[LON-CAPA-cvs] cvs: doc / shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt

Thu, 18 Jul 2002 21:30:21 -0000

harris41		Thu Jul 18 17:30:21 2002 EDT

  Modified files:              
    /doc	shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt 
  Log:
  (this is currently used as the README file); improve comments
  on MySQL as well as a few formatting changes
  
  
Index: doc/shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt
diff -u doc/shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt:1.3 doc/shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt:1.4

--- doc/shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt:1.3	Sun Apr 21 20:07:19 2002
+++ doc/shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt	Thu Jul 18 17:30:21 2002
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
-$Id: shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt,v 1.3 2002/04/22 00:07:19 harris41 Exp $
+$Id: shortest_path_redhat7.2.txt,v 1.4 2002/07/18 21:30:21 harris41 Exp $
 
-INSTALLING LON-CAPA ON A REDHAT 7.2 SYSTEM
+INSTALLING LON-CAPA ON A REDHAT 7.2/7.3 SYSTEM
 
 Scott Harrison
 
@@ -14,15 +14,14 @@
 Quick Instructions
 ------------------
 
-PLEASE contact sharrison@mail.lon-capa.org if these instructions
+PLEASE contact sharrison@users.sourceforge.net if these instructions
 do not work.
 PLEASE subscribe yourself to the ANNOUNCE MAILING LIST!
 Go to http://mail.lon-capa.org/mailman/listinfo/lon-capa-announce 
 
-1. Download http://install.lon-capa.org/versions/current/loncapa.tar.gz
-   (from a linux terminal, type
-    wget http://install.lon-capa.org/versions/current/loncapa.tar.gz)
-2. tar xzvf loncapa.tar.gz
+1. Download the current version of LON-CAPA from
+   http://install.lon-capa.org/downloads/
+2. tar xzvf loncapa-N.N.tar.gz (where N.N is the current version number)
 3. cd loncapa
 4. Read the README file (this file).
 5. EXECUTE: ./UPDATE
@@ -47,8 +46,8 @@
 invited for the specific development of the GPL code.
 
 We do our best to help get you started with a 100% operational
-system.  Please e-mail harris41@msu.edu or helen@lon-capa.org
-for help with software installation.
+system.  Please e-mail sharrison@users.sourceforge.net or
+helen@lon-capa.org for help with software installation.
 
 Hardware Recommendation
 -----------------------
@@ -69,14 +68,14 @@
 peaks of activity, it is strongly advised that LON-CAPA machines
 fit the above recommendation.
 
-If thousands of students start accessing the box as a web server...
-well you may want to consider more options.  The design of the LON-CAPA
+If thousands of students start accessing the box as a web server,
+then you may want to consider more options.  The design of the LON-CAPA
 system is to naturally and transparently load-balance on multiple
 computer clusters.  So, a simple solution for running an entire
 college campus is to just have an adequate plurality of LON-CAPA
 servers rather than a single, particularly monstrous server.
 
-We like to think of high web server usage as "a good problem" though.. :)
+We like to think of high web server usage as "a good problem" though.... :)
 
 More Information on Hardware and System Administration
 ------------------------------------------------------
@@ -103,35 +102,50 @@
 and frequency of new software versions, we suggest that you stick
 with RedHat to reduce high-frequency system administration overhead.
 
-Strategy
---------
+Critical system software: a "strategic" outlook
+---------------------------------------------
+
+In this section, issues related to LON-CAPA server software
+are discussed.  (The section after this section describes how to test
+and fix problems associated with the issues described below.)
+
+In general, you should expect that LON-CAPA "completely overtakes"
+a Linux server system.  Using the same LON-CAPA server computer to disseminate
+other unrelated services to your institution is not recommended.
 
 *** PERL ***
-It is important to check and see if your system has all 
-needed perl modules in /usr/lib/perl5/.
+A LON-CAPA system needs to have all the
+necessary perl modules inside /usr/lib/perl5/.
 
-*** RPMS ***
-It is important to:
-* keep your RPMs up to date
-* try to have a reasonably minimal set
+*** RPMs ***
+RPMs are the software packages on a RedHat linux system (the standard,
+supported operating system for LON-CAPA).  For security reasons, you need
+to keep your RPMs up to date.  For security and performance reasons, a
+knowledgeable system administrator at your institution should try to have
+a reasonably minimal set; e.g. a LON-CAPA server probably does not need the
+"pine" RPM (an e-mail client).
 
 *** MYSQL ***
-It should be kept operational at all times.
-In case of failure, there is a resynchronizing
-strategy so that the data on the filesystem
-continually refreshes the data within the
-MYSQL database.
+The MySQL database facilitates fast transactions by passing information on
+the LON-CAPA server to the world-wide web.  Important point: in order to
+prevent problems associated with 1) corrupted database files,
+2) database crashes, 3) changing versions of MySQL, and 4) information export
+and import, the information in the MySQL database IS NOT AUTHORITATIVE.
+In other words, if the MySQL database gets wiped out, YOU HAVE NOT LOST
+CRITICAL DATA.  The authoritative data exists on the filesystem and
+the MySQL database is dynamically repopulated and refreshed by 
+/home/httpd/perl/searchcat.pl.
 
 *** APACHE ***
-LON-CAPA expects that conf/loncapa.conf will be the
-last Apache configuration file to be processed before
-launching the httpd server.  This may interfere
-with other ways in which you utilize your web server.
-For instance, LON-CAPA requires that httpd
-run as user=www and group=www.
+LON-CAPA expects that conf/loncapa_apache.conf will be the last Apache
+configuration file to be processed before launching the httpd server.  This
+may interfere with other ways in which you utilize your web server.  For
+instance, LON-CAPA requires that httpd run as user=www and group=www.
 
 Testing
 -------
+
+The ./TEST command automates five different kinds of tests.
 
 1. Perl
 



