Open edX installation and configuration

The educational technology and digital learning wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search

This article or section is currently under construction

In principle, someone is working on it and there should be a better version in a not so distant future.
If you want to modify this page, please discuss it with the person working on it (see the "history")

Introduction

According to the [homepage], “The Open edX platform is a free--and open source--course management system (CMS) that was originally developed by edX. The Open edX platform is used all over the world to host Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) as well as smaller classes and training modules.”

The following content will apply to a May 2018 Ginko 2-4 installation on Ubuntu 16LTS. The Eucalyptus (2017) was described here.

See also:

Installation of the Bitnami stack

There are many different ways to install and run an edX server.

As of March 31 2017, we managed to install a Bitnami stack as described below. As of Jan 2018 This is outdated !

We got it from here:

Log onto your server machine and use something like: 

wget https://bitnami.com/redirect/to/193216/bitnami-edx-ginkgo.2-4-linux-x64-installer.run

We also suggest to read the official documentation of the Bitnami stack

Installation of a test system under Ubuntu 16

Like for Eucalyptus, there are small glitches, e.g. in terminal mode, the installation script got stuck after reaching 100%. Or maybe there was some extra installation without providing any feedback that it was doing so and I should have waited more (I did wait 3 minutes).

There are display problems with the X version (I wonder when programmers will learn that people actually do use high resolution screens and have been for the last bloody 6 years) and the dialogue is not exactly the same.

You also could provide the installation script with paramaters. This could help doing a reinstallation. Use "--help" to find out.

Overview

If you have free access to a server machine, the easiest method is probably installing the "bitnami" stack (README.txt file. It will install a complete independent software pack in a separate directory including web servers, database servers, several programming languages, etc.

If your machine already runs web servers, data base servers, etc. it will use other ports. From the README file: “The default listening port for Apache is 8080, for Elasticsearch 9300, for Memcached 11211, for MongoDB 27017, for MySQL is 3306, for RabbitMQ 5672, for Open edX XQueue 18040 and 18010 for Open edX CMS. If those ports are already in use by other applications, you will be prompted for alternate ports to use.” This does of course require that you allow that...

Summary of ports that must be openend or can remain local (user installation for a system with an existing LAMP/Java stack, changed apache default from 8080 to 8000)

PORTS used by edX standard and custom installations (reused from the old Eucalyptus installation)
Service system default ports default user install

ports

our user install our root install

(machine already had a LAMP stack)

requires open firewall
mysql_port 3306 3307 3307 3307
smtp_port 587 587 587 587
apache_server_port 80 8080 8000 81 x
apache_server_ssl_port 443 8443 8443 443 x
mongodb_port 27017 27017 27017
elasticsearch_port 9200 9200 9200
elasticsearch_node_port 9300 9300 9300
rabbitmq_server_port 5672 5672 5672
rabbitmq_management_port 15672 15672 15672
Open edX XQueue 18040 18040 18040 x
Open edX CMS 18010 18010 18010 x

installation with root privileges

sudo su
ufw allow 81/tcp
ufw allow 443/tcp
ufw reload
./bitnami-edx-eucalyptus.3-0-linux-x64-installer.run

 // kill temp file from user installation
 rm -r /tmp/mako_lms

Now exit and exit, log into the server with X enabled if you prefer the installation popup window, e.g. 

ssh your.machine -XY

Below is a slightly censored transcript of the installation dialog. I basically used default values. 

 sudo ./bitnami-edx-eucalyptus.3-0-linux-x64-installer.run 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to the Open edX powered by Bitnami Setup Wizard.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Select the components you want to install; clear the components you do not want 
to install. Click Next when you are ready to continue.

Open edX : Y (Cannot be edited)

Demo course for Open edX [Y/n] :y
Is the selection above correct? [Y/n]: y

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Installation folder

Please, choose a folder to install Open edX powered by Bitnami
Select a folder [/opt/edx-ginkgo.2-4]: 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Create Admin account

Open edX powered by Bitnami admin user creation

Your real name [User Name]: Daniel K. Schneider

Email Address [user@example.com]: 

Login [user]: admin

Password :
Please confirm your password :
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Web Server Port

Choose a port that is not currently in use, such as port 81.
Apache Web Server Port [81]: 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
MySQL Information

Please enter your MySQL database information:

Choose a port that is not currently in use, such as port 3307.
MySQL Server port [3307]: 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The hostname that will be used to create internal URLs. If this value is 
incorrect, you may be unable to access your Open edX installation from other 
computers.

Hostname [127.0.1.1]: xxxxxxx.unige.ch

Do you want to configure mail support? [y/N]: y

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configure SMTP Settings

This is required so your application can send notifications via email.
Default email provider:

[1] GMail
[2] Custom
Please choose an option [1] : 2

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Configure SMTP Settings

This data is stored in the application configuration files and may be visible to 
others. For this reason, it is recommended that you do not use your personal 
account credentials.

Username []: 

Password :
Re-enter :
SMTP Host [xxxxxxxx.unige.ch]: 

SMTP Port [587]: 

Secure connection

[1] None
[2] SSL
[3] TLS
Please choose an option [1] : 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Setup is now ready to begin installing Open edX powered by Bitnami on your 
computer.
outlook
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]: 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please wait while Setup installs Open edX powered by Bitnami on your computer.

 Installing
 0% ______________ 50% ______________ 100%
 ########################################

After the script shows claims it is done (see the 100% above), it is not and you should wait for a long time (maybe 15 minutes!) before you abort. In the terminal version, there is no feedback that the system is installing. The "installing progress" bar above only shows the first "unpacking" part if I understood right.

If you want to redo the installation with the X popup (I did that since I hit ctrl-c too early, see above). 

* Hit CTRL-C
* Make sure that X can display on your screen (else redo the "terminal" installation, and this time: WAIT !)
* sudo rm -r /opt/edx-ginkgo.2-4/

Create a shortcut

We suggest creating the following symbolic link: 

sudo ln -s /opt/edx-ginkgo.2-4/ /edx

That way it's a bit easier to type script names, e.g. the frequently used 

sudo /edx/ctlscript.sh restart

To start/stop the server

You can use the included ctlscript.sh utility that sits in the top-level directory, e.g. /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0 

sudo ./ctlscript.sh start|stop|restart

EdX will be available on the selected port, e.g. 

http://yourserver_ip_or_name:81
- or -
http://yourserver_ip_or_name:8080

Again, if this does not work from your client machine, adapt the firewall settings (see above)

edX administration panel

Initial Configuration - get the admin console working

(from the Eucalyptus installation - not yet updated since one also can use the web console)

By default, anyone now can require an account and will get it. This may attract spammers.

After login into the system you cannot do anything, except signing up for the demo class and configuring the admin profile. You can configure edX through the http://youredx:port/admin URL.

There are three ways to use the admin console:

(1) Log into the admin console on localhost or via edx-studio 

http://localhost:81/admin
The admin console is available on the localhost, which is really bad news if you cannot run an Xserver on your client machine. If you do happen to have a client linux machine (I do) then you can run firefox on the server machine. Connect to the server with the -XY option !!
ssh your_server -XY
sudo apt-get install firefox

Now your freaky Ubuntu will not run the firefox you just installed, but a copy of the one you already may have running on your local machine. Type: 

firefox --new-instance

Open http://localhost:8000/admin and enjoy the difficult editing over a remote X connection.

Alternatively, you can access the admin console through the same port as edx studio.

(2) Using a terminal web client

Instead of running a web browser over an X connection, you also can use a terminal browser, E.g. 

sudo apt-get install lynx
lynx http://localhost:81/admin

You will see many configuration items grouped into categories. Each item can be edited in three ways:

  • Clicking on the item
  • Add
  • Change (same as clicking on item)

(3) Create an ssh tunnel

You may have to give the full server name. Example:

  • Source port: 81
  • Destination: your_full_server_name:81

Email configuation

It is quite important that your MOOC can send emails, at least for account confirmation.

There are two methods:

  • Use the google SMTP using a Google Account as sender
  • Configure a local smtp server.

Sometimes local STMP servers use restrictions, talk to your system administrator. Typically, you should edit the 4 configuration files in apps/edx/conf and use settings like this: 

   "EMAIL_BACKEND": "django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend",
   "EMAIL_HOST_USER": "USER@YOUR_MAILDOMAIN.domain",
   "EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD": "XXXXXXX",
   "EMAIL_HOST": "your_outgoing_mail_server.YOUR_DOMAIN.domain",
   "EMAIL_PORT": 587,
   "EMAIL_USE_TLS": true,

Make sure that (a) your user exists, that (b) settings are correct and (c) that you are allowed to send mail from a portal.

If the email is not working, you can still explorer edX for testing, i.e. you can manually create accounts and then send the passwords to your student population. For people who signed up but did not get any email, you could explore the Students section in the admin console. E.g. by clicking on Registration objects in Registration you could retrieve an activation key.

The environment

Since you installed a complete stack that includes everthing edX needs, you will have to be careful when executing python scripts, do updates and so forth. Command line scripts should be called via 

/opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/bin/python.edxapp
and not you standard python !

Otherwise consider something like this (not tested): 

sudo /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/use_edx 
sudo source /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/scripts/edxapp_env

Security

The manuals and the admin console strongly suggest to do the following. We quote:

Security warning for Open edX

Running Open edX in production without enabling code jail is extremely dangerous, puts your student's data at risk, and is not recommended. You can set it up following the steps of this page.

Install AppArmor CodeJail

(1) Read How to install CodeJail Sandbox? (Bitnami). For a root install, the instructions in the Bitname page (just above) seem to be correct, but some appear to be already done.

(2) Already there (?): 

sudo apt-get install apparmor
sudo addgroup sandbox
sudo adduser --disabled-login sandbox --ingroup sandbox

(3) After checking the above, continue and create a /etc/sudoers.d/01-sandbox file with the following contents. Make bloody damn sure that the path are ok, before you save the file. A single mistake in a single line will block your system. If that happens type su, enter the root password (not yours), then edit and uncomment all lines with #. Then restart with sudo. 

sudo visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/01-sandbox

File contents: 

daemon ALL=(sandbox) SETENV:NOPASSWD:/opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/venvs/edxapp-sandbox/bin/python
daemon ALL=(sandbox) SETENV:NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/find
daemon ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:/usr/bin/pkill

(4) Create/Edit /etc/apparmor.d/opt.bitnami.apps.edx.venvs.edxapp-sandbox.bin.python 

sudo touch /etc/apparmor.d/opt.bitnami.apps.edx.venvs.edxapp-sandbox.bin.python

with the following contents: 

#include <tunables/global>
#include <tunables/global>

/opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/venvs/edxapp-sandbox/bin/python {
    #include <abstractions/base>
    #include <abstractions/python>

    /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/venvs/edxapp-sandbox/** mr,
    # If you have code that the sandbox must be able to access, add lines
    # pointing to those directories:
    /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/edx-platform/common/lib/sandbox-packages/** r,
    /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/python/lib/python2.7/** r,

    /tmp/codejail-*/ rix,
    /tmp/codejail-*/** wrix,
}

(5) Add this to apparmor_parser 

sudo apparmor_parser /etc/apparmor.d/opt.bitnami.apps.edx.venvs.edxapp-sandbox.bin.python
sudo installdir/ctlscript.sh restart apache

Configuration

Configuring edX can be fairly confusing to a novice. So far I identified three different interfaces

(1) EdX can be configured from the administration console which by default only runs on the server machine (localhost). E.g. if the edX server runs on port 81 (yours may run under 8080), then: 

http://localhost:81/admin

(2) You also can and must edit configuration files that sit in the ./apps/edx/conf directory (see below for an example)

(3) You can enter command line instructions that sit in the /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/edx-platform directory, e.g. 

cd /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/edx-platform

Let us recall that you must launch the scripts with the python stack distributed. To do so, instead of just typing something like python manage.py, you will have to type /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/bin/python.edxapp manage.py or if you got your symbolic link /edx/apps/edx/bin/python.edxapp manage.py

List available commands: 

sudo /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms --settings aws help

Once you understood that principle, it still will be difficult to get anything done.

User management

By default, anyone can sign up as a simple user. This can be a source for spamming and should be further analyzed....

Creating a user with admin tools

The web interface for administrators (http://localhost:81/admin) allows to add users and to make the active.

Under site administration:

  • Authentication and Authorization -> Users
  • The same admin interface section also allows to change various permissions, i.e. allow someone to become staff (being able to use this interface) or become superuser. Staff and superuser is not the same as being an instructor for a class.

Alternatively, the following command line script creates a new superuser according some source on the web (verify !!!) 

sudo /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.edxapp lms manage_user staff staff@example.com --staff --superuser --settings=aws

Administration console for approving course creation

E.g. to find it, go to edx-studio, edit the URL to add admin</admin>. Then either find the course create section or add course_creators/coursecreator/ to the URL.

Restrict emails to certain domains

cd ./apps/edx/conf/
# backup the files
sudo cp lms.env.json lms.env.json.OLD
sudo cp cms.env.json cms.env.json.OLD

In each of the files you could a line at the end that restricts registration to certain domains. Read this.

Example restring registration to University of Geneva emails (the regexp actually also would allow for subdomains like tecfa.unige.ch, which we don't have anymore). 

REGISTRATION_EMAIL_PATTENRS_ALLOWED" : ["^.*@(.*\\.)?unige\\.ch$"]

Course creation rights

By default, any registered user has access to edx-studio and will be allowed to create a course. You should change this, read Controlling Course Creation Rights

There are two options, pick either one, but not both.

Option one: Disable non-staff users from creating courses

  • Edit file apps/edx/edx-platform/cms/envs/common.py and add the following DISABLE_COURSE_CREATION : True to features
 FEATURES {
    .............
    'DISABLE_COURSE_CREATION' : True,
    ...........................
 }

Option two: Create a course creation group. Only members of that group will be allowed to create courses

  • Edit file apps/edx/edx-platform/cms/envs/common.py and change False to True
 FEATURES {
    'ENABLE_CREATOR_GROUP' : True,
 }

In both cases you will have to update the database (we believe, needs to be verified !) 

#go to edx installation directory
cd edx
#go to plaform directory
cd apps/edx/edx-platform
# update, (/edx is a symlink to /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0)
sudo -u www-data /edx/apps/edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py cms syncdb --migrate --settings aws --migrate –noinput
# Reboot
sudo /edx/ctlscript.sh restart

SSO from other services overview

edX provides a number of possibilities for single sign-on, e.g.

  • Oauth (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn)
  • SAML (also known as Shiboleth) - used by many universities, e.g. the Swiss higher education network.
  • LTI (see the LTI section) - An e-learning standard allowing one platform to send users to another platform

SAML configuration

SAML is popular with Universities, read

To make this work you first need to enable third party auth support.

Edit 

/opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/conf/lms.env.json

Change from false to true: 

"FEATURES": {
       .....
        "ENABLE_COMBINED_LOGIN_REGISTRATION": true,
        "ENABLE_THIRD_PARTY_AUTH": true,

Restart the server. If you did this right, then you will see backend name: tpa-saml in the Add Provider Configuration:

To add a provider: 

Third_Party_Auth › Provider Configuration (SAML IdPs) › Add Provider Configuration (SAML IdP)
  • Fill in the name of your provider institution
  • Tick skip registration form and skip email verification (if you trust the provider)
  • Fill in Idp slug (short name), Entity ID and Metadata source.

Save.

The provider now should appear in http://localhost:81/admin/third_party_auth/samlproviderconfig/. However it may not be enabled. In order to make this work, you may have to get in touch with your SAML provider.

LTI

edX is both an LTI provider and consumer, read Open edX as an LTI Tool Provider.

(1) Edit edx/app/edxapp/lms.env.json 

"FEATURES" : {
    ...
    "ENABLE_LTI_PROVIDER": true
}

(2) Run database migrations as root 

cd /opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/apps/edx/edx-platform
../bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms syncdb --settings aws

You should see at the end something like: 

Running migrations:
 Rendering model states... DONE
 Applying lti_provider.0001_initial... OK
 Applying lti_provider.0002_auto_20160325_0407... O

(3) Restart the LMS server 

/opt/edx-eucalyptus.3-0/ctlscript.sh

A connector with Moodle does not seem to be working yet (March 2017).

To add an LTI consumer, e.g. Moodle:

  • In the LTI Provider section, next to LTI Consumers select Add.
  • Add a consumer name, e.g. My_Moodle
  • Keep the automatically generated keys.
  • Save

To allow students from your Moodle to log into edX:

  • Third_Party_Auth section -> Provider Configuration (LTI), select Add (or click on Provider configuration, then add ...)
  • Then what ? Moodle does not seem to provide LTI consuming at the systems level...

Bulk email from courses

By default, sending email from courses to its participants is not allowed.

To change this, you can use the administration console: Bulk_Email

  • The tool Bulk_Email › Bulk email flags > Add : Tick both "enabled" to allow bulk email and "require course email auth" to allow only for specific courses.
  • Then allow for specific classes, and set the parameters in Bulk_Email › Course authorizations

Course Talk

Course talk is the name of an online service for rating courses.

You can configure a widget that allow users to rater your courses. Read 4.6. Adding the CourseTalk Widget

  • In the navigation pane of the admin interface, locate Coursetalk, and then select Course talk widget configurations.


EdX Studio Home page just after installing (Bitnami Eucalyptus 3.0 version, April 2017)

Creating a course

See: Open edX


Links

Official documentation

The documentation is spread over several places.

  • Slack archive (even if you do not believe that knowledge should be conversational ...)

Bitnami documentation
Retrieved from "https://edutechwiki.unige.ch/mediawiki/index.php?title=Open_edX_installation_and_configuration&oldid=67768"