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Installation FAQ

­Please also consult the Installation Overview page for additional information about installing ]project-open[

  ­ ­ ­ ­ ­

General ­

 

OS Specific

For step-by-step installation guides directed towards specific platforms, choose your OS (or the most similar if yours is not listed)

 

Linux

 

VMware

­ 

Windows

Mac

General

­

­What is the best way to run ]project-open[?  Should I use VMware, a "native" install, ­hosted, or using "software as a service"? ­

Choosing the right option depends heavily on the specific needs and technical capabilities of the implementing company, there is no one "best way".

VMware

Running ]project-open[ on a virtual machine hosted on your server is one good option.  Most companies generally already have a fileserver up and functional that is integrated into a backup system.  Also the CPU's of these fileservers are most likely idle during the day due to lack of high performance demands on fileserver processers, leaving ]project-open[ plently of resources to function.   Many small companies have already effectively implemented this approach with sucess.  These companies usually forward port 80 of their aDSL routers to access the ]po[ VMware, either on port 80 (configured to run Pound by default) or directly to the AOLserver (by default on port 8000).  If the company does have a dedicated IP address, they get an account on DynDNS (free) to allow constant external access associated with a fixed DNS name.  This configuration may be the nightmare of an Internet security consultant, but AOLserver provides great protection against "script kiddy" attacks, leaving your own employees as your largest remaining security threat.  The other option is a "dedicated server" at a hosting site. For 10 concurrently active users at peak time (an organization with ~50 members) you'll need 1GB RAM, a 2GHz CPU and 20GB disk space, a recent SuSE, Fedora or CentOS system and root access in order to install the software.  We have had negative reports from virtually hosted servers, so you might be forced to use a dedicated server.

 

Advantages of VMware 

  • Cheap overhead for small companies with small amounts of users (supports up to 10 concurrent active users at a time)
  • Easiest do-it-yourself install, extensive technical knowledge is not required 
  • No-hassle install: Just run the VMware on top of your existing fileserver.
  • Access to your local fileserver - just mount the fileserver share in your Linux "fstab"
  • Unlimited storage...
  • Local backup: Backup is a real issue with hosted solutions.
  • Fast access to your files when you're in your office.

 

Disadvantages of VMware

  • Slow performance for networks with more than 10 active users. 
  • Limited bandwith (typically 512kBit/s or 256kBit/s upload of your aDSL line) for external users
  • Slight Overhead for system management and maintenance
  • Security


SaaS (Software as a Service)

We commercially offer the service detailed above for companies that wish to use ]project-open[ and not concern themselves with the technical details.  Unlimited 24-hour access (with full admin privileges) to your personalized ]project-open[ system, hosted hassle free from our dedicated servers is available on a monthly fee basis.  For more details see our commercial website .  

 

Advantages of SaaS:

  • No hassle with installation
  • System maintained and updated by us

 

However, we have just released RPM installers for Fedora, CentOS, OpenSuSE. Using these installers you should be able to install ]po[ on your web server if you really wanted to.

It's quite easy to to move a ]po[ installation from one server to another (just perform a backup - restore), so it may be a good option to start with a "hosted" or "SaaS" installation and then move it "home" server if you really see the need for it.

 

­How do I install OpenACS packages so that they work on ]project-open[?

Here is how the relationship between OpenACS and ]project-open[ works:

    * Both ]project-open[ and OpenACS (application) modules work side by side on the same OpenACS "kernel". So in general it's no problem to install new OpenACS modules in a ]po[ system. ]po[ is currently (2007-02-16) based on OpenACS 5.1.3, so please use the OpenACS modules from this version.
    * The ]po[ GUI system is different from OpenACS, and we've developed our own "master template". So in order to access a newly installed OpenACS modules you'll need to add an entry in the Admin -> Menus section to make the newly installed OpenACS module accessible from ]po[.
    * Integration with ]po[: New OpenACS modules are usually completely separate from the "]po[ world". So you have to think about ways to move information back and forth. That's usually done using database triggers or via explicit "coding".
    * ]po[ is based on a single "OpenACS Subsite". Or in other words: You can install ]po[ modules only once per server, while you can usually install multiple instances of OpenACS modules per server.

Let's take the "Calendar" as a practical example: We've just added the standard OpenACS 5.1.3 "calendar" module to our default ]po[ distribution. The module worked fine as a standalone personal calendar, but we wanted to map ]po[ events such project deadlines and tasks into the calendar. So we've created an "intranet-calendar" module that defines a menu item for "Calendar", a pluggable "calendar overview component" for the homepage, and a few database triggers so that ]po[ objects are "duplicated" as calendar-items. So the "intranet-calendar" module doesn't really add new functionality, but it provides the "glue code" to link the new module with the system and to provide end users with a pleaseant and integrated user experience.

A brief look into the source code of "intranet-calendar" will reveal to you all necessary steps for such an integration. It's just some ~500 lines of (mostly SQL) code.

How can I install ]project-open[ on my hosted ­webserver?

If you plan to run ]po[ on a shared server with your prefered ISP please consider the following:

  • The machine should run a OS that is supported by us, such as SuSE, Debian, RedHat, Ubuntu, etc.
  • Your server should have at least 512 KB RAM and 1GB of HDD
  • Depending on configuration options offered you might need to install additional software such as AOL webserver and Postgres Database.
    ­Going with a package that provides root access is less troublesome and highly recommended

Please note that ]project-open[ requires AOL Server and Postgres. It therefore requires at least a Virtual Dedicated Server. ]po[ can't be installed on Web Hosting Plans providing exclusively Apache Webserver & MySQL.

In case you do not have IT expertise to install and configure all components necessary, you might want to make use of our professional services. We can help you finding the right hosting provider / package for you and install your system on a server of you choice.

 

What are the minimum requirements for running ]project-open[ on a dedicated server?


The minimum requirement for a dedicated servers are:

  • 1GByte RAM (for 3-5 users accessing the system). My development server is running on 512MB, but that's probably too low for production use.
  • A more or less recent Pentium is OK (3 years old, single core)
  • 20GByte disk space should be OK as a minimum, assuming that you won't use the filestorage a lot. The VMware is limited to 20GByt, and many customers use that system for production
  • Bandwidth shouldn't be a problem because ]po[ pages are quite small in general. For example, it's no problem to access a ]po[ system behind a normal aDSL-Line (50kByte/s upstream speed).
  • Backup: We always perform backups at night via a cron script. Then we download these backups to a local server via RSYNC. Make sure you install a similar mechanism.

I successfully installed ]po[. What's next?

Installing ]po[ successfully in a company has to do a lot with change management. Please contact us for more material and our change management methodology (PowerPoint slides with best practices).

­

I frequently need to look at the list of "Delivered Projects" in order to create invoices. Is there a way to get there quicker then going to "Projects" and then selecting the corresponding Filters?

You can bookmark most pages in ]po[, so you may just create a shortcut in your Web Browser. This works particularly well for ListPages and reports. However, it doesn't work for pages designed to create new objects.

How do I get rid of the demo accounts on my LOGIN screen?

As for now please edit /web/projop/www/index.adp and delete the lines responsible for listing the Demo accounts.

OS Specific  

Linux

Is ]project-open[ available for Linux?

Yes, all major Linux distributions are supported. Please checkout the Download pages.

Also, there are users running ]project-open[ on Mac OS-X, *BSD, Sun Solaris, AIX. We have even heard about a port to OpenVMS...

 

VMware

Is ]project-open[ available for VMware?

Yes it is.  This is the quickest way to install ]project-open[ onto a system, and most often, the easiest way.  We recommend using either "VMware 2.X" or "VM Player", both available for download (free of charge) at the VMware website .

We have had several reports of successful installs using "VMware ESX 3.5" although it may be necessary to use the VMware converter to transform the provided image into a workable format.   

 

VMware does not boot / can not configure source image

Check your vmware settings and under the adapter settings, make sure that the "lsi logic adapter" is selected.  After making this change the system should boot fine.

Windows­

Is ]project-open[ available for Windows?

Yes, all recent Window versions (XP, 2000, 2003) are supported. ]project-open[ doesn't run on Win-95 and Win 98 though. Checkout the Windows download pages.

Can I use native PostgreSQL with Windows?

Yes you can.  Our Windows installer includes a particular version of PostgreSQL for "CygWin" (7.5.X). This version has prooved to work very well in our tests and this is the version that we are using for our internal test & development servers.

Since the version 8.0 in March 2005 there is a "native" version of PostgreSQL for Windows. This version is know to be some 30% faster then CygWin Postgres, and is supposed to be more stable in future. However, there are some issues when moving a backup dump from 7.5.x to 8.0.x, so that we won't deliver this option as part of our free Windows Installer yet. However, you can try it yourself or you can contract us to upgrade your system.

We recommend an upgrade to 8.0 on Windows for companies with more then 10 "concurrent users" (=> users that access the system _at_the_same_moment_). Apart from that we would recommend you to stay with the CygWin version that comes with the installer.

How can I migrate from Linux to WIN / from WIN to LINUX?­

If possible ensure that on both machines the same version of AOL Server and Postgres is insta­lled. For detailled installation instructions pls. see http://project-open.org/documentation/list_installers

Steps involved: 

  • Make a db backup from your current ]po[ server
  • Copy the packages folder from you productive server to the new server
  • Stop AOLserver and dump exiting database 'projop'
  • Create new db on new server and restore the backup made earlier 
  • Start AOLserver 

column_does_not_exist

I get the following error: ERROR: column/function "xxx" does not exist / invalid command name "xyz" while executing ...

Some update scripts had not been executed during an update. Search for the script that creates the column or function: 

find /web/projop/packages -type f -name 'upgr*.sql' -exec grep -il 'COLUMN_NAME/FUNCTION_NAME' {} \;

and execute it. 


 

 

I get the following error: OpenACS could not allocate a handle from database pool "pool1". 

OpenACS Installation: Error

Thank you for installing the Open Architecture Community System (OpenACS), a suite of fully-integrated enterprise-class solutions for collaborative commerce.
This is the OpenACS Installer which performs all the steps necessary to get the OpenACS Community System running on your server.

Please read the Release Notes before proceeding to better understand what is contained in this release.

The following database pools generated errors:

    * OpenACS could not allocate a handle from database pool "pool1".

Possible causes might include:

    * The database is not running.
    * The database driver has not been correctly installed.
    * The datasource or database user/password are incorrect.
    * You didn't define any database pools.

The first step involved in setting up your OpenACS installation is to configure your RDBMS, correctly install a database driver,
and configure AOLserver to use it. You can download and install the latest version of the AOLserver Oracle and PostgreSQL drivers
from the OpenACS.org Software Page.

Once you're sure everything is installed and configured correctly, restart AOLserver.

gatekeepers@openacs.org

This error indicates that the DB was not available when the OpenACS framework started. Make sure that the PostgreSQL DB is running and listening on port 5432.

­ 

 

 

Using WINDOWS:

Check if Postgres is running:
Please use CTR-ALT-DEL to start the WIN Task Manager and check under the tab "Processes" if there's at least one process "postgres.exe" listed. If so, restart ]po[ (START -> project-open -> Stop project-open / START -> project-open -> Start project-open). If you continue getting this error message check next if firewall settings prevent ]po[ from getting access to the database. By default ]po[ is connecting to the DB through port 5432. 

Open a console (START -> RUN -> cmd) and execute 
netstat -an

The output should contain one line reading: 

TCP    127.0.0.1:5432         127.0.0.1:5432         LISTENING

If there's no such connection please check your WIN error logs.

­ Using Linux: 

ps -waux | grep postmaster
should show the postmaster process. If not please see log files what PostgreSQL might have prevented from starting up.

I get the following error: Please contact your SysAdmin and tell him to change the parameter 'intranet-subsite.DefaultMaster' to '/packages/intranet-core/www/master'.

This error might occur after a CVS update. In case you don't know how to change this parameter you can try the following.
Go straight to 

     http://[SERVER]/acs-admin/apm/packages-install and update package "intranet-core"

and restart your server 

    http://[SERVER]/acs-admin/server-restart






References to this Page: en:faq_installation, en:list_faq, en:install_debian, en:install_vm, en:install_redhat, en:install_macosx Categories: FAQ (Contents), ]po[ Beginners (User Profiles), ]po[ Users (User Profiles), ]po[ Application Admins (User Profiles), ]po[ Developers (User Profiles), System Admins (User Profiles)

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