Setting up a Red Hat 7.3 LON-CAPA Server

Before you begin

Installing Linux is getting easier and easier. However, it is still a non-trivial undertaking and experience with Red Hat Linux will make this process easier. You will be required to log in to the machine and execute some routine Unix commands. Some familiarity with Linux is assumed.

Installation Overview

The installation process takes the following steps:

Obtain Red Hat 7.3
Gather information for installing Red Hat
Install Red Hat 7.3
Determine your LON-CAPA Settings
Install LON-CAPA
Configure LON-CAPA
Pick a hosts.tab file
Create a Domain Coordinator
Start/Restart services
Log in to LON-CAPA

Obtain the Red Hat 7.3 installation CDs

If you like, you may contact the LON-CAPA development staff and we can mail the CDs to you. Another option is to download the cd images and burn them yourself, or install from a mirror site using ftp or http.

Determine Network settings for your site

You will need to have the following information for your site. You must have a static IP address (do not use DHCP).

ip address
netmask
network
broadcast
hostname
gateway
domain name server(s)

Install Red Hat 7.3

When you install RedHat you will need to ensure the following (the list below is in the order the issues appear in the installation of Red Hat 7.3):

Installation Type

You should definitely do a "Server" install. We do not recommend Trying to install LON-CAPA with a different installation type.

Partitioning your Drive

You may want to use the automatic partitioning feature of Red Hat, however you should review the results and be prepared to modify them. LON-CAPA resource files are stored in the /home directory, so the lion's share of the drive should be allocated here. If you have 8 GB of space for Red Hat, /home should receive 4 to 6 gigs. Be sure to include adequate swap space. A minimum is 512 Megs, but you should typically have 1 or 2x as much swap space as you do physical RAM.

Network Configuration

LON-CAPA will not work with a machine set up to use a dynamic IP address. When configuring your network card, be sure to unselect the DHCP option and enter in your network information.

Firewall Configuration

The installation script will remove and disable your firewall.

Package Group Selection

At a minimum, install the following packages:

NFS File Server
Windows File Server
Web Server

Other packages can be installed as you like.

X Windows Configuration

If you chose to install the X-windows packages you will need to configure them. If you are unsure of the support for your video card you may wish to skip the configuration.

Other notes:

Use md5 and shadow passwords if you are given the choice (this is the default).

Determine LON-CAPA settings

LON-CAPA requires a number of identifying parameters be set in order for it to function at all. Below is a list with descriptions.

Host Type (library or access): The server must be designated a 'library' or an 'access' server. In general you should have a library server for your instructors to create their course content on and run their courses. Students should connect to access servers. If you are doing the first install of LON-CAPA at your site, or if you are playing with it for your own edification, you should make your machine a 'library' server.
LON-CAPA domain: Each site or school which installs LON-CAPA needs its own domain. Here at MSU we use 'msu'. You should choose something short but meaningful. Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters!
LON-CAPA host id: Each LON-CAPA server requires a unique internal name. We use names such as "msul1" for the first library server. Restriction: One word, no hyphens, underscores, or special characters!
Host administrator email: The amount of email sent to this address is relatively minimal. Messages are sent every time the system starts up, or if the system is in serious trouble. On a laptop, make this root@localhost.
Root password for SQL database: In order to keep people from corrupting the MYSQL database, a root password is needed. You'll need to remember this.

Install LON-CAPA

wget http://install.loncapa.org/versions/rh73install/loncapa-rh73install.tar
tar xf loncapa-rh73install.tar
cd install
./install.pl

Configure LON-CAPA

Execute the following commands

cd /root/loncapa/
./UPDATE

You will need to enter the LON-CAPA configuration information you requested above. Additionally, you will need to enter the following information (options 5 and 6 in the menu, recommended settings):

Cache Expiration Time: 86400
Server Load: 2.0

You can deviate from the above settings if you know what you are doing.

Picking a hosts.tab file

The "hosts.tab" file controls which LON-CAPA servers your server attempts to access and which servers it will respond to. If this is your first install of LON-CAPA on your network, we suggest choosing a 'standalone' "hosts.tab". On a laptop, you must choose 'standalone'. Please contact the support staff at www.loncapa.org for information about adding more hosts to your "hosts.tab" file.

Note: for non-standalone configurations, you do need to add yourself to the /home/httpd/lonTabs/hosts.tab to initially test your configuration. Eventually, you will be added to the general cluster tables by LON-CAPA staff, so this is temporary. A hosts.tab entry has the format

lonHostID:domain:hosttype:dns-name:ipaddress

for example

103l5:library:s17.lite.msu.edu:35.8.63.27

Please edit this file with a UNIX editor, not a PC or Mac one, so that the linebreaks are correct.

Creating a Domain Coordinator

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 users password. The password will show in plaintext as you type it. Feel free to use the "passwd username" command to change it later. Replace USERNAME and DOMAIN with an appropriate user name and your domain.

cd /root/loncapa/loncom/build
perl make_domain_coordinator.pl USERNAME DOMAIN
(WILL PROMPT FOR PASSWORD HERE)
mkdir ~USERNAME/public_html
chown USERNAME:www ~USERNAME/public_html
chmod 0775 ~USERNAME/public_html

Start/Restart Services

The services take about 10 minutes to start.

/etc/init.d/loncontrol start
/etc/init.d/httpd restart

Make Sure that Services Autostart on Boot

On Redhat 7.3 it is not guaranteed that Apache and MySQL automatically restart on boot. You should run /usr/sbin/ntsysv and set the following daemons to be started at boot:

httpd
mysqld

It is not necessary to reboot after doing this as they should already be running by this point in the installation.

/etc/init.d/httpd restart
/etc/init.d/mysqld restart

Log in to your LON-CAPA Machine

Point a web browser at your new machine and log in as the domain coordinator. Congratulations!