Annotation of doc/build/sles10_install.frag, revision 1.2
1.1 raeburn 1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 10</h1>
2: <p>
3: This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA
4: server running SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 (SLES 10) 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
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>
15: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier.
16: You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
17: some routine Unix commands. Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl,
18: perl, and MySQL are not required to install and run LON-CAPA.
19: </p>
20:
21: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
22: <p>
23: The installation process takes the following steps:
24: </p>
25: <ol>
26: <li> Obtain SLES 10 installation media</li>
27: <li> Determine Network Settings</li>
28: <li> Install SLES 10</li>
29: <li> Update your system </li>
30: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li>
31: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li>
32: <li> Start/Restart services </li>
33: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li>
34: </ol>
35:
36: <h2>Obtain SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10</h2>
37: <p>
38: SuSE ISO files can be obtained from the Novell site: <a href="http://www.novell.com/products/server/">http://www.novell.com/products/server/</a>.
39: </p>
40:
41: <h2>Determine Network Settings</h2>
42: <p>
43: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation.
44: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA.
45: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported.
46: </p>
47: <ul>
48: <li>ip address </li>
49: <li>netmask </li>
50: <li>hostname </li>
51: <li>gateway </li>
52: <li>domain name server(s) </li>
53: </ul>
54:
55: <h2>Minimal SLES 10 Install</h2>
56: <p>
57: Installing SuSE Linux Enterprise Server is quite easy if you've installed Linux products
58: before. Some documentation is available from
59: <a href="http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/">
60: http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles10/</a>.<br /><br />
61: Most of the subsequent installation screens are self explanatory.
62: There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
63: </p>
64: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
65: <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
66: <dd>For a LON-CAPA library server (i.e., the main server used
67: for permanent storage of course and user data),
68: a separate partition is recommended for /home, as this
69: simplifies future upgrades of the operating system.
70: If you are adding an additional access server to an
71: existing LON-CAPA domain, this does not apply as no
72: permanent data are stored on an access server.
73: As LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory,
74: the majority of the disk space should be allocated here.
75: If you have 20 GB of space for SLES10, /home should
76: receive at least 10 to 12 gigs. Since MySQL uses the /var
77: filesystem to store its databases you should have as least
78: 4 gigs of space available on /var. Be sure to
79: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
80: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.
81: </dd>
82: <dt>Software Selection</dt>
83: <dd>
84: Installation of the minimum set of packages is recommended. This will involve unchecking all checkboxes except for the base SuSE installation.</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 you static IP address, netmask, host name information (e.g., host name = tmp1, domain = lite.msu.edu), as well as name servers and gateway.
91: </dd>
92: <dt>Online update</dt>
93: <dd>Indicate "Yes" when prompted to "run online update now?"</dd>
94: </dt>
95: </dl>
96: <p>
97: Finish installing your server, read the "readme", reboot and log in as root.
98: </p>
99: <h2>Configure Firewall Settings</h2>
100: <p>After reboot you should start yast, and select Security and Users -> Firewall. At step 2 include the following services: HTTP, HTTP with SSL, and Secure Shell. Use the "Expert..." option to add additional TCP services on ports 5663 and 8080.
101: </p>
102: <h2>Change software sources for your system</h2>
103: <p>
104: You will use yast to import packages required for LON-CAPA.<br />
105: Execute:
106: </p>
107: <pre>
108: yast
109: </pre>
110: <p>
1.2 ! raeburn 111: Select "Change Source of Installation". The media you used to install SLES10 will be listed as an installation source. If you do not already have a SLES10 installation source at your location, you may want to consider creating one from the 4 iso files for CDs 1 - 4, to avoid the need to flip CDs during LON-CAPA installation. Proceed as follows (e.g., for 32 bit):</p>
! 112: <pre>
! 113: mkdir -p sles10/CD1
! 114: mount -o ro,loop SLES-10-x86-CD1.iso /mnt
! 115: cp -rv /mnt/* sles10/CD1
! 116: umount /mnt
! 117: </pre>
! 118: <p>
! 119: Repeat those steps with CD2, CD3 and CD4.</p>
1.1 raeburn 120: <h3>Add an additional installation source</h3>
1.2 ! raeburn 121: <p>Add the LON-CAPA SLES 10 repository as an additional installation source, so software installation in yast will have access to at least two repositories - a SuSE/Novell source (for packages included for 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 122: <dl style="list-style:square outside none">
123: <dd>Protocol</dd>
124: <dt>HTTP</dt>
125: <dd>Server Name</dd>
126: <dt>install.loncapa.org</dt>
127: <dd>Directory on server</dd>
128: <dt>suse/sles10/</dt>
129: <dd>Authentication</dd>
130: <dt>Anonymous</dt>
131: </dl>
132: After saving this configuration information for the LON-CAPA repository, quit yast.
133: </p>
134: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3>
135: <p> Execute: </p>
136: <pre>
137: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites
138: </pre><p>
139: This may take a moment due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
140: </p>
141: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3>
142: <p>
143: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with one of the following commands:
144: </p>
145: <pre>
146: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/suse/sles10/sles10_install.tar
147: </pre>
148: <p>
149: Extract the archive with the following command:
150: </p>
151: <pre>
152: tar xf sles10_install.tar
153: </pre>
154: <p>
155: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>. Change to it and
156: execute the setup script with the following commands:
157: </p>
158: <pre>
159: cd installation
160: ./install.pl
161: </pre>
162: <p>
163: This script will prompt you for the MySQL root password and will download the latest LON-CAPA release.
164: </p>
165: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3>
166: <p>
167: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order
168: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
169: </p>
170: <dl>
171: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
172: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
173: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
174: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
175: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
176: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you
177: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
178: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
179: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
180: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
181: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or
182: special characters.</i>
183: </dd>
184: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
185: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
186: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word,
187: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i>
188: </dd>
189: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
190: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
191: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
192: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
193: </dd>
194: </dl>
195:
196: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3>
197: <p>
198: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
199: </p>
200: <pre>
201: cd /root/loncapa-N.N.N (N.N.N should correspond to a version number like '2.2.2')
202: ./UPDATE
203: </pre>
204: <p>
205: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined
206: in the previous section.
207: </p>
208: <p>After installing LON-CAPA, and taking any actions included in the WARNINGS file created during installation, it is recommended that you set loncontrol to start automatically on boot, by executing the following command:</p>
209: <pre>
210: /sbin/chkconfig --level 345 loncontrol on
211: </pre>
212: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
213: <p>
214: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
215: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
216: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
217: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
218: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
219: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
220: appropriate user name and your domain.
221: </p>
222: <pre>
223: cd /root/loncapa-N.N/loncom/build
224: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
225: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
226: </pre>
227: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
228: <p>
229: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations
230: will be apparent at this step.
231: </p>
232: <pre>
233: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
234: /etc/init.d/apache2 start
235: </pre>
236: <p>
237: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules,
238: please make sure you followed the instructions in
239: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please
240: contact the LON-CAPA support team.
241: </p>
242: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
243: <p>
244: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
245: coordinator. Congratulations!
246: </p>
247: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2>
248: <p>
249: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think
250: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA support team.
251: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br />
252: <a href="http://support.loncapa.org/help/">http://support.loncapa.org/help/</a><br />
253: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the
254: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible.
255: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.
256: </p>
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