LAMS installation and configuration

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Definition

This page contains installation tips for a fresh install of LAMS. Mostly LAMS 2.2 for Solaris 10.

LAMS is a JAVA/JBOSS-based application and needs some installation skills on Windows and good installation skills for Unix.

Note: I put the legacy stuff in the discussion page, e.g. LAMS 2.1RC for Solaris

LAMS 2.2 on Solaris

Lams 2.0 was released on December 6 2006. Since then, there were very several "minor" upgrades and some of them include substantial changes. On March 2009, the current release is 2.2 and compared to 2.1. there are a whole lot of new features.

These installation notes refer mostly to the 2.2 install. Official LAMS instructions are a bit Linux centric and this is main reason why you might have a look at this. My notes also should work with older Solaris versions (just make sure to upgrade Java if needed and in this case to set the Java path) and other Unix systems.

First, read the instructions in:

Upgrading from previous versions: I always start from scratch. Since we only have our students create LAMS scenarios as exercises I had them save the zip file in their work portfolio and they could import it again (I hope). Anyhow: you might want to export all scenarios from your LAMS server as LAMS zip files (not LD) before you do a new install.

Disclaimer: I am not a good sysadmin nor is it my idea of fun. This is not a manual, but just my private installation notes I am willing to share. - Daniel K. Schneider 14:02, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I got this machine and OS:

SunOS tecfax.unige.ch 5.10 Generic_118833-17 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-V240

So, open a terminal under root ....

Download and checksum

Check the download page at LAMS. Make sure to get the right version ! Also you may have to get a patch that you will have to apply after the main install (e.g. that was the case for LAMS 2.1.1. which you had to apply on top of 2.1)

I took the lams-unix-installer-2.2.tar.gz. This would be the wrong version if you have Ubuntu. I run Ubuntu as my desktop machine and indeed life is easier on Ubuntu ....

Then you may checksum the downloaded archive. In some very rare cases there exist transmission errors or someone managed to upload a bad archive to the download server. So type:

md5sum lams-unix-installer-2.2.tar.gz 

And then compare the number that will show like this with the one on the download page:

2f29d60147bf1328d3a044a66ea8b083  lams-unix-installer-2.2.tar.gz

Prerequisite 0: Infrastructure

  • Make sure your organization doesn't stifle your creativity with Firewalls. If they do, expect a lot of extra work.
  • Also the 8080 port should be free. Some software like Skype just randomly take up ports. If you run an other server, read Changing Server Ports for LAMS
  • Hardware and OS: Any Windows, Linux, MacOS X, Solaris etc. machine will do since LAMS is programmed in JAVA. You just need some disk space, substantial memory and a not too old JAVA. Also, you may have to adapt some scripts to your special Unix brand.

Prerequisite 1: Java software

Java + ant

Solaris 10 ought to have the right Java + Ant installed. Ant is an installation program like make. Note: You need the JDK/JSE or whatever Sun decided to rename it (i.e. the compiler, not just the runtime)

Check if Java can be found, i.e. type:

java -version

... you should have java 1.5.x or better. If you don't, check the system for another java or install a new one. If you do so, make sure to specify the right path according to instructions from the LAMS install page.

I have Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_06-b05), i.e. the default thing installed in this machine. It's easy to have another Java version, but I suggest from past experience to install it somewhere else, e.g. in /usr/local.

So just for the fun of it you can get another from SUN. No links, since Sun not only changes naming of Java edition but also their web sites at regular intervals. You just have to understand that JDK "6" == JDK "1.6" and that "SDK == JDK". Do not install anything that is called "JRE". Then, you can either take the small SE version or larger EE version. Both work with JBoss. It takes some time to find the right thing. Also you won't find installation instructions on the final download screen (you have to backtrack). Branding managers and website designers at Sun should reassigned to other tasks like designing the cafeteria at the head quarters. Do not go to http://java.com but try http://java.sun.com/

In case you download something like the jdk-6u11-solaris-sparc.sh version you have to know that it will just unpack the whole thing as a subdirectory.

cd /usr/local
mv /path_where_you_put_it/jdk-6u11-solaris-sparc.sh .
chmod a+x jdk-6u11-solaris-sparc.sh
./jdk-6u11-solaris-sparc.sh
ln -s jdk1.6.0_011 jdk6
rm jdk-6u11-solaris-sparc.sh

Now you have a Java6 in the symbolic link /usr/local/jdk6. See if it works:

./jdk6/bin/java -version

Should show:

java version "1.6.0_11"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_11-b03)
Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM (build 11.0-b16, mixed mode)

Let's try installing it with this one.

Prerequisite 2: Wildfire

This is a XMPP (Jabber) chat server, that actually is called Openfire now. See:

You don't really need open/wildfire (but then your students can't chat). You also may try to use an existing server that works with LAMS. I guess that there ought to be free servers you can use.

  • LAMS folks say to install an old 2.6.2. version. Links are available from the LAMS page, you won't find it at Ignite realtime. Note: I have to see whether this is still true, but for the moment I just complied.
  • Since this server is written in Java you can take the Mac OSX and others version (i.e. a tar ball). I ran it with java 5 (Solaris 10 default java engine).

Installation steps:

1) Uncompress in /usr/local/wildfire or some other place

gtar zxf wildfire_2_6_2.tar.gz

2) Start the server with ./bin/wildfire start. You should see:

testing JVM in /usr ...
Starting wildfire
  • This is a typical startup script. You later can copy this script to /etc/init.d/ etc.

3) Configure this server through the web interface. If you are lucky you will have a web browser on your server and an X11 connection.

http://localhost:9090/ 

Else use an URL like: http://yourhost.org:9090/ Anyhow, do the config as fast as possible since you have to set passwords and stuff.

  • Use "embedded database" if you want to make the install shorter, else you can set it up with mysql

The configuration process will ask you to fill in a few forms. Just make sure that you use the right server names. You then can log as administrator and you will have access to an administration console.

  • Tick "Don't Show History" (Group Chat -> History Settings), but you can do this later

4) Test it. You may want to install a jabber client, e.g. gajim (Ubuntu users can read an article on Jabber

5) Security: You may restrict login to given set of IP addresses or even disable account creation. Chat servers may be taken over by not so friendly people.

  • Edit Server -> Server Settings-> Registration and Login

Installing wildfire should be easy, it was for me. It's a fairly popular product...

Prerequisite 3: Configure MySQL for LAMS

Here are the steps:

1) Make sure to have a MySQL 5.x server. Else install it (and come back)

2) Configure it according to the LAMS instructions, i.e. make changes to file my.cnf:

  • This cnf file may not exist (it wasn't in our binary distribution). Also, it can be in different locations
  • Type mysql --help to get a list of the places the MySQL server will look for this config file
  • So, create my.cnf if you don't have one. Start by copying a *.cfn model from /usr/local/mysql/share/mysql or some other place. I took my-medium.cnf.

Changes to make: file my.cnf should include these lines (no idea what it means and why):

[mysqld]
....
transaction-isolation=READ-COMMITTED 
sql-mode="STRICT_TRANS_TABLES,NO_AUTO_CREATE_USER,NO_ENGINE_SUBSTITUTION" 

Then restart MySQL !

3) Create a LAMS database (optional)

This step is not needed, the installation script will do it

However, there is a mistake in the script. It will grant global privileges to the lams user. Remove them either with these SQL commands or with some MySQL administration tool.

REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES ON * . * FROM 'lams'@'localhost';
REVOKE GRANT OPTION ON * . * FROM 'lams'@'localhost';

Then add these just for the lams database

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `lams` . * TO 'lams'@'localhost' WITH GRANT OPTION ;

Prerequisite 4: JBOSS

JBOSS is a Java application server. LAMS is programmed with this application framework.

  • Unpack into /usr/local (or wherever else you like it)
gtar xzf jboss-4.0.2.tar.gz -C /usr/local 
  • Copy some jar files
cp /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/server/all/lib/jboss-cache.jar /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/server/default/lib/
cp /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/server/all/lib/jgroups.jar /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/server/default/lib/

Pre-install

1) Unpack the archives some place, e.g. in /src/. Use gtar to unpack !

gtar zxf lams-unix-installer-2.2.tar.gz

So you should have something like:

drwxr-xr-x   3 schneide tecfa           4 Mar  4 10:19 ./
drwxrwxr-x  36 schneide tecfa          48 Mar  4 11:43 ../
drwxr-xr-x  14 schneide tecfa          18 Dec  4 02:19 lams-unix-installer-2.2/
-rw-r--r--   1 schneide tecfa    54485042 Mar  4 10:19 lams-unix-installer-2.2.tar.gz

2) If you use a non-standard JAVA make sure that installer script can find it. Remember this for later also ! If you use csh, type:

setenv PATH (path to java bin directory):$PATH
setenv JAVA_HOME (path to java installation directory)

For example:

setenv PATH /usr/local/jdk6/bin:$PATH
setenv JAVA_HOME /usr/local/jdk6

Or in a bash shell:

JAVA_HOME="(path to java installation directory)"
export JAVA_HOME
PATH="(path to java bin directory):$PATH"
export PATH

Then control:

which java
java -version

3) You should kill older lams data and config directories and/or make a backup, e.g.

mv /usr/local/lams/lams /usr/local/lams/lams.old
mv /etc/lams2 /etc/lams2.old

4) If you already got an old LAMS in JBoss, also get rid of it (not sure if this is really needed)

rm -r /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/server/default/deploy/lams.ear/

5) If you use a non-standard Java (see above) you also should change the JAVA configuration in JBOSS. Edit file /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/bin/run.conf and change:

JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/jdk6
JAVA="/usr/local/jdk6/bin/java

You also can add some extra memory for startup, but the LAMS startup script also will do it for you (see below).

# JAVA_OPTS="-server -Xms512m -Xmx512m -XX:MaxPermSize=512m"

The just test it once, execute:

/usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/bin/run.sh &

You should see something like:

JBoss Bootstrap Environment
 JBOSS_HOME: /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2
 JAVA: /usr/local/jdk6/bin/java
 JAVA_OPTS: -server -Xms512m -Xmx512 -Dprogram.name=run.sh
 CLASSPATH: /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/bin/run.jar:/usr/local/jdk6/lib/tools.jar

Check in a browser if its alive for real:

http://xxxx.yyy.zz:8080/

Then kill it, execute:

/usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/bin/shutdown.sh --shutdown

Edit the installer configuration file

Go to the lams-unix-installer directory, e.g. /src/lams/lams-unix-installer-2.2/

cp lams.properties lams.properties.ORI

I did the following (roughly)

Installation Options on top of the file
LAMS_DIR=/usr/local/lams/lams
LAMS_USER=admin
LAMS_PASS=secretX
DB_NAME=lams
DB_USER=lams
DB_PASS=secretY
Wildfire installation
# If it sits on different machine you got to configure, else you can leave the defaults
# WILDFIRE_DOMAIN=tecfasun1.unige.ch
# WILDFIRE_CONFERENCE=conference.tecfasun1.unige.ch
WILDFIRE_DOMAIN=localhost
WILDFIRE_CONFERENCE=conference.localhost
WILDFIRE_USER=admin
WILDFIRE_PASS=secretZ

Essential settings (Set the server_url with the right port, localhost won't do !)
LAMS_PORT=8080
# In case LAMS is on a different machine: 
SERVER_URL=http://tecfax.unige.ch:8080/lams/
JBOSS_DIR=/usr/local/jboss-4.0.2
JDK_DIR=/usr/local/jdk6
SQL_DIR=/usr/local/mysql/bin
SQL_HOST=localhost
SQL_PORT=3306
SQL_URL=jdbc:mysql://${SQL_HOST}/${DB_NAME}?characterEncoding=utf8&autoReconnect=true
DB_ROOT_PASSWORD=secretmysql

Using the installer

This may not work in old Solaris installations. You may have to install bash or try the simpler shell (sh).

cd /src/lams/lams-unix-installer-2.2
bash install-lams.sh

Then answer the questions. Do not answer "yes" or "no", etc. just "y" etc.

I answered yes to all questions, except the wrapper one since it wont work for Solaris.

Do you wish to install LAMS as a Java Service Wrapper? (y)es, (n)o, (q)uit: n

The install should complete with:

Configuring JBoss with your settings.
Buildfile: ant-scripts/configure-deploy.xml
LAMS 2.2 Configuration completed!
Please view the "readme" file for instructions on how to run LAMS.

Now LAMS is installed within the jboss server. LAMS related files in my system were:

  • Start-up script: /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/bin/run-lams.sh
  • Repository files: /usr/local/lams/lams
  • Configuration file: /etc/lams2/lams.properties
  • LAMS server: /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/server/default/deploy/lams.ear/

Run LAMS

Go to the bin directory

cd /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/bin/

Inside this jboss bin directory type. Basically this just calls the jboss run.sh script you have tested above. It just will add more memory to Java and set the Java path according to instructions you gave in the config file.

./run-lams.sh

Then, wait some time (a few minutes) and check the server log from time to time

tail /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/server/default/log/server.log

If you see this in the log file:

2009-03-04 13:04:39,052 INFO  [org.apache.jk.server.JkMain] Jk running ID=0 time=0/179  config=null
2009-03-04 13:04:39,098 INFO  [org.jboss.system.server.Server] JBoss (MX MicroKernel) [4.0.2 (build: CVSTag=JBoss_4_0_2 date=200505022023)] Started in 3m:7s:885ms

then you are lucky :)

Check the URL, e.g.

http://tecfax.unige.ch:8080/lams

You will see the LAMS Logo, Latest News & Updates page and a login form and a friendly Australian young lady working on her laptop. If you just get ugly HTML you made a mistake in the lams.properties file (forgot to specify the server name, see trouble shooting) and you will have to run the installation script again (database tables will be droped !).

Trouble shooting

For installation/startup trouble, look at the log files:

Directory:

/usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/server/default/log/

If you forgot the admin login/ password:

  • It's in the configuration file
/etc/lams2/lams.properties

LAMS wont respond after some time

  • Probably you need to increase memory. For 2.1RC0 I needed about 1.5GB. With 2.2 much less :). Edit Java server options in either of these two files:
/usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/bin/run.conf
/usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/bin/run-lams.sh

Some LAMS links will redirect to "localhost" on a server installation

  • Fix the lams.properties file, i.e. insert your server name, e.g.
SERVER_URL=http://tecfax.unige.ch:8080/lams/
  • Then redeploy the whole thing (restart the installation script as above)

Legacy notes for installing the 2.1.1 patch

(ignore for 2.2)

1) Shutdown the jboss server:

/usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/bin/shutdown.sh --shutdown

To see if it's down:

tail /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/server/default/log/server.log

2) Read the doc and make a fix

cd /src/lams/lams-unix-patch-2.1.1

a) Read the "readme" file

b) Fix the script if you want (not really needed). Replace the line

du -chs $LAMS_DIR $JBOSS_DIR

with

du -hs $LAMS_DIR $JBOSS_DIR

3) Run the installer and answer questions. Since I did a fresh 2.1 install just minutes before I did not test any of the backup features. Didn't test the shutdown either.

bash install-lams-patch.sh 

4) Fix the startup script a bit, i.e. change line 1 with something like line 2

# nohup ./run.sh > /dev/null &
nohup /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/bin/run.sh > /dev/null &

4) Test the new version

/usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/bin/run-lams.sh

Wait a while and/or play with:

tail /usr/local/jboss-4.0.2/server/default/log/server.log

Configuration of LAMS

Once your server is up and running, go to the Administration "Edit Configuration Settings":

1) Essential:

  • add email (e.g. yours)
  • add the smtp server (but you have to make sure that your institution lets machines post to it. There might be some anti-spam censorship). e.g.
mail.your_org.org

2) Uploaded files

  • I kept the defaults

3) LDAP

  • I am intrigued by this. It should not show since I didn't ask for it....
  • Basically I think that we will use LAMS only from Moodle ... and all our platforms should use LDAP but they don't ;)

4) Look and feel

  • I suggest making screen sizes a bit bigger (unless your students work with ultra-light portable computers)

5) Language

  • You can change the locale, e.g. for french, use:
fr_FR

Tweaking for production

(later)

Discussion / Problems

Compared to older LAMS installations and the 2.1RCx version, the 2.1 install + 2.1.1 patch install went rather flawlessly and the dec 2009 LAMS 2.2 installation was easy. There was nothing I had to fix for Solaris...

  • Only missing thing in the distribution is a /etc/init.d/ startup/shutdown script (later)

Moodle - LAMS integration

The LAMS v2.0 Integration Setup Step-by-Step Guide is fairly well done :)

The setup

  • Moodle 1.9.4+. It runs on one machine (tecfax.unige.ch)
  • LAMS runs on the same machine

I did manage to have LAMS 2.1 run on a different machine sometimes in the past.

Installing LAMS 2 Moodle module

First of all make sure that you do no skip step 4 below (you need the LAMS v2 module and not LAMS !). Btw. I wonder why the LAMS 1 module is still included with Moodle.

Installation:

  1. If you don't need to keep old data, remove the LAMS2 module in Moodle
  2. Download a new integrations package (it seems that fixes are made sometimes)
    • From here (click on the Integrations tab)
  3. Unzip the file (or directly unzip in moodle/mod/)
  4. Move the lamstwo directory to moodle/mod/
  5. Move the lamstwo.php file to moodle/lang/en_utf8/
    • Do not forget this one, else you'll see some strange labels in Moodle
  6. Login as admin and go to http://yourmoodle/admin, LAMS tables will be created automatically, i.e. you will see typical Moodle upgrade message.

Configuration on the LAMS side

Note: There seems to be a bug. If you Disable Organization it will never come back. So don't tick this.

  • Go to "System Administration", then "Maintain integrated servers". click on edit. In particular: Make sure that you get the Moodle "user information" URL right and that all parameters match on both sides (be careful with "Moodle" vs. "moodle"!).
Id:           moodle
Key:          somethingsecret
Name:         moodle
Description:  TECFA Moodle
Prefix:       mdl
Organisation: moodle
User Information: URL: http://tecfax.unige.ch/moodle/mod/lamstwo/userinfo.php?ts=%timestamp%&un=%username%&hs=%hash%
Timeout URL:      http://tecfax.unige.ch/lams/timeout.html

Configuration on the Moodle Side

  • Go to Modules / Activities / and click settings for 'LAMS v2 module. At this point you also should consider removing the old LAMS module from the system (but it doesn't matter).

I used the following values:

server_url:     http://tecfax.unige.ch:8080/lams
server_id:      moodle
server_key:     somethingsecret
request_source: moodle

Validate and Save

Test it

Get a pack from the lamscommunity. Three obvious choices are:

In Moodle you can add these in two steps:

1) "Add an activity"

Note: If you can't see anything happen, e.g. you just get this message and nothing else:

 Sequence

 The directory structure below contains the sequences you can create a lesson for.
 Select one and click on the next button to continue.

then you made a mistake in the configuration, e.g. the "user information" URL is wrong.

2) For this activity author and/or import LAMS lessons

To author a LAMS lesson click on "open authoring"

To import a LAMS lessons, also click on "open authoring", then inside LAMS:

  • File->Import
  • Then get it from your LAMS Workspace (it will not directly import to the LAMS stage)
  • File->Save
3) Then when you are back to Moodle, click on add lesson and pick your lesson or one of the imported ones.

Summary:

  • You can access LAMS from Moodle to author or import
  • You then can use "lessons" from your workspace in LAMS as part of a LAMS moodle activity (at least one "lesson" or "several".

Note: I believe that having "lessons" within a single Moodle LAMS activity is new since 2.2 or 2.1. Before that one Moodle LAMS activity only had one LAMS module inside if I remember right.

Moodle-LAMS trouble shooting

The Interface in Moodle is not obvious.

You may have to adjust timeouts and other stuff if your server load is high.

Make sure that you do not mix up case: E.g. if your group is called "moodle" in LAMS use "moodle" and not "Moodle" (I got stuck with this once)

Your JBOSS server may need more memory space allocated (see above)

Be careful about using several browser windows and tabs. The "system Administration" page will use an already opened window/tab. So if the "Sys Admin" link doesn't bring up the tool or complains about your role, etc. look for it on your desktop and close it. Maybe also log out and in again from your LAMS server if you just tested Moodle before.

If you tried a Moodle LAMS integration in the past with an older LAMS server, your MOODLE may have junk left inside. Replace all older Moodle LAMS integration code (as we actually pointed out above)

Only if you don't have activities in production:

  • delete the LAMS2 module in MOODLE.

In any case:

  • Remove all the the files in the moodle/mod/lamstwo directory
  • Reinstall a new version (downloaded fresh).


LAMS 2.2 Windows Vista + Wampserver

Do not try to install LAMS if you lack basic installation experience and technical reading skills. Here are just a few remarks in addition to the LAMS installation instructions. I also strongly suggest to look at the Problems Installing LAMS Forum.

Other Software

To run the LAMS server on windows you need to install other software.

Java
  • You need least Java JSE 5.0, not just the JRE (the runtime), you really need a JDK (developer kit). Get it from java.sun.com.
MySQL
  • The best bet is to get it directly from MySQL and take the Installer version (not the zip installation).
    • Install it and remember the password
  • I suggest not installing/using a WAMP environment for LAMS 2.x since several people reported problems with these in the support forums. Anyhow, for myself I did use a WAMP anyhow, but if you do so too, don't complain...

MySQL

  • You should know where the mysql executables are. The LAMS installer will probably find them, but it is better to be informed. Because then you also can type MySQL commands, e.g. to fix database problems. On my machine, the WampServer/MySQL directory is here:
c:/soft/wamp/bin/mysql/mysql5.1.30/

And the binaries are here:

c:/soft/wamp/bin/mysql/mysql5.1.30/bin

Also there seems to be a missing table (probably this could be fixed with some command-line script and I think I did this with mysqlcheck, but I forgot sorry). But if it doesn't you have to add this table to the mysql table, e.g. with phpmyaadmin or on the command line:

CREATE TABLE 'servers' (
'Server_name' char(64) NOT NULL,
'Host' char(64) NOT NULL,
'Db' char(64) NOT NULL,
'Username' char(64) NOT NULL,
'Password' char(64) NOT NULL,
'Port' int(4) DEFAULT NULL,
'Socket' char(64) DEFAULT NULL,
'Wrapper' char(64) NOT NULL,
'Owner' char(64) NOT NULL,
PRIMARY KEY ('Server_name')
) ENGINE=MyISAM DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8
COMMENT='MySQL Foreign Servers table';

Installing LAMS

Make sure that MySQL is up and running before you install LAMS. If you never fully reboot your machine, it's also good idea to do so now.

Then, click on the LAMS installer. It will ask several things and suggest defaults. E.g.

  • The database admin id and password. By default, most WAMP servers come configured without one, but that's not a safe ways to live.
  • The LAMS database name, database user and password
  • The LAMS administrator login and password

On my Laptop PC, LAMS installed ok, but did not manage to start up (trouble, see the fix below).

Running LAMS

  • Make sure that the LAMS port (8080) is free, e.g. install Active Ports or type something like netstat -a in a DOS terminal.
  • Then, if the "Start LAMS" script in the program menu gives an error message like this:
>>> MySQL does not appear to be running - please make sure it is running before starting LAMS
    • Make sure that MySQL is really running and available on the right port, e.g. type
(mysqldir)\bin\mysqladmin ping -h localhost -P 3306 -u root -p
    • If MySQL is running, then you have a problem. You can try to start the LAMS service manually (worked for me): Find the services panel (sorry I don't have an English Windows), but it should be something like: Configuration Panel->Administration tools->Services. Then, start the LAMSV2 service (click on it, then click on "start" or something similar on top left, or use the right-click menu).
  • Also pay attention to popup blockers in your navigator. LAMS worked fine with both IE 6 and Firefox 3.

Summary: LAMS 2.2 runs fine on my DELL XPS M1730 laptop with Vista professional and WampServer. But I only managed to get it working because I do have a vague idea on how computer systems and web software work. Beginners really should stick to advice from the official LAMS website and/or have it installed by someone on a real server.

Documentation and using LAMS

This page is not a resource for end users like course designers or learners. See:

Official LAMS 2 installation documentation
Lams Moodle integration
Trouble shooting