Annotation of doc/build/suse10.3_install.frag, revision 1.3
1.1 raeburn 1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal SuSE Linux 10.3 System</h1>
2: <p>
3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
4: server running SuSE Linux 10.3 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 a reasonably fast connection to the internet.
7: </p><p>
8: More information is available at
9: <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/">http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>.
10: </p>
11: <h2>Before you begin</h2>
12: <p>
13: 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.
14: </p>
15: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
16: <p>
17: The installation process takes the following steps:
18: </p>
19: <ol>
20: <li> Obtain SuSE 10.3 installation media (DVD, or CD)</li>
21: <li> Determine Network Settings</li>
22: <li> Install Suse 10.3</li>
23: <li> Update your system</li>
24: <li> Install LON-CAPA</li>
25: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator</li>
26: <li> Start/Restart services</li>
27: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA</li>
28: </ol>
29: <h2>Obtain SuSE Linux 10.3</h2>
30: <p>
31: A SuSE 10.3 iso for burning to DVD can be obtained from the opensuse download site: <a href="http://software.opensuse.org/">http://http://software.opensuse.org/</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 a Start-CD-Image (a mini.iso) used in a network install, if burning a CD is more convenient for you.
32: </p>
33: <h2>Determine Network Settings</h2>
34: <p>
35: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.
36: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
37: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
38: </p>
39: <ul>
40: <li>ip address </li>
41: <li>netmask </li>
42: <li>hostname </li>
43: <li>gateway </li>
44: <li>domain name server(s) </li>
45: </ul>
46: <h2>Minimal SuSE 10.3 Install</h2>
47: <p>
48: Installing SuSE 10.3 is quite easy if you've installed Linux products
49: before. Some documentation is available from
50: <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local">
51: http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Local</a> for installations from DVD and
52: <a href="http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Internet">http://en.opensuse.org/INSTALL_Internet</a> for installations via the network, booting from the mini.iso CD.<br /><br />
53: Most of the subsequent installation screens are self explanatory.
54: There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
55: </p>
56: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
1.2 www 57: <dt>Installation Language</dt>
58: <dd>Use English as your installation language.</dd>
1.1 raeburn 59: <dt>Desktop Selection</dt>
60: <dd>Click <i>Other</i> and choose <i>Text Mode</i></dd>
61: <dt>Software Selection</dt>
62: <dd>Choose Expert Mode and for Software enable Base System, Yast Installation Packages and Software Management</dd>
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
70: permenent data are stored on an access server.
71: As LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory,
72: the majority of the disk space should be allocated here.
73: If you have 20 GB of space for SuSE 10.3, /home should
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">
83: <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
84: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
85: 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).
86: </dd>
87: <dt>Firewall</dt>
88: <dd>Enable the firewall, and allow the following services: web services (http and https) and login services (SSH). Use the "Advanced..." option to open the following ports for TCP services: 8080 5663.</dd>
89: <dt>Online Update Configuration</dt>
90: <dd>It is recommended that you register your server with Novell for future updates during the installation process, and then run the online update.</dd>
91: </dt>
92: </dl>
93: <p>
94: After finishing the online update, the system should reboot, and
95: proceed to have you create a user account, show you the Release Notes,
96: and let you configure any extra hardware, and then finish up the boot
97: process. At the prompt login as root.
98: </p>
99: <h2>Change software sources for your system</h2>
100: <p>If you do not already have a SuSE 10.3 installation source at your location, you may want to consider creating one from the iso file for the DVD. Proceed as follows (e.g., for 32 bit):</p>
101: <pre>
102: mkdir -p suse103/DVD
103: mount -o ro,loop SUSE-Linux-10.3-GM-i386-DVD.iso /mnt
104: cp -rv /mnt/* suse103/DVD
105: umount /mnt
106: </pre>
107: Next you will use yast to import packages required for LON-CAPA.<br />
108: Execute:
109: </p>
110: <pre>
111: yast
112: </pre>
113: <p>
114: Select "Installation Source" and change to point at OSS and non-OSS repositories: (http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.3/repo/oss and http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/10.3/repo/non-oss) or alternatively at iternet installation repositories 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 10.3 DVD, or you may prefer to continue to point at the installation DVD.
115: </p>
116: <h3>Add an additional installation source</h3>
117: <p>Add the LON-CAPA SuSE 10.3 repository as an additional installation source. Once this is done, software installation in yast should then have access to a minimum of three repositories - a YUM source for SuSE updates (established when you run online update from yast), an installation source (for OSS 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:
118: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
119: <dd>Media Type</dd>
120: <dt>HTTP</dt>
121: <dd>Protocol</dd>
122: <dt>HTTP</dt>
123: <dd>Server Name</dd>
124: <dt>install.loncapa.org</dt>
125: <dd>Directory on server</dd>
126: <dt>suse/10.3/</dt>
127: <dd>Authentication</dd>
128: <dt>Anonymous</dt>
129: </dl>
130: 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.
131: </p>
132: <h2>Installing LON-CAPA</h2>
133: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
134: <p> Execute: </p>
135: <pre>
136: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites
137: </pre><p>
138: This may take a moment due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
139: </p>
140: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
141: <p>
142: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with the following command:
143: </p>
144: <pre>
145: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/suse/10.3/suse10.3_install.tar
146: </pre>
147: <p>
148: Extract the archive with the following command:
149: </p>
150: <pre>
151: tar xf suse10.3_install.tar
152: </pre>
153: <p>
154: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>. Change to it and
155: execute the setup script with the following commands:
156: </p>
157: <pre>
158: cd installation
159: ./install.pl
160: </pre>
161: <p>
162: This script will prompt you for the MySQL root password and will download the latest LON-CAPA release.
163: </p>
164: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
165: <p>
166: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
167: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
168: </p>
169: <dl>
170: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
171: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
172: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
173: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
174: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
175: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
176: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
177: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
178: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
179: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
180: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
181: special characters.</i>
182: </dd>
183: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
184: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
185: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
186: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
187: </dd>
188: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
189: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
190: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
191: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
192: </dd>
193: </dl>
194:
195: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
196: <p>
197: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
198: </p>
199: <pre>
200: cd /root/loncapa-N.N (N.N should correspond to a version number like '2.2.2')
201: ./UPDATE
202: </pre>
203: <p>
204: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
205: in the previous section.
206: </p>
207: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
208: <p>
209: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
210: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
211: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
212: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
213: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
214: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
215: appropriate user name and your domain.
216: </p>
217: <pre>
218: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
219: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
220: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
221: </pre>
222: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
223: <p>
224: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
225: will be apparent at this step.
226: </p>
227: <pre>
228: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
229: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
230: </pre>
231: <p>
232: If you receive warnings about missing perl modules when starting apache2,
233: please make sure you followed the instructions in
234: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
1.3 ! raeburn 235: contact the MSU LON-CAPA group.
1.1 raeburn 236: </p>
237: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
238: <p>
239: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
240: coordinator. Congratulations!
241: </p>
242: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
243: <p>
244: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
1.3 ! raeburn 245: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the MSU LON-CAPA group.
1.1 raeburn 246: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br />
1.3 ! raeburn 247: <a href="http://help.loncapa.org/help/">http://help.loncapa.org/help/</a><br />
1.1 raeburn 248: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
249: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
250: Please let us know if any parts of this document are unclear.
251: </p>
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