Annotation of doc/build/fedora_install.frag, revision 1.10
1.5 matthew 1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a Fedora Core 2 Linux System</h1>
1.1 matthew 2: <p>
3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
1.5 matthew 4: server running Fedora Core 2 (FC2). The computer will be configured solely as
1.1 matthew 5: a LON-CAPA server and will be expected to have no other services running
6: on it.
7: </p><p>
8: More information is available at <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/">
9: 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. However, it is still a
15: non-trivial undertaking and experience with Red Hat Linux will make this
16: process easier. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
17: some routine Unix commands. Some familiarity with Linux is assumed.
18: Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl, perl, and MySQL are not
19: required to install and run LON-CAPA.
20: </p>
21:
22: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
23: <p>
24: The installation process takes the following steps:
25: </p>
26: <ol>
27: <li> Obtain Fedora Linux </li>
28: <li> Determine Network Settings</li>
29: <li> Install Fedora </li>
1.7 matthew 30: <li> Uninstall the http server </li>
1.1 matthew 31: <li> Install LON-CAPA Dependencies </li>
32: <li> Determine your LON-CAPA Settings </li>
33: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li>
34: <li> Configure LON-CAPA </li>
35: <li> Pick a hosts.tab file </li>
36: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li>
37: <li> Start/Restart services </li>
38: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li>
39: </ol>
40:
41: <h2>Obtain Fedora Linux</h2>
42: <p>
43: Fedora linux ISO files can be obtained from the projects main site,
44: <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/">http://fedora.redhat.com/</a>.
45: </p>
46:
47: <h2>Determine Network Settings</h2>
48: <p>
49: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.
50: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
51: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
52: </p>
53: <ul>
54: <li>ip address </li>
55: <li>netmask </li>
56: <li>hostname </li>
57: <li>gateway </li>
58: <li>domain name server(s) </li>
59: </ul>
60:
61: <h2>Install Fedora</h2>
62: <p>
63: Installing Fedora is quite easy if you've installed any of the Red Hat products
64: before. Some documentation is available from
65: <a href="http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/anaconda-installer/">
66: http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/anaconda-installer/</a>.
67: There are a few sections that require comment.
68: </p>
69: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
70: <dt>Installation Type</dt>
71: <dd>You should do a "Server" install. We do not recommend
72: trying to install LON-CAPA with a different installation type.</dd>
73: <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
74: <dd>You may want to use the automatic partitioning feature of the installer,
75: however you should review the results and be prepared to modify them.
76: LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, so the
77: lion's share of the drive should be allocated here. If you have 20 GB
1.2 matthew 78: of space for Red Hat, /home should receive at least 10 to 12 gigs.
79: Since MySQL uses the /var filesystem to store its databases you should
80: have at least 4 gigs of space available on /var. Be sure to
1.1 matthew 81: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
82: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.</dd>
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, be sure to unselect
86: the DHCP option and enter in your network information.</dd>
87: <dt>Firewall Configuration</dt>
88: <dd>The firewall should be customized to allow incoming ssh and www.
89: Additional ports used by LON-CAPA are 5663 and 8080.
90: Enter these in the entry box as <nobr>"5663:tcp, 8080:tcp"</nobr>.</dd>
91: <dt>Package Group Selection</dt>
92: <dd>
93: <b>Do not</b> install a web server. It is intentially omitted from
94: this list. Installing packages not listed below is not recommended.
95: If you install packages not listed below you should expect difficulties
96: when installing the LON-CAPA dependencies.
97: <ul>
98: <li>Editors</li>
99: <li>Text Based Internet</li>
100: <li>Authoring and Publishing</li>
1.5 matthew 101: <li>Server Configuration Tools</li>
1.4 matthew 102: <li>Development Tools</li>
103: <li>Administration Tools</li>
104: <li>Printing Support</li>
1.1 matthew 105: </ul>
106: </dd>
107: </dl>
108: <p>
109: Finish installing your server, reboot it, and log in as root.
110: </p>
111:
112: <h2>Retrieving the LON-CAPA Installation Archive</h2>
113: <p>
114: Execute the following command:
115: </p>
116: <pre>
117: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/fedora/fedora_install.tar
118: </pre>
119: <p>
120: This will retrieve from the LON-CAPA website all the packages needed to get
121: LON-CAPA running on your system, except for the LON-CAPA source itself.
122: </p>
123: <p>
124: Extract the archive with the following command:
125: </p>
126: <pre>
127: tar xf fedora_install.tar
128: </pre>
129: <p>
130: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>.
131: </p>
132:
1.6 matthew 133: <h2>Uninstall the http server</h2>
134: <p>
135: Fedora Core 2 installs the http server even if you have not chosen it in
136: the package selection part of the install. LON-CAPA will not work with this
137: web server installed. It must be removed.
138: Use the following commands to remove the http and mod_perl packages if they
139: exist: (<b>Note:</b>
140: <i>The commands below use backticks, not single quotes.</i>:
141: </p>
142: <p>
1.5 matthew 143: <pre>
1.9 matthew 144: rpm -e `rpm -q -a | grep mod_perl`
1.5 matthew 145: rpm -e `rpm -q -a | grep httpd`
146: </pre>
147: </p><p>
148: If the above commands returns no output (the usual indicator of success), or an
149: error message 'rpm: no packages given for erase' (meaning there were no
150: packages that contain httpd or mod_perl), you are good to go.
1.7 matthew 151: </p>
152:
153: <h2>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</h2>
154: <p>
155: This section walks you through installing the packages which LON-CAPA requires.
156: There are a lot of dependencies. They have been grouped in a
157: somewhat logical fashion to make them easier to deal with. When installing
158: the rpms you should watch for errors. Errors generated by RPMs which are
159: already should not be considered a problem, although you will have to ensure
160: the other rpms in the directory get installed.
161: </p>
162:
163: <p>
1.5 matthew 164: To install the many LON-CAPA dependencies, execute the following commands:
1.1 matthew 165: </p>
166: <pre>
167: cd installation
168: cd mysql
169: rpm -Uvh *rpm
170: cd ../apache
171: rpm -Uvh *rpm
172: cd ../mod_perl
173: rpm -Uvh *rpm
174: cd ../perl_dependencies
175: rpm -Uvh *rpm
176: cd ../GD
177: rpm -Uvh *rpm
178: cd ../gnuplot
1.10 ! matthew 179: rpm -Uvh *rpm
1.1 matthew 180: cd ../misc
181: rpm -Uvh *rpm
182: cd ..
183: </pre>
184: <p>
185: <b>Notes:</b>
186: <ul>
187: <li>MySQL is used to store caches of data, not original copies.
188: Administering LON-CAPA machines does not yet mean becoming a
189: database administrator.</li>
190: <li>Apache 1.3 and mod_perl 1.x are required by LON-CAPA. These are
1.5 matthew 191: provided in the installation package. The mod_perl package has been
192: repackaged from the Redhat sources with the name 'mod_perl_1' in
193: order to prevent version 1.99 of mod_perl from being installed by
194: yum or other package managers.</li>
1.1 matthew 195: <li>A specific version of Gnuplot is required by LON-CAPA. Do not
196: install a version different from the one included in the LON-CAPA
1.5 matthew 197: installation package. We're still working on using gnuplot 4.0 which
198: recently came out.</li>
1.1 matthew 199: </ul>
200: </p>
201:
202: <h2>Configuring LON-CAPA Dependencies</h2>
203: <p>
204: We have prepared a script which takes care of most of the configuration that
205: must be done to get the newly installed packages working with LON-CAPA.
206: This script will retrieve the latest LON-CAPA release from
207: <a href="http://install.loncapa.org">http://install.loncapa.org</a>.
208: You will be prompted for a root password for your MySQL server. You
209: will need to remember this password in case you should ever need to make
210: changes the the server.
211: </p><p>
212: Execute the script as follows:
213: </p>
214: <pre>
215: cd setup;
216: ./install.pl
217: </pre>
218:
219: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h2>
220: <p>
221: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order
222: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
223: </p>
224: <dl>
225: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
226: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
227: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
228: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
229: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
230: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
231: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
232: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
233: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
234: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
235: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
236: special characters.</i>
237: </dd>
238: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
239: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
240: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
241: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
242: </dd>
243: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
244: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
245: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
246: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
247: </dd>
248: </dl>
249:
250: <h2>Configuring LON-CAPA</h2>
251: <p>
252: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
253: </p>
254: <pre>
1.5 matthew 255: cd /root/loncapa-N.N (N.N should correspond to a version number like '1.2')
1.1 matthew 256: ./UPDATE
257: </pre>
258: <p>
259: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
260: in the previous section.
261: </p>
262:
263: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
264: <p>
265: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
266: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
267: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
268: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
269: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
270: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
271: appropriate user name and your domain.
272: </p>
273: <pre>
274: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
275: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
276: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
1.8 matthew 277: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html
278: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html
279: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html
280: chmod a+x ~USERNAME
1.1 matthew 281: </pre>
282:
283: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
284: <p>
285: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
286: will be appearant at this step.
287: </p>
288: <pre>
289: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
290: /etc/init.d/httpd start
291: </pre>
1.5 matthew 292: <p>
293: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
294: please make sure you followed the instructions in
295: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
296: contact the LON-CAPA development team.
297: </p>
1.1 matthew 298: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
299: <p>
300: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
301: coordinator. Congratulations!
302: </p>
1.4 matthew 303:
304: <h2>If Things aren't working right</h2>
305: <p>
306: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
307: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA developers.
308: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
309: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
310: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
311: </p>
FreeBSD-CVSweb <freebsd-cvsweb@FreeBSD.org>
![[BACK]](/icons/back.gif){kind=icon}
Return to fedora_install.frag CVS log ![[TXT]](/icons/text.gif){kind=icon}
![[DIR]](/icons/dir.gif){kind=icon}
Up to [LON-CAPA] / doc / build