doc/install/redhat7.3/new_install_rh73.html - view

File: [LON-CAPA] / doc / install / redhat7.3 / new_install_rh73.html
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Sun Jul 21 14:49:52 2002 UTC (21 years, 10 months ago) by harris41
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a note about the integrated nature of instructions

1: <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 2: "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> 3: <html> 4: <head> 5: <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></meta> 6: <title>Setting up a Red Hat7.3 LON-CAPA Server</title> 7: </head> 8: <body> 9:  10: <h1>Setting up a Red Hat 7.3 LON-CAPA Server</h1> 11: <h2>Integrated installation</h2> 12: <p> 13: These instructions combine the installation of RedHat 7.3 and LON-CAPA 14: into one straightforward process. (For example, a script <tt>install.pl</tt> 15: exists to help automate a number of steps in the installation.) 16: More information is available at <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/"> 17: http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>. 18: </p> 19: 20: <h2>Before you begin</h2> 21: <p> 22: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier. However, it is still a 23: non-trivial undertaking and experience with Red Hat Linux will make this 24: process easier. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute 25: some routine Unix commands. Some familiarity with Linux is assumed. 26: </p> 27: 28: <h2>Installation Overview</h2> 29: <p> 30: The installation process takes the following steps: 31: </p> 32: <ol> 33: <li> Obtain Red Hat 7.3 </li> 34: <li> Gather information for installing Red Hat </li> 35: <li> Install Red Hat 7.3 </li> 36: <li> Determine your LON-CAPA Settings </li> 37: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li> 38: <li> Configure LON-CAPA </li> 39: <li> Pick a hosts.tab file </li> 40: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li> 41: <li> Start/Restart services </li> 42: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li> 43: </ol> 44: 45: <h2>Obtain the Red Hat 7.3 installation CDs</h2> 46: <p> 47: If you like, you may contact the LON-CAPA development staff and we can 48: mail the CDs to you. Another option is to download the cd images and 49: burn them yourself, or install from a mirror site using ftp or http. 50: </p> 51: 52: <h2>Determine Network settings for your site</h2> 53: <p> 54: You will need to have the following information for your site. You must 55: have a static IP address (do not use DHCP). 56: </p> 57: <ul> 58: <li>ip address </li> 59: <li>netmask </li> 60: <li>network </li> 61: <li>broadcast </li> 62: <li>hostname </li> 63: <li>gateway </li> 64: <li>domain name server(s) </li> 65: </ul> 66: 67: <h2>Install Red Hat 7.3</h2> 68: <p> 69: When you install RedHat you will need to ensure the following (the list below 70: is in the order the issues appear in the installation of Red Hat 7.3): 71: </p> 72: <dl> 73: <dt>Installation Type</dt> 74: <dd>You should definitely do a "Server" install. We do not recommend 75: Trying to install LON-CAPA with a different installation type.</dd> 76: <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt> 77: <dd>You may want to use the automatic partitioning feature of Red Hat, 78: however you should review the results and be prepared to modify them. 79: LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, so the 80: lion's share of the drive should be allocated here. If you have 8 GB 81: of space for Red Hat, /home should receive 4 to 6 gigs. Be sure to 82: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should 83: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.</dd> 84: <dt>Network Configuration</dt> 85: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic 86: IP address. When configuring your network card, be sure to unselect 87: the DHCP option and enter in your network information.</dd> 88: <dt>Firewall Configuration</dt> 89: <dd>The installation script will remove and disable your firewall.</dd> 90: <dt>Package Group Selection</dt> 91: <dd>At a minimum, install the following packages: 92: <ul> 93: <li>NFS File Server </li> 94: <li>Windows File Server </li> 95: <li>Web Server </li> 96: </ul> 97: Other packages can be installed as you like.</dd> 98: <dt>X Windows Configuration</dt> 99: <dd>If you chose to install the X-windows packages you will need to 100: configure them. If you are unsure of the support for your video 101: card you may wish to skip the configuration.</dd> 102: </dl> 103: <p> 104: Other notes: 105: </p> 106: <ul> 107: <li>Use md5 and shadow passwords if you are given the choice (this is 108: the default). </li> 109: </ul> 110: 111: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA settings</h2> 112: <p> 113: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order 114: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions. 115: </p> 116: <dl> 117: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt> 118: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In 119: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create 120: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect 121: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at 122: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification, you 123: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd> 124: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt> 125: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain. 126: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but 127: meaningful. 128: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i> 129: </dd> 130: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt> 131: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names 132: such as "msul1" for the first library server. 133: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i> 134: </dd> 135: <dt>Host administrator email</dt> 136: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages 137: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in 138: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>. 139: </dd> 140: <dt>Root password for SQL database</dt> 141: <dd>In order to keep people from corrupting the MYSQL database, a root 142: password is needed. You'll need to remember this.</dd> 143: </dl> 144: 145: <h2>Install LON-CAPA</h2> 146: <p> 147: Log in as root with the password you provided during the Red Hat 148: installation process. 149: </p> 150: <pre> 151: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/rh73install/loncapa-rh73install.tar 152: tar xf loncapa-rh73install.tar 153: cd install 154: ./install.pl 155: </pre> 156: 157: <h2>Configure LON-CAPA</h2> 158: <p> 159: Execute the following commands 160: </p> 161: <pre> 162: cd /root/loncapa/ 163: ./UPDATE 164: </pre> 165: <p> 166: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you requested 167: above. 168: </p> 169: 170: <h2>Picking a hosts.tab file</h2> 171: <p> 172: The "hosts.tab" file controls which LON-CAPA servers your server attempts 173: to access and which servers it will respond to. If this is your first 174: install of LON-CAPA on your network, we suggest choosing a 'standalone' 175: "hosts.tab". On a laptop, you must choose 'standalone'. 176: Please contact the support staff at www.loncapa.org for 177: information about adding more hosts to your "hosts.tab" file. 178: </p> 179: <p> 180: <b>Note:</b> for <b>non</b>-standalone configurations, you do need to add 181: yourself to the <tt>/home/httpd/lonTabs/hosts.tab</tt> to initially test your 182: configuration. Eventually, you will be added to the general cluster tables by 183: LON-CAPA staff, so this is temporary. A <tt>hosts.tab</tt> entry has the 184: format 185: </p> 186: <pre> 187: lonHostID:domain:hosttype:dns-name:ipaddress 188: </pre> 189: <p> 190: for example 191: </p> 192: <pre> 193: 103l5:library:s17.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.27 194: </pre> 195: <p> 196: Please edit this file with a UNIX editor, not a PC or Mac one, so that the 197: linebreaks are correct. 198: </p> 199: 200: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2> 201: <p> 202: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of 203: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and 204: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script 205: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will 206: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username" 207: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an 208: appropriate user name and your domain. 209: </p> 210: <pre> 211: cd /root/loncapa/loncom/build 212: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN 213: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE) 214: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html 215: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html 216: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html 217: chmod a+x ~USERNAME 218: </pre> 219: 220: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2> 221: <p> 222: The services take about 10 minutes to start. 223: </p> 224: <pre> 225: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start 226: /etc/init.d/httpd restart 227: </pre> 228: 229: <h2>Make Sure that Services Autostart on Boot</h2> 230: <p>On Redhat 7.3 it is not guaranteed that Apache and MySQL automatically 231: restart on boot. You should run /usr/sbin/ntsysv and set the following 232: daemons to be started at boot: 233: </p> 234: <pre> 235: httpd 236: mysqld 237: </pre> 238: <p> 239: It is not necessary to reboot after doing this as they should already be 240: running by this point in the installation. 241: </p> 242: <pre> 243: /etc/init.d/httpd restart 244: /etc/init.d/mysqld restart 245: </pre> 246: 247: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2> 248: <p> 249: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain 250: coordinator. Congratulations! 251: </p> 252: </body> 253: </html>