON-CAPA.<br />
1.1 raeburn 113: Execute:
114: </p>
115: <pre>
116: yast
117: </pre>
118: <p>
1.2 raeburn 119: Select "Installation Source" and change to either point at an internet installation repository close to your location (see <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/Mirrors_Released_Version">http://en.opensuse.org/Mirrors_Released_Version</a>), or a local institutional source you have built from the SuSE 10.1 CDs, or if using a DVD you may prefer to continue to point at the installation DVD.
1.1 raeburn 120: </p>
121: <h3>Add an additional installation source</h3>
1.2 raeburn 122: <p>Add the LON-CAPA SuSE 10.1 repository as an additional installation source. once this is done, software installation in yast should then have access to three repositories - a YUM source for SuSE updates (established when you run online update from yast), an installation source (for packages included in 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 123: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
124: <dd>Protocol</dd>
125: <dt>HTTP</dt>
126: <dd>Server Name</dd>
127: <dt>install.loncapa.org</dt>
128: <dd>Directory on server</dd>
1.2 raeburn 129: <dt>suse/10.1/</dt>
1.1 raeburn 130: <dd>Authentication</dd>
131: <dt>Anonymous</dt>
132: </dl>
1.2 raeburn 133: After saving this configuration information for the LON-CAPA repository, you will need to import a public LON-CAPA key, before the catalog is read, and the repository is available to you. Quit yast.
1.1 raeburn 134: </p>
1.2 raeburn 135: <h2>Installing LON-CAPA</h2>
1.1 raeburn 136: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
137: <p> Execute: </p>
138: <pre>
139: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites
140: </pre><p>
1.3 raeburn 141: This may take a moment due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
1.1 raeburn 142: </p>
143: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
144: <p>
1.2 raeburn 145: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with the following command:
1.1 raeburn 146: </p>
147: <pre>
1.2 raeburn 148: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/suse/10.1/suse10.1_install.tar
1.1 raeburn 149: </pre>
150: <p>
151: Extract the archive with the following command:
152: </p>
153: <pre>
1.2 raeburn 154: tar xf suse10.1_install.tar
1.1 raeburn 155: </pre>
156: <p>
157: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>. Change to it and
158: execute the setup script with the following commands:
159: </p>
160: <pre>
161: cd installation
162: ./install.pl
163: </pre>
164: <p>
165: This script will prompt you for the MySQL root password and will download the latest LON-CAPA release.
166: </p>
167: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
168: <p>
169: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
170: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
171: </p>
172: <dl>
173: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
174: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
175: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
176: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
177: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
178: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
179: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
180: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
181: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
182: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
183: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
184: special characters.</i>
185: </dd>
186: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
187: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
188: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
189: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
190: </dd>
191: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
192: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
193: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
194: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
195: </dd>
196: </dl>
197:
198: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
199: <p>
200: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
201: </p>
202: <pre>
1.2 raeburn 203: cd /root/loncapa-N.N (N.N should correspond to a version number like '2.2.2')
1.1 raeburn 204: ./UPDATE
205: </pre>
206: <p>
207: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
208: in the previous section.
209: </p>
210: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
211: <p>
212: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
213: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
214: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
215: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
216: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
217: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
218: appropriate user name and your domain.
219: </p>
220: <pre>
221: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
222: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
223: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
224: </pre>
225: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
226: <p>
227: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
1.2 raeburn 228: will be appearant at this step.
1.1 raeburn 229: </p>
230: <pre>
231: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
1.3 raeburn 232: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
1.1 raeburn 233: </pre>
234: <p>
235: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
236: please make sure you followed the instructions in
237: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
1.4 raeburn 238: contact the MSU LON-CAPA group.
1.1 raeburn 239: </p>
240: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
241: <p>
242: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
243: coordinator. Congratulations!
244: </p>
245: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
246: <p>
247: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
1.4 raeburn 248: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the MSU LON-CAPA group.
1.1 raeburn 249: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br />
1.4 raeburn 250: <a href="http://help.loncapa.org/help/">http://help.loncapa.org/help/</a><br />
1.1 raeburn 251: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
252: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
253: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
254: </p>
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