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Mon Jun 3 13:27:37 2002 UTC (22 years ago) by www
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Note on autorestart of services.

1: <html><head><title>Setting up a Red Hat7.3 LON-CAPA Server</title></head><body> 2:  3: <h1>Setting up a Red Hat 7.3 LON-CAPA Server</h1> 4: 5: <h2>Before you begin</h2> 6: <p> 7: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier. However, it is still a 8: non-trivial undertaking and experience with Red Hat Linux will make this 9: process easier. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute 10: some routine Unix commands. Some familiarity with Linux is assumed. 11: </p> 12: 13: <h2>Installation Overview</h2> 14: <p> 15: The installation process takes the following steps: 16: <ol> 17: <li> Obtain Red Hat 7.3 </li> 18: <li> Gather information for installing Red Hat </li> 19: <li> Install Red Hat 7.3 </li> 20: <li> Determine your LON-CAPA Settings </li> 21: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li> 22: <li> Configure LON-CAPA </li> 23: <li> Pick a hosts.tab file </li> 24: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li> 25: <li> Start/Restart services </li> 26: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li> 27: </ol> 28: </p> 29: 30: <h2>Obtain the Red Hat 7.3 installation CDs</h2> 31: <p> 32: If you like, you may contact the LON-CAPA development staff and we can 33: mail the CDs to you. Another option is to download the cd images and 34: burn them yourself, or install from a mirror site using ftp or http. 35: </p> 36: 37: <h2>Determine Network settings for your site</h2> 38: <p> 39: You will need to have the following information for your site. You must 40: have a static IP address (do not use DHCP). 41: <ul> 42: <li>ip address </li> 43: <li>netmask </li> 44: <li>network </li> 45: <li>broadcast </li> 46: <li>hostname </li> 47: <li>gateway </li> 48: <li>domain name server(s) </li> 49: </ul> 50: </p> 51: 52: <h2>Install Red Hat 7.3</h2> 53: <p> 54: When you install RedHat you will need to ensure the following (the list below 55: is in the order the issues appear in the installation of Red Hat 7.3): 56: <dl> 57: <dt>Installation Type 58: <dd>You should definitely do a "Server" install. We do not recommend 59: Trying to install LON-CAPA with a different installation type. 60: <dt>Partitioning your Drive 61: <dd>You may want to use the automatic partitioning feature of Red Hat, 62: however you should review the results and be prepared to modify them. 63: LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, so the 64: lion's share of the drive should be allocated here. If you have 8 GB 65: of space for Red Hat, /home should receive 4 to 6 gigs. Be sure to 66: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should 67: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM. 68: <dt>Network Configuration 69: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic 70: IP address. When configuring your network card, be sure to unselect 71: the DHCP option and enter in your network information. 72: <dt>Firewall Configuration 73: <dd>The installation script will remove and disable your firewall. 74: <dt>Package Group Selection 75: <dd>At a minimum, install the following packages: 76: <ul> 77: <li>NFS File Server </li> 78: <li>Windows File Server </li> 79: <li>Web Server </li> 80: </ul> 81: Other packages can be installed as you like. 82: <dt>X Windows Configuration 83: <dd>If you chose to install the X-windows packages you will need to 84: configure them. If you are unsure of the support for your video 85: card you may wish to skip the configuration. 86: </dl> 87: Other notes: 88: <ul> 89: <li>Use md5 and shadow passwords if you are given the choice (this is 90: the default). </li> 91: </ul> 92: </p> 93: 94: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA settings</h2> 95: <p> 96: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order 97: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions. 98: <dl> 99: <dt>Host Type (library or access) 100: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In 101: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create 102: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect 103: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at 104: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification, you 105: should make your machine a 'library' server. 106: <dt>LON-CAPA domain 107: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain. 108: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but 109: meaningful. <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters!</i> 110: <dt>LON-CAPA host id 111: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names 112: such as "msul1" for the first library server. <i>Restriction: 113: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters!</i> 114: <dt>Host administrator email 115: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages 116: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in serious 117: trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>. 118: <dt>Root password for SQL database 119: <dd>In order to keep people from corrupting the MYSQL database, a root 120: password is needed. You'll need to remember this. 121: </dl> 122: </p> 123: 124: <h2>Install LON-CAPA</h2> 125: <p> 126: Log in as root with the password you provided during the Red Hat 127: installation process. 128: <pre> 129: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/rh73install/loncapa-rh73install.tar 130: tar xf loncapa-rh73install.tar 131: cd install 132: ./install.pl 133: </pre> 134: </p> 135: 136: <h2>Configure LON-CAPA</h2> 137: <p> 138: Execute the following commands 139: <pre> 140: cd /root/loncapa/ 141: ./UPDATE 142: </pre> 143: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you requested 144: above. Additionally, you will need to enter the following information 145: (options 5 and 6 in the menu, recommended settings): 146: <dl> 147: <dt>Cache Expiration Time 148: <dd>86400 149: <dt>Server Load 150: <dd>2.0 151: </dl> 152: You can deviate from the above settings if you know what you are doing. 153: </p> 154: 155: <h2>Picking a hosts.tab file</h2> 156: The "hosts.tab" file controls which LON-CAPA servers your server attempts 157: to access and which servers it will respond to. If this is your first 158: install of LON-CAPA on your network, we suggest choosing a 'standalone' 159: "hosts.tab". On a laptop, you must choose 'standalone'. 160: Please contact the support staff at www.loncapa.org for 161: information about adding more hosts to your "hosts.tab" file. 162: <p> 163: <b>Note:</b> for <b>non</b>-standalone configurations, you do need to add 164: yourself to the <tt>/home/httpd/lonTabs/hosts.tab</tt> to initially test your 165: configuration. Eventually, you will be added to the general cluster tables by 166: LON-CAPA staff, so this is temporary. A <tt>hosts.tab</tt> entry has the 167: format 168: <pre> 169: lonHostID:domain:hosttype:dns-name:ipaddress 170: </pre> 171: for example 172: <pre> 173: 103l5:library:s17.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.27 174: </pre> 175: Please edit this file with a UNIX editor, not a PC or Mac one, so that the 176: linebreaks are correct. 177: 178: </p> 179: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2> 180: <p> 181: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of 182: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and 183: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script 184: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will 185: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username" 186: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an 187: appropriate user name and your domain. 188: <pre> 189: cd /root/loncapa/loncom/build 190: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN 191: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE) 192: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html 193: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html 194: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html 195: </pre> 196: </p> 197: 198: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2> 199: <p> 200: The services take about 10 minutes to start. 201: <pre> 202: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start 203: /etc/init.d/httpd restart 204: </pre> 205: </p> 206: 207: <h2>Make Sure that Services Autostart on Boot</h2> 208: <p>On Redhat 7.3 it is not guaranteed that Apache and MySQL automatically 209: restart on boot, even when installing with "server" configuration. 210: After logging in as root, check under "Programs" - "System" - 211: "Service Configuration" that "Start on Boot" is checked for httpd and mysqld, 212: save and restart.. 213: </p> 214: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2> 215: <p> 216: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain 217: coordinator. Congratulations! 218: </p> 219: 220: 221: