Sakai 2.4.x System Administrator’s Guide

June 12th, 2006 7th Sakai Conference - Amsterdam

Sakai 2.4.x System Administrator’s Guide

Tony Atkins<[email protected]>

7th Sakai ConferenceAmsterdam, NetherlandsJune12th, 2007

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License


Introduction

• What is the 2.4.x Admin Guide?– A collection of tips for administrators to assist in

moving Sakai from an out-of-the-box installation to production.

– An evolving document reflecting the diverse practices of admins running 2.4 in production.


Prerequisites

• The guide assumes that you’ve completed a full installation (preferably from source).

• For help in getting to that point, see the Sakai 2.4 Install Guide or the Developer’s Walkthrough Guide, both in Confluence.


The sakai.properties file

• Central text file used to override configuration defaults.• Controls the behaviour of tools and components.• Stored in TOMCAT_HOME/sakai• Simple Examples:

sampleboolean=truesamplestring=set to a string value with one or more spaces, ending in a new line

• Hierarchical Property Example:sampleproperty.count=3sampleproperty.1=peassampleproperty.2=porridgesampleproperty.3=hot


sakai.properties (continued)

• Start with reference/docs/sakai.properties• At a minimum, review and edit:

– Branding– Database Settings– Content Settings– Email Settings

6th Sakai Conference - Atlanta, GeorgiaDecember 12th, 2006


Config Viewer Tool

• A tool to display settings and usage information.• For more information, see the tech demo on

Thursday from 14:05-14:35


Branding and Identity

• Branding options for sakai.properties (text):– ui.institution

The name of the organization associated with this Sakai installation (such as "My University").

– ui.service The local brand for Sakai within the institution. Among other things, this text is displayed at the root of the bread crumb bar that appears within Sakai.

– serverId A unique identifier for the particular application server Sakai is running on. This is used to distinguish nodes in a clustered environment from one another.

– serverUrl The full service URL for this installation of Sakai

– serverName The server name for this installation of Sakai (this should match the value for serverUrl).


Skinning

• All style sheets and images are stored in a skin directory under webapps/library/skin

• To get started, copy one of the bundled skins to a new directory name and make your changes

• The default skin and site icons are controlled through sakai.properties:– skin.default

The default skin to use. This directory must exist in webapps/library/skin/.

– iconName, iconURLs, iconSkinsTogether make it possible for users to select a skin for their site.

• For more info, visit:

http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/oA8


Database Configuration and Tuning

• Database settings:# MySQL settings - make sure to alter as appropriate [email protected]=mysql [email protected]=com.mysql.jdbc.Driver hibernate.dialect=org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect [email protected]=jdbc:mysql://127.0.0.1:3306/sakai?useUnicode=true&characterEncoding=UTF-8 [email protected]=show variables like 'version' [email protected]=TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED

[email protected][email protected]=********

• Uncomment the appropriate block for your database• Edit the username and password properties


Binary Content and Filesystem Settings

• Filesystem settings:– [email protected]

The directory in which content will be stored in the filesystem. Leave unset to store in the db.

– [email protected] comma-delimited list of subdirectories under the above with NO SPACES.

– [email protected] site quota, in bytes, with no commas.

– convertToFile@org.sakaiproject.content.api.ContentHostingServiceUse to migrate content from the db to the filesystem. One way.

– [email protected] directory in which site archives are stored.


Email Configuration

• sakai.properties entries:

# enable James smtp.enabled=true # configuring the port on which James listens. smtp.port=8025 # James will only accept messages for this hostname serverName=service.my.edu # You'll get more meaningful feedback if you configure serverIDserverID=node.my.edu

• James or another MTA needs to listen on port 25• Admin Guide contains information on integrating with Postfix and

Sendmail• Admin Guide has tips on using telnet to troubleshoot


Configuring Sakai from within the Web Application

• Changing the Admin password• Adding Administrative Users• Manually adding a Tool (stealthed or

otherwise) to a site• Permissions


JVM Tuning

• Default JVM options are not adequate to run Sakai.• At a minimum, you need to increase the Heap and

PermGen size, by editing TOMCAT_HOME/setenv.bat (or .sh) and adding something like:– Windows (all one line):

set JAVA_OPTS=-server -XX:+UseParallelGC -Xmx768m -XX:MaxPermSize=160m -Djava.awt.headless=true

– Unix (all one line):export JAVA_OPTS="-server -XX:+UseParallelGC -Xmx768m -XX:MaxPermSize=160m -Djava.awt.headless=true"


Load Balancing and Scaling

• Approaches to server scaling:– Standalone– Thin Client– Load Balanced Thin Client– Thicker Client– Big Iron


Standalone server configuration

Server

Apache*

Tomcat

Database File Storage*


Thin client configuration

Server

Apache*

Tomcat


Server Server*


Load balanced thin client

ServerApache*

Tomcat


Server Server*

ServerApache*

Tomcat

ServerApache*

Tomcat

Load Balancer


Thicker client


Server Server*

ServerApache

Tomcat

Load Balancer

Tomcat

ServerApache

Tomcat Tomcat

ServerApache

Tomcat Tomcat


“Big Iron”


Server Server*

Virtual ServerApache

Load Balancer

Tomcat

Virtual ServerApache

Tomcat Tomcat

Virtual Server

Tomcat

“Big Iron” Server


Scaling and Tuning

• Estimate Load• Establish Metrics (load level, response time, etc.)• Test Configuration (Jmeter, Load Runner)• Analyze• Revise Configuration• Repeat• Monitor once you move to production• More Info:

– https://content.cc.vt.edu/confluence/display/DEV/Tomcat+JVM+tuning+tips


Advanced Tomcat (and Apache) Configuration

• Redirecting tomcat traffic to the portal• Configuring tomcat to use APR• Configuring tomcat to handle SSL• Configuring tomcat to require SSL• Configuring Apache to proxy connections for

tomcat using mod_jk and mod_proxy


Advanced Configuration Topics

• Web Services• Quartz• Authorization/Authentication Providers

– LDAP– CAS– Shibboleth/Guanxi


Verifying and Troubleshooting Your Sakai Installation

• As with any subsequent change, it is critical to test your initial Sakai configuration

• QA test cases• Automated testing• Troubleshooting/Logging


Operations Best Practices

• Maintenance Schedules• Test Instance• Monitoring• Hot Deployment of Changes• Patches/SVN• Automated Deployment


Joining the Community

• Confluencehttp://confluence.sakaiproject.org/

• JIRAhttp://issues.sakaiproject.org/

• Collab Mailing Listshttp://collab.sakaiproject.org/

• Registering Your Installationhttp://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/AL


Questions?


Contact Information and Links

• [email protected]• Sakai 2.4.x Admin Guide

http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/9Z4

• Sakai 2.4.x Install Guide http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/IKQ

• SakaiPedia Admin Guidehttp://confluence.sakaiproject.org/confluence/x/WwM

• Config Viewer– More extensive demo on Thursday from 14:05-14:35– https://source.sakaiproject.org/contrib/config-viewer/

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