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This document will describe how to install, configure, and maintain an installation of OpenACS 5.0.0a1 on a Unix-like system, including all supporting software. All examples in this chapter are part of the OpenACS 5.0.0a1-P or OpenACS 5.0.0a1-O Reference Platform, which use Red Hat 8.0. Differences between the Reference Platform and common alternate platforms (Red Hat 9, Debian) are noted where known.
You will need a PC (or equivalent) with at least these minimum requirements:
Pentium processor
128 MB RAM (much more if you want Oracle)
4 GB hard drive
You will need all everthing marked REQUIRED in Section , “Individual Programs”.
If you want to serve pages to people outside of your machine, you'll need a network connection of some type.
Running a reliable database-backed web server requires experience with the server's environment, in this case UNIX. UNIX is not always an intuitive environment and this guide cannot hope to explain every nuance. You should be comfortable with the following tasks before attempting an installation:
Adding users, groups, setting passwords
(For Oracle) Starting an X server and running an X program remotely
Basic file management using cp, rm, mv, and cd
Compiling a program using ./config and make.
You can complete this install without the above knowledge, but if anything goes wrong it may take extra time to understand and correct the problem. Some useful UNIX resources.
All of the software that you will need is free and open-source, except for Oracle. You can obtain a free copy of Oracle for development purposes. This is described in the Acquire Oracle section.
The basic steps to getting OpenACS up and running are:
Install an OS
Install a database (Oracle or PostgreSQL)
Install a webserver (AOLServer)
Copy the OpenACS files into place and start the OpenACS installer, which will configure a database instance.
This is text you will see on screen, such as a or link in a radio button list or menu.
This is text that you will type.
This is text from a program or file which you may need to examine or edit:
if {$database == "oracle"} {
set db_password "mysitepassword"
}This is text that you will see and type in a command shell, including text you may have to change. It is followed by a list of just the commands, which you can copy and paste.
[root@localhost root]# su - nsadmin
[nsadmin@localhost aolserver]$ svc -d /service/server1
[nsadmin@localhost aolserver]$ dropdb server1
DROP DATABASE
[nsadmin@localhost aolserver]$ createdb server1
CREATE DATABASE
su - nsadmin
svc -d /service/server1
dropdb server1
createdb server1We'll do our best to assure that following our instructions will get you to the promised land. If something goes wrong, don't panic. There are plenty of ways to get help. Here are some tips:
Keep track of the commands you are run and record their output. I like to do my installations in a shell inside of emacs (M-x shell) so that I can save the output if needed. An alternative would be to use the script command.
We'll point out where the error logs for the various pieces of software are. Output from those logs will help us help you. Don't worry if you feel overwhelmed by all the information in the error logs. Over time, you'll find that they make more and more sense. Soon, you'll actually look forward to errors so that you can run to the log and diagnose the problem.
Search the bboards at openacs.org - you'll often find many people who have struggled through the same spot that you're in.
The bottom of each page has a link to OpenACS.org, where you can post comments and read other users comments about the contents of the page.
Ask questions at the irc channel on openprojects.net (#openacs). They're knowledgeable and quite friendly if you can keep them on topic.
Post a question on the bboards. Make sure you've done a search first. When you do post, be sure to include your setup information (OS, etc) as well as the exact commands that are failing with the accompanying error. If there's a SQL error in the TCL error or in the log, post that too.
If you find errors in this document or if you have ideas about making it better, please post them in our BugTracker.
After reading through this tome, you may ask yourself if there is a better way. Well, not quite. Jonathan Marsden has created RPMs (at http://www.xc.org) for OpenACS 4.5 but there are not yet any for version 5.0.0a1. There has been talk about automating the install process, but that hasn't happened yet. Stay tuned!
This document was created by Vinod Kurup, but it's really just plagiarism from a number of documents that came before it. If I've used something that you've written without proper credit, let me know and I'll fix it right away.
Versions 4.6.2 to present were edited by Joel Aufrecht.
These are a few of my sources:
Please also see the Credits section for more acknowledgements.
Here's a list of some helpful documentation for various OS's
Painless Debian GNU/Linux by Stephen van Egmond
Once you get your OS installed, it's imperative that you secure your installation. As Jon Griffin repeatedly warns us, "No distribution is secure out of the box." The Reference Platform implements some basic precautions, but security is a process, not a condition. If you are responsible for a computer hooked to the internet, you are responsible for learning some rudiments of security, such as monitoring the state of a computer, maintaining patch levels, and keeping backups. We recommend these resources:
Here are some resources that OpenACS users have found useful.
Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing - A very readable guide to database-backed community websites.
UNIX Power Tools - An excellent introduction to the command line tools and basic programs of UNIX
UNIX System Administration Handbook (formerly the "red book" - now the "purple" book)
UNIX System Administrator's Bible - (LePage and Iarerra 1998; IDG)
LPI certification exam preps - A series of articles from IBM developerworks on basic and intermediate Linux skills (requires registration)