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.. IVLE - Informatics Virtual Learning Environment
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Copyright (C) 2007-2009 The University of Melbourne
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.. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
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(at your option) any later version.
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.. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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GNU General Public License for more details.
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.. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
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along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
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Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
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Given versions are those on which IVLE is known to work; earlier versions
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might work too. Debian/Ubuntu package names are given after the name of the
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.. If this list changes, you also need to change the list below, and
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the list in bin/ivle-dev-setup.
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* Ubuntu 8.04 or later (other distros should work with some tweaking, but are untested)
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* Apache 2.x (``apache2``) with modules:
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+ mod_python (``libapache2-mod-python``)
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+ mod_dav_svn and mod_authz_svn (``libapache2-svn``)
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* Python 2.5 (``python2.5``) or 2.6 (``python2.6``) with modules:
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+ cjson (``python-cjson``)
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+ ConfigObj (``python-configobj``)
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+ docutils (``python-docutils``)
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+ epydoc (``python-epydoc``)
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+ FormEncode (``python-formencode``)
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+ Genshi (``python-genshi``)
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+ psycopg2 (``python-psycopg2``)
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+ pysvn (``python-svn``)
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+ Storm (``python-storm``)
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* jQuery (``libjs-jquery``)
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* PostgreSQL 8.3 or later (``postgresql``)
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* Subversion (``subversion``)
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* debootstrap (``debootstrap``)
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* GCC and related build machinery (``build-essential``)
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Master versus slave servers
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===========================
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IVLE is normally deployed in a cluster of several machines, split into
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two different roles: master and slave.
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There must be exactly one master server per cluster. The master normally
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runs the PostgreSQL database server, the Subversion server, and the IVLE User
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Management Server (``ivle-usrmgt-server``). It might also export shared data
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directories to the slaves over NFS.
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There may be any number of slaves in a cluster. They run the IVLE web
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application, which also starts console host processes. Each slave makes use
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of the shared services on the master.
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For a small instance a slave may be run on the same machine as the master.
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This is the setup described on this page.
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Installing from a Debian package
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================================
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Installing from source
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======================
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When setting up a development IVLE environment on Ubuntu 9.04 or later,
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there are scripts to automate most of the process. First get and extract
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a release, or check out the latest code from the bzr branch: ::
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This will create a new directory, ``ivle``, containing a pristine
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source tree. The remaining steps assume that you are in this new
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The ``ivle-dev-setup`` script will configure PostgreSQL, Apache, IVLE
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and the filesystem to cooperate, getting you most of the way to a
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working system in just one step: ::
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This reconfigures parts of your system, and has the potential to
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break other applications using Apache or PostgreSQL. It may also
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fail to execute if you have existing incompatible configurations
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This may take a few minutes, and will ask you to confirm installation
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of the dependency packages.
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Upon completion, you must build a self-contained jail in which to run
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untrusted user code. ``ivle-dev-setup`` will have configured most of
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the necessary settings, but you may wish to use a local Ubuntu mirror
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to improve speed or minimise download costs. If you don't wish to use
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a special mirror, you may omit the first step. ::
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sudo ivle-config --jail/mirror http://url.to.mirror/ubuntu
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sudo ivle-buildjail -r
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``ivle-buildjail`` will download a large volume of package data --
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potentially some hundreds of megabytes.
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``ivle-buildjail`` will download, unpack and install a minimal Ubuntu
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system and configure it for IVLE usage. This could take a while.
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Once the jail has been successfully built, IVLE is up and running,
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but with no user accounts or other data in place. For development
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or demonstration purposes, sample data (including fictitious users,
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subjects, and projects) can be loaded.
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For other environments, it may be more appropriate to start with an
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empty database and just create users as required.
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To load the sample data: ::
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sudo ivle-loadsampledata examples/db/sample.sql
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If you answer 'yes' to the ``ivle-loadsampledata`` prompt, any
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existing data in your IVLE database will be **permanently
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... or to add a new admin user: ::
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sudo ivle-adduser --admin -p password username 'Full Name'
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You should then be able to browse to http://ivle.localhost/, and
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log in with username ``admin`` and password ``password``, or the
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username and password that you gave to ``ivle-adduser``.
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If the automatic installation scripts do not work, or if you want more
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control over the whole process, these manual steps are probably for
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you. But you need not read this section at all if you were able to log
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in after following the steps above.
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.. If this list changes, you also need to change the list above, and
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the command in bin/ivle-dev-setup.
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If you want to grab all of the required packages in one command, use::
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sudo apt-get install apache2 libapache2-mod-python libapache2-svn \
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python2.6 python-cjson python-configobj python-docutils python-epydoc \
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python-formencode python-genshi python-psycopg2 python-svn python-storm \
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libjs-jquery postgresql subversion debootstrap rsync build-essential
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While installing from a distribution package is often a better idea for
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users, developers will need to install from a plain source tree.
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To get the tree, either grab and extract a release tarball, or get the
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very latest code using bzr: ::
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You should then change into the new source directory.
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As IVLE needs to compile some binaries, you must first build, then
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sudo ./setup.py install
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Unlike the package, you will have to manually set up the database and
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First, it is recommended that you create a separate database user for IVLE.
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You may use any name for the user. ::
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sudo -u postgres createuser ivleuser # Answer 'n' to all questions
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sudo -u postgres psql -c "ALTER USER ivleuser WITH ENCRYPTED PASSWORD 'ivle-password';"
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Now, you must create a PostgreSQL database, and populate it with the
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IVLE schema. You may use any name for the database (here we use ``ivle``). ::
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sudo -u postgres createdb -O ivleuser ivle
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sudo -u postgres createlang plpgsql ivle
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psql -h localhost -W ivle ivleuser < userdb/users.sql
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The configuration wizard - ``ivle-config`` - will ask you a series of
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questions. You should give the database username and password as configured
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above. Apart from database settings, the defaults should be correct
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for a development system. If deploying IVLE properly - particularly on
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multiple nodes - several options will need to be changed. Watching
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.. Note: Place here only the configuration required to get the system
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installed and running. Any further configuration should go in config.rst.
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IVLE needs a directory hierarchy in which to store filesystem data, which
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by default lives in ``/var/lib/ivle``. Create it now. ::
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sudo ivle-createdatadirs
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Configuring the jail environment
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--------------------------------
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You will require a self-contained jail environment in which to safely
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execute student code.
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Before you can actually build the jail, a few configuration options are
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needed. Open up ``/etc/ivle/ivle.conf``, and find the ``[jail]`` section
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(**not** the ``[[jails]]`` section).
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suite = jaunty # Replace this with the codename of your Ubuntu release.
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mirror = http://url.to.archive/mirror # Replace with a fast Ubuntu mirror.
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extra_packages = python-configobj, python-svn, python-cjson
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.. TODO: Move this around a bit, as the config options required differ for
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the packaged version.
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Now we can actually build the jail. The creation process basically downloads
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a minimal Ubuntu system and installs it in ``/var/lib/ivle/jails/__base__``.
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Note that this could download a couple of hundred megabytes. ::
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sudo ivle-buildjail -r
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IVLE makes use of two Apache virtual hosts: one for the application itself,
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and one for the Subversion services. There are example configuration files
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in ``examples/config/apache.conf`` and ``examples/config/apache-svn.conf``,
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which will run IVLE at http://ivle.localhost/.
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On a Debian or Ubuntu system, just copy those two files into
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``/etc/apache2/sites-available`` under appropriate names (eg. ``ivle`` and
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``ivle-svn``). Then you need to activate them: ::
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sudo a2ensite ivle-svn
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sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 reload
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Configuring hostname resolution
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--------------------------------
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All of IVLE's hostnames need to be resolvable from the local system. For a
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production environment, this would be done in DNS. For a development system,
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this is usually done in ``/etc/hosts``. Add this line to that file: ::
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127.0.1.1 ivle.localhost public.ivle.localhost svn.ivle.localhost
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Code running inside the jail environment also needs to be able to resolve
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those names. Add, to ``/var/lib/ivle/jails/__base_build__/etc/hosts``: ::
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127.0.1.1 svn.ivle.localhost
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Then refresh the active copy of the jail: ::
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Configuring the user management server
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--------------------------------------
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You need to have the IVLE user management server (``usrmgt-server``) running
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for many parts of IVLE to operate properly, so it should be configured to
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start on boot. There is an example init script in
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``examples/config/usrmgt-server.init``. For Debian or Ubuntu, copy it to
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``/etc/init.d/ivle-usrmgt-server``. Start it now, and set it to start
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sudo /etc/init.d/ivle-usrmgt-server start
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sudo update-rc.d ivle-usrmgt-server defaults 99
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Creating the initial user
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-------------------------
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The final step in getting a usable IVLE set up is creating a user. You'll
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probably want admin privileges - if not, drop the ``--admin``. ::
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sudo ivle-adduser --admin -p password username 'Full Name'
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You should then be able to browse to http://ivle.localhost/, and
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log in with that username and password.
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*Alternatively*, you may wish to import the IVLE sample data, for a complete
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working IVLE environment (not for production use). See :ref:`sample-data`.
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For more advanced configuration, see :ref:`Configuring IVLE
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<ref-configuring-ivle>`.