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version 1.4, 2002/07/18 21:30:21
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INSTALLING LON-CAPA ON A REDHAT 7.2 SYSTEM |
INSTALLING LON-CAPA ON A REDHAT 7.2/7.3 SYSTEM |
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Scott Harrison |
Scott Harrison |
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Line 14 Scott Harrison
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Line 14 Scott Harrison
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Quick Instructions |
Quick Instructions |
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PLEASE contact harris41@msu.edu if these instructions |
PLEASE contact sharrison@users.sourceforge.net if these instructions |
do not work. |
do not work. |
PLEASE subscribe yourself to the ANNOUNCE MAILING LIST! |
PLEASE subscribe yourself to the ANNOUNCE MAILING LIST! |
Go to http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-announce |
Go to http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-announce |
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1. Download http://install.lon-capa.org/versions/current/loncapa.tar.gz |
1. Download the current version of LON-CAPA from |
(from a linux terminal, type |
http://install.lon-capa.org/downloads/ |
wget http://install.lon-capa.org/versions/current/loncapa.tar.gz) |
2. tar xzvf loncapa-N.N.tar.gz (where N.N is the current version number) |
2. tar xzvf loncapa.tar.gz |
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3. cd loncapa |
3. cd loncapa |
4. Read the README file (this file). |
4. Read the README file (this file). |
5. EXECUTE: ./UPDATE |
5. EXECUTE: ./UPDATE |
Line 41 LON-CAPA is a GPL-based project which or
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Line 40 LON-CAPA is a GPL-based project which or
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significant sense still is, located at Michigan State University. |
significant sense still is, located at Michigan State University. |
The installation, software versioning, and specification is |
The installation, software versioning, and specification is |
currently maintained by the freeware community which includes |
currently maintained by the freeware community which includes |
the document author and more importantly you! |
the author of this document and more importantly you! |
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Your interest, questions and suggestions are enthusiastically |
Your interest, questions and suggestions are enthusiastically |
invited for the specific development of the GPL code. |
invited for the specific development of the GPL code. |
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We do our best to help get you started with a 100% operational |
We do our best to help get you started with a 100% operational |
system. Please e-mail harris41@msu.edu or helen@lon-capa.org |
system. Please e-mail sharrison@users.sourceforge.net or |
for help with software installation. |
helen@lon-capa.org for help with software installation. |
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System Requirements |
Hardware Recommendation |
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It should be an intermediate-to-high-level |
For full-time, classroom usage, an adequate LON-CAPA server |
performance workstation computer. A ballpark suggestion |
should be/have: |
is that it is PentiumII or greater, has 20 gigabytes of |
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harddisk space, 256M RAM, and 400MHz CPU processing speed... |
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Dr. Kortemeyer at Michigan State University can give a more |
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thorough response if needed (he has experience with setting |
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up high-performance web server clusters). |
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A specifically high-level suggestion is a multi CPU machine |
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(with a CPU speed of 1 gigahertz), a gigabyte of memory and |
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at least 40 to 80 gigabytes of hard disk space. |
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You can use a lesser machine for toying around with LON-CAPA (It will |
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install an run for a single user on most anymachine) but if you wish |
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to support students and you wish to support deadline crunches my |
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suggestion is to go with the above. |
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LON-CAPA will work on any Intel-based RedHat compatible |
* a multiprocessor machine, |
hardware. And, unlike other software systems, it works |
* a CPU speed of 1 gigahertz, |
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* a gigabyte of memory, |
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* and at least 40 to 80 gigabytes of hard disk space. |
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A lesser machine can be used for toying around with LON-CAPA |
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(LON-CAPA will run for a single user on most any machine). |
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LON-CAPA servers experience significant peaks of activity |
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before a homework submission deadline. To support these critical |
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peaks of activity, it is strongly advised that LON-CAPA machines |
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fit the above recommendation. |
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If thousands of students start accessing the box as a web server, |
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then you may want to consider more options. The design of the LON-CAPA |
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system is to naturally and transparently load-balance on multiple |
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computer clusters. So, a simple solution for running an entire |
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college campus is to just have an adequate plurality of LON-CAPA |
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servers rather than a single, particularly monstrous server. |
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We like to think of high web server usage as "a good problem" though.... :) |
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More Information on Hardware and System Administration |
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I find that LON-CAPA works nicely (for development purposes) |
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on a Pentium II, 20 gigabytes of hard-disk space, 256M RAM, |
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and 400MHz. The consensus is though, that this may only |
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be adequate for a class of a dozen students. |
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If you are making a serious investment, we suggest you |
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join our mailing list by visiting |
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http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-users. |
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By posting to this mailing list, you can learn about what |
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solutions have worked for others. |
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LON-CAPA works on any Intel-based RedHat-compatible |
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hardware. Unlike other software systems, it works |
comparatively well on dusty old crippled machines without |
comparatively well on dusty old crippled machines without |
much RAM or processing. I am just projecting the characteristics |
much RAM or processing. |
that make LON-CAPA nice to use without any unreasonable slowness, |
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and in terms of hard disk space, how to make it at least 5 years |
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down the road, if not more. |
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If thousands of students start accessing the box as a web server... |
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well you may want to consider more options (LON-CAPA supports |
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load-balancing on multiple computers for instance). We like |
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to think of high web server usage as "a good problem" though.. :) |
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We support Linux OS. LON-CAPA has been shown to work on Debian, |
We support Linux OS. LON-CAPA has been shown to work on Debian, |
Mandrake, and RedHat. Instructions are based on RedHat-centric |
Mandrake, and RedHat. Instructions are based on RedHat-centric |
installs. Given the current level of new LON-CAPA feature requests |
installs. Given the current level of new LON-CAPA feature requests |
and frequency of new software versions, we suggest that you stick |
and frequency of new software versions, we suggest that you stick |
with RedHat to reduce high frequency system administration overhead. |
with RedHat to reduce high-frequency system administration overhead. |
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Critical system software: a "strategic" outlook |
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Strategy |
In this section, issues related to LON-CAPA server software |
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are discussed. (The section after this section describes how to test |
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and fix problems associated with the issues described below.) |
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In general, you should expect that LON-CAPA "completely overtakes" |
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a Linux server system. Using the same LON-CAPA server computer to disseminate |
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other unrelated services to your institution is not recommended. |
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*** PERL *** |
*** PERL *** |
It is important to check and see if your system has all |
A LON-CAPA system needs to have all the |
needed perl modules in /usr/lib/perl5/. |
necessary perl modules inside /usr/lib/perl5/. |
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*** RPMS *** |
*** RPMs *** |
It is important to: |
RPMs are the software packages on a RedHat linux system (the standard, |
* keep your RPMs up to date |
supported operating system for LON-CAPA). For security reasons, you need |
* try to have a reasonably minimal set |
to keep your RPMs up to date. For security and performance reasons, a |
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knowledgeable system administrator at your institution should try to have |
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a reasonably minimal set; e.g. a LON-CAPA server probably does not need the |
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"pine" RPM (an e-mail client). |
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*** MYSQL *** |
*** MYSQL *** |
It should be kept operational at all times. |
The MySQL database facilitates fast transactions by passing information on |
In case of failure, there is a resynchronizing |
the LON-CAPA server to the world-wide web. Important point: in order to |
strategy so that the data on the filesystem |
prevent problems associated with 1) corrupted database files, |
continually refreshes the data within the |
2) database crashes, 3) changing versions of MySQL, and 4) information export |
MYSQL database. |
and import, the information in the MySQL database IS NOT AUTHORITATIVE. |
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In other words, if the MySQL database gets wiped out, YOU HAVE NOT LOST |
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CRITICAL DATA. The authoritative data exists on the filesystem and |
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the MySQL database is dynamically repopulated and refreshed by |
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/home/httpd/perl/searchcat.pl. |
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*** APACHE *** |
*** APACHE *** |
LON-CAPA expects that conf/loncapa.conf will be the |
LON-CAPA expects that conf/loncapa_apache.conf will be the last Apache |
last Apache configuration file to be processed before |
configuration file to be processed before launching the httpd server. This |
launching the httpd server. This may interfere |
may interfere with other ways in which you utilize your web server. For |
with other ways in which you utilize your web server. |
instance, LON-CAPA requires that httpd run as user=www and group=www. |
For instance, LON-CAPA requires that httpd |
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run as user=www and group=www. |
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Testing |
Testing |
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------- |
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The ./TEST command automates five different kinds of tests. |
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1. Perl |
1. Perl |
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2. MySQL |
2. MySQL |