This document guides you through the process of setting up a new LON-CAPA server or virtual machine running Oracle Linux 6 with a minimum of packages installed. The server or virtual machine will be configured solely as a LON-CAPA server and will be expected to have no other services running. Your server or virtual machine is expected to have a fast connection to the internet.
More information is available at http://install.lon-capa.org/.
Installing Linux is straightforward. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute some routine Unix commands. Familiarity with the Apache web server, mod_perl, perl, and MySQL are not required to install and run LON-CAPA.
The installation process takes the following steps:
Oracle Linux 6 isos can be obtained from links included on the Oracle Linux download page. You only need download either the Oracle Linux 6 Update 10 Boot ISO image for $basearch iso, or the Oracle Linux Update 6 Update 10 for $basearch iso.
You will need to know the following network settings for your installation. Note: You must have a static IP address to use LON-CAPA. DHCP is not supported.
Documentation is available from https://docs.oracle.com/en/operating-systems/oracle-linux/6/ Most of the installation screens are self explanatory. There are a few steps that require comment and are dealt with below.
Finish installing your server, reboot it, and log in as root.
Update your system to the latest versions of the system software using yum.
yum update
If the kernel was updated, reboot your system before continuing with the installation.
Install wget
yum install wget
Add yum repository for EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux)
yum install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-6.noarch.rpm
Enable the Oracle Linux Add ons and Developer Repositories
yum-config-manager --enable public_ol6_addons yum-config-manager --enable public_ol6-developer
Install the loncapa.repo file from the LON-CAPA install site:
wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/loncapa.repo http://install.loncapa.org/versions/oracle/6/loncapa.repo
Verify the required repositories are enabled:
yum repolist enabled
The list of enabled repos should be as follows:
repo id | repo name |
---|---|
loncapa-updates-basearch | Oracle Linux 6 LON-CAPA $basearch Updates |
loncapa-updates-noarch | Oracle Linux 6 LON-CAPA noarch Updates |
public_ol6_UEKR4 | Latest Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel Releases 4 for Oracle Linux 6Server ($basearch) |
public_ol6_addons | Oracle Linux 6Server Add ons ($basearch) |
public_ol6_developer | Oracle Linux 6Server Packages for Development and test ($basearch) |
public_ol6_latest | Oracle Linux 6Server Latest ($basearch) |
The default Oracle Linux 6 installation includes SELinux enabled. Until such time as an SELinux security policy has been created for LON-CAPA, SELinux should be disabled. Retrieve the loncapa_selinux_config file from the LON-CAPA install site:
wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/oracle/6/loncapa_selinux_config
Install the selinux config file
mv /etc/selinux/config /etc/selinux/config.backup mv loncapa_selinux_config /etc/selinux/config reboot
Execute:
yum install LONCAPA-prerequisites
This may take some minutes due to LON-CAPA's large number of dependencies.
Execute:
system-config-firewall-tui
Retrieve the LON-CAPA setup with the following command:
wget http://install.loncapa.org/linux/install.tar
Extract the archive with the following command:
tar xf install.tar
This creates a directory named installation. Change to it and execute the setup script with the following commands:
cd installation ./install.pl
The script is used to prepare a Linux system to run LON-CAPA, and can also be used to check the configuration of a system on which LON-CAPA has already been installed. Typically, though, you will run this script only once, when you first install LON-CAPA.
The script will analyze your system to determine which actions are recommended. The script will then prompt you to choose the actions you would like taken. Once a choice has been entered for all nine possible actions, required changes will be made.
The possible actions are:
LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters to be set in order for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.
To configure and install LON-CAPA, execute the following commands:
cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z (X.Y.Z should correspond to a version number like '2.11.3') ./UPDATE
You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you determined in the previous section.
You will need at least one user at your site who has the role of 'domain coordinator'. This user creates accounts for other users and grants them additional privileges. The make_domain_coordinator.pl script invoked below requires that you enter the user's password. Feel free to use the "passwd username" command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an appropriate user name and your domain. If installing a library server and an access server on separate machines or VMs you need only run make_domain_coordinator.pl on the library server.
cd /root/loncapa-X.Y.Z/loncom/build perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
The LON-CAPA network services take a moment to start. Most misconfigurations will be apparent at this step.
/etc/init.d/loncontrol start service httpd start
If you receive warnings about missing perl modules, when starting the httpd service please make sure that the LONCAPA-prerequisites rpm is installed using this command:
rpm -q LONCAPA-prerequisites
If it is not installed, ensure that the required Linux repositories are enabled (see the "Set up access to package repositories" section above), then install it:
yum install LONCAPA-prerequisites
If you still have errors, please contact the LON-CAPA Helpdesk: helpdesk at loncapa.org
Ensure that LON-CAPA network services and the httpd service are set to start on boot:
/sbin/chkconfig loncontrol on /sbin/chkconfig httpd on
Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain coordinator. Congratulations!
If you've followed the steps above and the server doesn't start or you think there's something wrong, please contact the LON-CAPA helpdesk. Installation/update support is available from: helpdesk at loncapa.org (replace " at " with @). If there were errors in installation of the dependency RPMs or errors during the automatic setup, please send us as much information as possible. If some part of this document is unclear please let us know.