Overview
by Vinod KurupPurpose of this document
This document will describe how to install, configure, and
maintain an installation of OpenACS &version; on a Unix-like
system, including all supporting software. All examples
in this chapter are part of the OpenACS &version;-P or
OpenACS &version;-O Reference Platform, which use Red
Hat 8.0. Differences between the Reference Platform
and common alternate platforms are noted where known.
Requirements
You will need a PC (or equivalent) with at least these minimum
requirements:
Pentium processor128 MB RAM
(much more if you want Oracle)4 GB hard driveYou will need all of the software marked REQUIRED.
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 section.
Steps involved
The basic steps to getting OpenACS up and running are:
Install an OSInstall a webserver (AOLServer)Install a database (Oracle or
PostgreSQL)Copy the OpenACS files into place and start the OpenACS installer, which will configure a database instance.How to use this guideThis is text you will see on
screen, such as a Button 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 server1What if I get stuck?
We'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.
Is there an easier way?
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
&version;. There has been talk about automating the install process,
but that hasn't happened yet. Stay tuned!
Where did this document come from?
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:ArsDigita installation guideOpenACS 3.x installation guideGilbert Wong's FreeBSD
installation guideVinod Kurup's Brief OpenACS4
installation guideJoel
Aufrecht's OpenACS 4.5 Quick Guide.
Please also see the section for more acknowledgements.
Linux Install Guides
Here's a list of some helpful documentation for various OS's
Painless Debian
GNU/Linux by Stephen van Egmond
Official
Debian GuideRedHatMandrakeSuSESecurity Information
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:
Securing and Optimizing Linux - version 2.0Jon
Griffin's notesLinux Administrators
Security GuideInstallation
of a Secure WebserverBruce
Schneier's Crypto-Gram, especially The
security patch treadmill and Monitoring First.Resources
Here are some resources that OpenACS users have found useful.
BooksPhilip
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)
Running
LinuxLearning
Gnu EmacsLinux
in a NutshellWeb SitesThe UNIX
Reference DeskThe Linux Documentation
ProjectLPI
certification exam preps - A series of articles from
IBM developerworks on basic and intermediate Linux skills
(requires registration)
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