Annotation of doc/build/suse12.1_install.frag, revision 1.1
1.1 ! raeburn 1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal SuSE Linux 12.1 System</h1>
! 2: <p>
! 3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
! 4: server running SuSE Linux 12.1 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:
! 12: <h2>Before you begin</h2>
! 13: <p>
! 14: 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.
! 15: </p>
! 16:
! 17: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
! 18: <p>
! 19: The installation process takes the following steps:
! 20: </p>
! 21: <ol>
! 22: <li><a href="#obt">Obtain SuSE 12.1 installation media (DVD)</a></li>
! 23: <li><a href="#net">Determine Network Settings</a></li>
! 24: <li><a href="#lin">Install Suse 12.1</a></li>
! 25: <li><a href="#upd">Update your system</a></li>
! 26: <li><a href="#ilc">Install LON-CAPA</a></li>
! 27: <li><a href="#cdc">Create a Domain Coordinator</a></li>
! 28: <li><a href="#sts">Start/Restart services</a></li>
! 29: <li><a href="#log">Log in to LON-CAPA</a></li>
! 30: </ol>
! 31: <hr />
! 32:
! 33: <h2>1. <a name="obt">Obtain SuSE Linux 12.1</a></h2>
! 34: <p>
! 35: A SuSE 12.1 iso for burning to DVD can be obtained from the opensuse download site: <a href="http://software.opensuse.org/">http://software.opensuse.org/</a>, or from an opensuse mirror site - <a href="http://download.opensuse.org/">http://download.opensuse.org/</a>. You will also find links there to sites with iso files for burning a Start-CD-Image (e.g., openSUSE-12.1-NET-i586.iso for 32 bit) used in a network install, if burning a CD is more convenient for you.
! 36: </p>
! 37:
! 38: <h2>2. <a name="net">Determine Network Settings</a></h2>
! 39: <p>
! 40: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.
! 41: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
! 42: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
! 43: </p>
! 44: <ul>
! 45: <li>ip address </li>
! 46: <li>netmask </li>
! 47: <li>hostname </li>
! 48: <li>gateway </li>
! 49: <li>domain name server(s) </li>
! 50: </ul>
! 51:
! 52: <h2>3. <a name="lin">Minimal SuSE 12.1 Install</a></h2>
! 53: <p>
! 54: Installing SuSE 12.1 is quite easy if you've installed Linux products
! 55: before. Some documentation is available from the
! 56: <a href="http://doc.opensuse.org/products/opensuse/openSUSE/opensuse-startup/art.osuse.installquick.html">
! 57: Installation Quick Start</a> guide.
! 58: Most of the installation screens are self explanatory.
! 59: There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
! 60: </p>
! 61: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
! 62: <dt>Installation Language</dt>
! 63: <dd>Use English as your installation language.</dd>
! 64: <dt>Desktop Selection</dt>
! 65: <dd>Click <i>Other</i> and choose <i>Minimal Server Selection (Text Mode)</i></dd>
! 66: <dt>Software Selection</dt>
! 67: <dd>Choose Expert Mode and for Software enable Base System, Yast Installation Packages and Software Management</dd>
! 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: permenent 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 SuSE 12.1, /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: </dl>
! 86: <p>Once you system has rebooted, you will use yast to complete the configuration. Change the following settings:
! 87: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
! 88: <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
! 89: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
! 90: 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).
! 91: </dd>
! 92: <dt>Firewall</dt>
! 93: <dd>Enable the firewall, and allow login services (SSH).</dd>
! 94: </dl>
! 95: <p>
! 96: After finishing the online update, the system should reboot, and
! 97: proceed to have you create a user account, show you the Release Notes,
! 98: and let you configure any extra hardware, and then finish up the boot
! 99: process. At the prompt login as root.
! 100: </p>
! 101:
! 102: <h2>4. <a name="upd">Change software sources for your system</a></h2>
! 103: Next you will use yast to import packages required for LON-CAPA.<br />
! 104: Execute:
! 105: </p>
! 106: <pre>
! 107: yast
! 108: </pre>
! 109: <p>
! 110: Select "Installation Source" and change to point at OSS and non-OSS repositories: (http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.1/repo/oss and http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/12.1/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 12.1 DVD, or you may prefer to continue to point at the installation DVD.
! 111: </p>
! 112: <h3>Add additional installation sources</h3>
! 113: <p>Add the LON-CAPA SuSE 12.1 repository as an additional installation source.</p>
! 114: <p>Use zypper to add the LON-CAPA SuSE 12.1 repository and an additional repository provide by openSuSE for the Maxima computer algebra system (the science repo). Use the following commands to add them.
! 115: <pre>
! 116: zypper ar -f 'http://install.loncapa.org/suse/12.1' LON-CAPA
! 117: zypper ar -f 'http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/science/openSUSE_12.1' science
! 118: </pre>
! 119: You will need to confirm that you wish to trust the key used to sign the packages in the LON-CAPA SuSE 12.1 repository.
! 120: </p>
! 121: <h2>5. <a name="ilc">Installing LON-CAPA</a></h2>
! 122: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
! 123: <p> Execute: </p>
! 124: <pre>
! 125: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites
! 126: </pre><p>
! 127: This may take some minutes due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
! 128: </p>
! 129: <h3>Configure firewall settings for Apache</h3>
! 130: <p>After Apache has been installed use yast to configure the Firewall to open port 80 for http (and port 443 for https, if you plan to use Apache with SSL).
! 131: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
! 132: <dt>Firewall</dt>
! 133: <dd>Allow the following services: web services (http and https).</dd>
! 134: </dl>
! 135: </p>
! 136: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
! 137: <p>
! 138: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with the following command:
! 139: </p>
! 140: <pre>
! 141: wget http://install.loncapa.org/linux/install.tar
! 142: </pre>
! 143: <p>
! 144: Extract the archive with the following command:
! 145: </p>
! 146: <pre>
! 147: tar xf install.tar
! 148: </pre>
! 149: <p>
! 150: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>. Change to it and
! 151: execute the setup script with the following commands:
! 152: </p>
! 153: <pre>
! 154: cd installation
! 155: ./install.pl
! 156: </pre>
! 157: <p>
! 158: The script is used to prepare a Linux system to run LON-CAPA, and can also be
! 159: used to check the configuration of a system on which LON-CAPA has already been installed. Typically, though, you will run this script only once, when you first install LON-CAPA.
! 160: </p>
! 161: <p>
! 162: The script will analyze your system to determine which actions are recommended. The script will then prompt you to choose the actions you would like taken.
! 163: Once a choice has been entered for all nine possible actions, required changes will be made.
! 164: </p>
! 165: <p>The possible actions are:
! 166: <ul>
! 167: <li>Create the www user/group</li>
! 168: <li>Install the package LON-CAPA uses to authenticate users.</li>
! 169: <li>Set-up the MySQL database</li>
! 170: <li>Set-up MySQL permissions</li>
! 171: <li>Configure Apache web server</li>
! 172: <li>Configure start-up of services</li>
! 173: <li>Check firewall settings</li>
! 174: <li>Stop services not used by LON-CAPA,<br />
! 175: e.g., services for a print server: cups daemon</li>
! 176: <li>Download LON-CAPA source code in readiness for installation</li>
! 177: </ul>
! 178: </p>
! 179: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
! 180: <p>
! 181: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
! 182: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
! 183: </p>
! 184: <dl>
! 185: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
! 186: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
! 187: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
! 188: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
! 189: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
! 190: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
! 191: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
! 192: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
! 193: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
! 194: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
! 195: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
! 196: special characters.</i>
! 197: </dd>
! 198: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
! 199: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
! 200: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
! 201: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
! 202: </dd>
! 203: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
! 204: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
! 205: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
! 206: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
! 207: </dd>
! 208: </dl>
! 209:
! 210: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
! 211: <p>
! 212: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
! 213: </p>
! 214: <pre>
! 215: cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z (X.Y.Z should correspond to a version number like '2.10.0')
! 216: ./UPDATE
! 217: </pre>
! 218: <p>
! 219: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
! 220: in the previous section.
! 221: </p>
! 222:
! 223: <h2>6. <a name="cdc">Creating a Domain Coordinator</a></h2>
! 224: <p>
! 225: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
! 226: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
! 227: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
! 228: invoked below requires that you enter the user's password.
! 229: Feel free to use the "passwd username" command to change it later.
! 230: Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an appropriate user name and your domain.
! 231: </p>
! 232: <pre>
! 233: cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z/loncom/build
! 234: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
! 235: </pre>
! 236:
! 237: <h2>7. <a name="sts">Start/Restart Services</a></h2>
! 238: <p>
! 239: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
! 240: will be apparent at this step.
! 241: </p>
! 242: <pre>
! 243: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
! 244: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
! 245: </pre>
! 246: <p>
! 247: If you receive warnings about missing perl modules when starting apache2,
! 248: please make sure you followed the instructions in
! 249: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
! 250: contact the MSU LON-CAPA group.
! 251: </p>
! 252:
! 253: <h2>8. <a name="log">Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</a></h2>
! 254: <p>
! 255: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
! 256: coordinator. Congratulations!
! 257: </p>
! 258:
! 259: <hr />
! 260: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
! 261: <p>
! 262: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
! 263: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the MSU LON-CAPA group.
! 264: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br />
! 265: <a href="http://help.loncapa.org/help/">http://help.loncapa.org/help/</a><br />
! 266: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
! 267: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
! 268: Please let us know if any parts of this document are unclear.
! 269: </p>
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