Installation


This documentation is meant for installation of the OpenOLAT 9.0.x pre-compiled binary as war-file. If you want to use the newest daily builds, go to the mercurial repository and download and compile OpenOLAT yourself.

The following steps should get you a working OpenOLAT with a basic configuration. The how-to is mostly based on Ubuntu Server 12 LTS with tomcat7 from repository.

If you encounter any problems ask other OpenOLAT-users on the mailinglist, see www.openolat.org.


1. Prepare your system (based on a Linux environment)

a) install tomcat / jre.

You can use a standard Tomcat-application server that comes with your operating system (or download from http://tomcat.apache.org/download-70.cgi) for OpenSuSE, you can do a "sudo zypper in tomcat6 tomcat6-admin-webapps tomcat6-webapps"

Recommendation: JDK 1.7, Tomcat 7

b) mysql

you will need a running mysql-server. Either use your distro repositories or go to http://www.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/

Recommendation: MySQL 5.5 (MySQL 5.1 has severe performance penalties as OpenOLAT uses complex views) c) Optional: it may be needed that you assign more memory to your tomcat, as your OpenOLAT might crash with too less memory.

edit /etc/tomcat6/tomcat6.conf and add or modify "CATALINA_OPTS=-Xmx512m"


2. get OpenOLAT release

Download the war-file with stable OpenOLAT

http://www.openolat.org/downloads.html

rename to openolat.war or whatever context you want to run OpenOLAT with.


3. prepare directory to persist OpenOLAT userdata:

mkdir -p /opt/openolat/olatdata

give permissions to tomcat user

sudo chown -R tomcat:tomcat /opt/openolat/


4. deploy OpenOLAT

a) use tomcat-manager application, access it by http://localhost:8080/manager/html

make sure you can login to it. Else follow the informations in the error-page.

b) upload your war-file in "WAR file to deploy"

Note in Tomcat 7 you might have to increase the multipart-configuration in the manager web.xml file (tomcat7/webapps/manager/WEB-INF/web.xml)


5. Do OpenOLAT settings

a) prepare olat.local.properties, see http://hg.openolat.org/openolat90/file/tip/olat.local.properties.sample

As long as you keep the proposed settings, you won't need to change the file content. Else use your favourite editor to change it. Note that the olat.local.properties.sample from the repository should match the properties in your release, thus using the tip might not be the right version. If usure, use a copy of the olat.properties from your war file.

cd /opt/openolat
curl http://hg.openolat.org/openolat90/raw-file/tip/olat.local.properties.sample > olat.local.properties

Alternative:

cd /opt/openolat
unzip -p openolat.war WEB-INF/classes/serviceconfig/olat.properties > olat.local.properties

b) symlink to them,

sudo ln -s /opt/openolat/olat.local.properties /usr/share/tomcat6/webapps/openolat/WEB-INF/classes/olat.local.properties

c) allow following symlinks, so you can keep your olat.local.properties even after updates of OpenOLAT

in /etc/tomcat6/context.xml

change "<Context>" to "<Context allowLinking="true">"


6. setup database.

a) you could use the helper-script in http://hg.openolat.org/openolat90/raw-file/tip/scripts/dbAndUserSetup.sh

curl http://hg.openolat.org/openolat90/raw-file/tip/scripts/dbAndUserSetup.sh > dbAndUserSetup.sh
chmod +x dbAndUserSetup.sh
./dbAndUserSetup.sh

enter correct values in olat.local.properties should you have choosen others than "openolat" for database name, user and password

b) import initial database. Replace "mysql" with "postgresql" or "oracle"

cd /opt/openolat
unzip -p openolat.war WEB-INF/classes/database/mysql/setupDatabase.sql > setupDatabase.sql

enter "openolat" or choosen database-password for user openolat when asked:

mysql -u openolat -p openolat < setupDatabase.sql


7. start (or restart) tomcat to also start your OpenOLAT

sudo /etc/init.d/tomcat6 restart


8. Login to your own OpenOLAT

visit http://localhost:8080/openolat/

username: administrator
password: openolat

enjoy and have fun!

Please let us know your ideas and comments on the mailinglist, any bug reports on jira.openolat.org