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: <!-- $Id: new_install_rh73.html,v 1.9 2002/07/22 12:02:52 matthew Exp $ -->
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.
15: More information is available at <a href="http://install.lon-capa.org/">
16: http://install.lon-capa.org/</a>.
17: </p>
18:
19: <h2>Before you begin</h2>
20: <p>
21: Installing Linux is getting easier and easier. However, it is still a
22: non-trivial undertaking and experience with Red Hat Linux will make this
23: process easier. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute
24: some routine Unix commands. Some familiarity with Linux is assumed.
25: </p>
26:
27: <h2>Installation Overview</h2>
28: <p>
29: The installation process takes the following steps:
30: </p>
31: <ol>
32: <li> Obtain Red Hat 7.3 </li>
33: <li> Gather information for installing Red Hat </li>
34: <li> Install Red Hat 7.3 </li>
35: <li> Determine your LON-CAPA Settings </li>
36: <li> Install LON-CAPA </li>
37: <li> Configure LON-CAPA </li>
38: <li> Pick a hosts.tab file </li>
39: <li> Create a Domain Coordinator </li>
40: <li> Start/Restart services </li>
41: <li> Log in to LON-CAPA </li>
42: </ol>
43:
44: <h2>Obtain the Red Hat 7.3 installation CDs</h2>
45: <p>
46: If you like, you may contact the LON-CAPA development staff and we can
47: mail the CDs to you. Another option is to download the cd images and
48: burn them yourself, or install from a mirror site using ftp or http.
49: </p>
50:
51: <h2>Determine Network settings for your site</h2>
52: <p>
53: You will need to have the following information for your site. You must
54: have a static IP address (do not use DHCP).
55: </p>
56: <ul>
57: <li>ip address </li>
58: <li>netmask </li>
59: <li>network </li>
60: <li>broadcast </li>
61: <li>hostname </li>
62: <li>gateway </li>
63: <li>domain name server(s) </li>
64: </ul>
65:
66: <h2>Install Red Hat 7.3</h2>
67: <p>
68: When you install RedHat you will need to ensure the following (the list below
69: is in the order the issues appear in the installation of Red Hat 7.3):
70: </p>
71: <dl>
72: <dt>Installation Type</dt>
73: <dd>You should definitely do a "Server" install. We do not recommend
74: Trying to install LON-CAPA with a different installation type.</dd>
75: <dt>Partitioning your Drive</dt>
76: <dd>You may want to use the automatic partitioning feature of Red Hat,
77: however you should review the results and be prepared to modify them.
78: LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, so the
79: lion's share of the drive should be allocated here. If you have 8 GB
80: of space for Red Hat, /home should receive 4 to 6 gigs. Be sure to
81: include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should
82: typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.</dd>
83: <dt>Network Configuration</dt>
84: <dd>LON-CAPA will <b>not</b> work with a machine set up to use a dynamic
85: IP address. When configuring your network card, be sure to unselect
86: the DHCP option and enter in your network information.</dd>
87: <dt>Firewall Configuration</dt>
88: <dd>The installation script will remove and disable your firewall.</dd>
89: <dt>Package Group Selection</dt>
90: <dd>At a minimum, install the following packages:
91: <ul>
92: <li>NFS File Server </li>
93: <li>Windows File Server </li>
94: <li>Web Server </li>
95: </ul>
96: Other packages can be installed as you like.</dd>
97: <dt>X Windows Configuration</dt>
98: <dd>If you chose to install the X-windows packages you will need to
99: configure them. If you are unsure of the support for your video
100: card you may wish to skip the configuration.</dd>
101: </dl>
102: <p>
103: Other notes:
104: </p>
105: <ul>
106: <li>Use md5 and shadow passwords if you are given the choice (this is
107: the default). </li>
108: </ul>
109:
110: <h2>Determine LON-CAPA settings</h2>
111: <p>
112: LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order
113: for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
114: </p>
115: <dl>
116: <dt>Host Type (library or access)</dt>
117: <dd>The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In
118: general you should have a library server for your instructors to create
119: their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect
120: to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at
121: your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification, you
122: should make your machine a 'library' server.</dd>
123: <dt>LON-CAPA domain</dt>
124: <dd>Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain.
125: Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but
126: meaningful.
127: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i>
128: </dd>
129: <dt>LON-CAPA host id</dt>
130: <dd>Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names
131: such as "msul1" for the first library server.
132: <i>Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters</i>
133: </dd>
134: <dt>Host administrator email</dt>
135: <dd>The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages
136: are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in
137: serious trouble. On a laptop, make this <tt>root@localhost</tt>.
138: </dd>
139: <dt>Root password for SQL database</dt>
140: <dd>In order to keep people from corrupting the MYSQL database, a root
141: password is needed. You'll need to remember this.</dd>
142: </dl>
143:
144: <h2>Install LON-CAPA</h2>
145: <p>
146: Log in as root with the password you provided during the Red Hat
147: installation process.
148: </p>
149: <pre>
150: wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/rh73install/loncapa-rh73install.tar
151: tar xf loncapa-rh73install.tar
152: cd install
153: ./install.pl
154: </pre>
155:
156: <h2>Configure LON-CAPA</h2>
157: <p>
158: Execute the following commands
159: </p>
160: <pre>
161: cd /root/loncapa/
162: ./UPDATE
163: </pre>
164: <p>
165: You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you requested
166: above.
167: </p>
168:
169: <h2>Picking a hosts.tab file</h2>
170: <p>
171: The "hosts.tab" file controls which LON-CAPA servers your server attempts
172: to access and which servers it will respond to. If this is your first
173: install of LON-CAPA on your network, we suggest choosing a 'standalone'
174: "hosts.tab". On a laptop, you must choose 'standalone'.
175: Please contact the support staff at www.loncapa.org for
176: information about adding more hosts to your "hosts.tab" file.
177: </p>
178: <p>
179: <b>Note:</b> for <b>non</b>-standalone configurations, you do need to add
180: yourself to the <tt>/home/httpd/lonTabs/hosts.tab</tt> to initially test your
181: configuration. Eventually, you will be added to the general cluster tables by
182: LON-CAPA staff, so this is temporary. A <tt>hosts.tab</tt> entry has the
183: format
184: </p>
185: <pre>
186: lonHostID:domain:hosttype:dns-name:ipaddress
187: </pre>
188: <p>
189: for example
190: </p>
191: <pre>
192: 103l5:library:s17.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.27
193: </pre>
194: <p>
195: Please edit this file with a UNIX editor, not a PC or Mac one, so that the
196: linebreaks are correct.
197: </p>
198:
199: <h2>Creating a Domain Coordinator</h2>
200: <p>
201: You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of
202: 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and
203: grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script
204: invoked below requires that you enter the users password. The password will
205: show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username"
206: command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an
207: appropriate user name and your domain.
208: </p>
209: <pre>
210: cd /root/loncapa/loncom/build
211: perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
212: (WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
213: mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html
214: chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html
215: chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html
216: chmod a+x ~USERNAME
217: </pre>
218:
219: <h2>Start/Restart Services</h2>
220: <p>
221: The services take about 10 minutes to start.
222: </p>
223: <pre>
224: /etc/init.d/loncontrol start
225: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
226: </pre>
227:
228: <h2>Make Sure that Services Autostart on Boot</h2>
229: <p>On Redhat 7.3 it is not guaranteed that Apache and MySQL automatically
230: restart on boot. You should run /usr/sbin/ntsysv and set the following
231: daemons to be started at boot:
232: </p>
233: <pre>
234: httpd
235: mysqld
236: </pre>
237: <p>
238: It is not necessary to reboot after doing this as they should already be
239: running by this point in the installation.
240: </p>
241: <pre>
242: /etc/init.d/httpd restart
243: /etc/init.d/mysqld restart
244: </pre>
245:
246: <h2>Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine</h2>
247: <p>
248: Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain
249: coordinator. Congratulations!
250: </p>
251: </body>
252: </html>
FreeBSD-CVSweb <freebsd-cvsweb@FreeBSD.org>