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Wed Jun 19 21:09:52 2002 UTC (21 years, 11 months ago) by matthew
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CVS tags: version_0_4, stable_2002_july, STABLE, HEAD

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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. 110: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i> 111: <dt>LON-CAPA host id 112: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names 113: such as "msul1" for the first library server. 114: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i> 115: <dt>Host administrator email 116: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages 117: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in 118: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>. 119: <dt>Root password for SQL database 120: <dd>In order to keep people from corrupting the MYSQL database, a root 121: password is needed. You'll need to remember this. 122: </dl> 123: </p> 124: 125: <h2>Install LON-CAPA</h2> 126: <p> 127: Log in as root with the password you provided during the Red Hat 128: installation process. 129: <pre> 130: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/rh73install/loncapa-rh73install.tar 131: tar xf loncapa-rh73install.tar 132: cd install 133: ./install.pl 134: </pre> 135: </p> 136: 137: <h2>Configure LON-CAPA</h2> 138: <p> 139: Execute the following commands 140: <pre> 141: cd /root/loncapa/ 142: ./UPDATE 143: </pre> 144: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you requested 145: above. 146: </p> 147: 148: <h2>Picking a hosts.tab file</h2> 149: The "hosts.tab" file controls which LON-CAPA servers your server attempts 150: to access and which servers it will respond to. If this is your first 151: install of LON-CAPA on your network, we suggest choosing a 'standalone' 152: "hosts.tab". On a laptop, you must choose 'standalone'. 153: Please contact the support staff at www.loncapa.org for 154: information about adding more hosts to your "hosts.tab" file. 155: <p> 156: <b>Note:</b> for <b>non</b>-standalone configurations, you do need to add 157: yourself to the <tt>/home/httpd/lonTabs/hosts.tab</tt> to initially test your 158: configuration. Eventually, you will be added to the general cluster tables by 159: LON-CAPA staff, so this is temporary. A <tt>hosts.tab</tt> entry has the 160: format 161: <pre> 162: lonHostID:domain:hosttype:dns-name:ipaddress 163: </pre> 164: for example 165: <pre> 166: 103l5:library:s17.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.27 167: </pre> 168: Please edit this file with a UNIX editor, not a PC or Mac one, so that the 169: linebreaks are correct. 170: 171: </p> 172: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2> 173: <p> 174: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of 175: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and 176: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script 177: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will 178: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username" 179: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an 180: appropriate user name and your domain. 181: <pre> 182: cd /root/loncapa/loncom/build 183: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN 184: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE) 185: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html 186: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html 187: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html 188: chmod a+x ~USERNAME 189: </pre> 190: </p> 191: 192: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2> 193: <p> 194: The services take about 10 minutes to start. 195: <pre> 196: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start 197: /etc/init.d/httpd restart 198: </pre> 199: </p> 200: 201: <h2>Make Sure that Services Autostart on Boot</h2> 202: <p>On Redhat 7.3 it is not guaranteed that Apache and MySQL automatically 203: restart on boot. You should run /usr/sbin/ntsysv and set the following 204: daemons to be started at boot: 205: <pre> 206: httpd 207: mysqld 208: </pre> 209: It is not necessary to reboot after doing this as they should already be 210: running by this point in the installation. 211: <pre> 212: /etc/init.d/httpd restart 213: /etc/init.d/mysqld restart 214: </pre> 215: </p> 216: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2> 217: <p> 218: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain 219: coordinator. Congratulations! 220: </p>