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Tue May 25 18:52:10 2010 UTC (13 years, 11 months ago) by raeburn
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- SLES 11 installation instructions

1: <h1>Installing LON-CAPA on a minimal SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11</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 11 (SLES 11) 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><a href="#obt">Obtain SLES 11 installation media</a></li> 27: <li><a href="#net">Determine Network Settings</a></li> 28: <li><a href="#lin">Install SLES 11</a></li> 29: <li><a href="#upd">Update your system</a></li> 30: <li><a href="#ilc">Install LON-CAPA</a></li> 31: <li><a href="#cdc">Create a Domain Coordinator</a></li> 32: <li><a href="#sts">Start/Restart services</a></li> 33: <li><a href="#log">Log in to LON-CAPA</a></li> 34: </ol> 35: 36: <hr /> 37: <h2>1. <a name="obt">Obtain SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 11</a></h2> 38: <p> 39: 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>. Only DVD1 is required for each architecture (DVD2 contains source rpms for the various packages). 40: </p> 41: 42: <h2>2. <a name="net">Determine Network Settings</a></h2> 43: <p> 44: You will need to know the following network settings for your installation. 45: <b>Note:</b>You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA. 46: DHCP is <em>not</em> supported. 47: </p> 48: <ul> 49: <li>ip address </li> 50: <li>netmask </li> 51: <li>hostname </li> 52: <li>gateway </li> 53: <li>domain name server(s) </li> 54: </ul> 55: 56: <h2>3. <a name="lin">Minimal SLES 11 Install</a></h2> 57: <p> 58: Installing SuSE Linux Enterprise Server is quite easy if you've installed Linux products 59: before. Some documentation is available from 60: <a href="http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles11/"> 61: http://www.novell.com/documentation/sles11/</a>.<br /><br /> 62: Most of the subsequent installation screens are self explanatory. 63: There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below. 64: </p> 65: <dl style="list-style:square outside none"> 66: <dt>Installation Language</dt> 67: <dd>Use English as your installation language.</dd> 68: 69: <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt> 70: <dd>For a LON-CAPA library server (i.e., the main server used 71: for permanent storage of course and user data), 72: a separate partition is recommended for /home, as this 73: simplifies future upgrades of the operating system. 74: If you are adding an additional access server to an 75: existing LON-CAPA domain, this does not apply as no 76: permanent data are stored on an access server. 77: As LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, 78: the majority of the disk space should be allocated here. 79: If you have 20 GB of space for SLES11, /home should 80: receive at least 10 to 12 gigs. Since MySQL uses the /var 81: filesystem to store its databases you should have as least 82: 4 gigs of space available on /var. Be sure to 83: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should 84: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM. 85: </dd> 86: <dt>Software Selection</dt> 87: <dd> 88: Installation of the minimum set of packages is recommended. This will involve unchecking all checkboxes except for the base SLES installation.</dd> 89: </dl> 90: <p>Once you system has rebooted, you will use yast to complete the configuration. Change the following settings: 91: <dl style="list-style:square outside none"> 92: <dt>Network Configuration</dt> 93: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic 94: 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. 95: </dd> 96: <dt>Online update</dt> 97: <dd>Indicate "Yes" when prompted to "run online update now?"</dd> 98: </dt> 99: </dl> 100: <p> 101: Finish installing your server, read the "readme", reboot and log in as root. 102: </p> 103: <h3>Configure Firewall Settings</h3> 104: <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. 105: </p> 106: 107: <h2>4. <a name="upd">Change software sources for your system</a></h2> 108: <p> 109: You will use yast to import packages required for LON-CAPA.<br /> 110: Execute: 111: </p> 112: <pre> 113: yast 114: </pre> 115: <p> 116: Select "Change Source of Installation". The media you used to install SLES11 will be listed as an installation source. If you do not already have a SLES11 installation source at your location, you may want to consider creating one from the iso files you used to create . Proceed as follows (e.g., for 32 bit):</p> 117: <pre> 118: mkdir -p sles11/DVD1 119: mount -o ro,loop SLES-11-DVD-i586-GM-DVD1.iso /mnt 120: cp -rv /mnt/* sles11/DVD1 121: umount /mnt 122: </pre> 123: <h3>Add an additional installation source</h3> 124: <p>Add the LON-CAPA SLES 11 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: 125: <dl style="list-style:square outside none"> 126: <dd>Protocol</dd> 127: <dt>HTTP</dt> 128: <dd>Server Name</dd> 129: <dt>install.loncapa.org</dt> 130: <dd>Directory on server</dd> 131: <dt>suse/sles11/</dt> 132: <dd>Authentication</dd> 133: <dt>Anonymous</dt> 134: </dl> 135: After saving this configuration information for the LON-CAPA repository, quit yast. 136: </p> 137: <h2>5. <a name="ilc">Installing LON-CAPA</a></h2> 138: <h3>Install prerequisites</h3> 139: <p> Execute: </p> 140: <pre> 141: yast -i LONCAPA-prerequisites 142: </pre><p> 143: This may take a moment due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies. 144: </p> 145: <h3>Retrieve and execute LON-CAPA setup program</h3> 146: <p> 147: Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with one of the following commands: 148: </p> 149: <pre> 150: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/suse/sles11/sles11_install.tar 151: </pre> 152: <p> 153: Extract the archive with the following command: 154: </p> 155: <pre> 156: tar xf sles11_install.tar 157: </pre> 158: <p> 159: This creates a directory named <tt>installation</tt>. Change to it and 160: execute the setup script with the following commands: 161: </p> 162: <pre> 163: cd installation 164: ./install.pl 165: </pre> 166: <p> 167: This script will prompt you for the MySQL root password and will download the latest LON-CAPA release. 168: </p> 169: <h3>Determine LON-CAPA Settings</h3> 170: <p> 171: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order 172: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions. 173: </p> 174: <dl> 175: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt> 176: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In 177: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create 178: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect 179: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at 180: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification you 181: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd> 182: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt> 183: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain. 184: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but 185: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or 186: special characters.</i> 187: </dd> 188: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt> 189: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names 190: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: One word, 191: no hyphens, underscores, or special characters.</i> 192: </dd> 193: <dt>Host administrator email</dt> 194: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages 195: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in 196: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>. 197: </dd> 198: </dl> 199: 200: <h3>Configuring LON-CAPA</h3> 201: <p> 202: To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands: 203: </p> 204: <pre> 205: cd /root/loncapa-N.N.N (N.N.N should correspond to a version number like '2.2.2') 206: ./UPDATE 207: </pre> 208: <p> 209: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined 210: in the previous section. 211: </p> 212: <h2>6. <a name="cdc">Creating a Domain Coordinator</a></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: 228: <h2>7. <a name="sts">Start/Restart Services</a></h2> 229: <p> 230: The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations 231: will be apparent at this step. 232: </p> 233: <pre> 234: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start 235: /etc/init.d/apache2 start 236: </pre> 237: <p> 238: If you receive warnings when starting the httpd about missing perl modules, 239: please make sure you followed the instructions in 240: <b>Installing LON-CAPA Dependencies</b>. If you still have errors, please 241: contact the LON-CAPA group. 242: </p> 243: 244: <h2>8. <a name="log">Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</a></h2> 245: <p> 246: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain 247: coordinator. Congratulations! 248: </p> 249: 250: <hr /> 251: <h2>If things aren't working right</h2> 252: <p> 253: If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think 254: there's something wrong, please get in touch with the LON-CAPA group. 255: You can submit a help request using our web form:<br /> 256: <a href="http://help.loncapa.org/help/">http://help.loncapa.org/help/</a><br /> 257: If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or during the 258: automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible. 259: If some part of this document is unclear please let us know. 260: </p>