Looking for help... How to install devstack on GCP or any cloud platform?

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Jia Sheng Hor

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Jul 23, 2018, 9:40:13 AM7/23/18
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I am an university student, which assigned by my lecturer to deploy a edX platform on any could server, but after I install it using Bitnami package, I couldn't do any customization (logos, theme, name, links, etc.) within the platform. Do I really need Devstack to do so? Or I can edit the platform only using Django admin page? If I can do so, can anyone please guide me to do so? My deadline for this project is on 10th Aug 2018. Thanks in advance.

Lupus Furyo

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Jul 23, 2018, 10:02:42 AM7/23/18
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1. Native Install (e.g. Google Compute Engine, Digital Ocean, etc)

2. For AWS install, you could use Lawrence McDaniel's guide

3. For OpenStack install you could use OpenCraft's guide

As for customization "(logos, theme, name, links, etc.)" of the platform, in any case (including BitNami stack), it is done from back-end either by modifying config files lms.env.json, cms.env.json (as well as lms.auth.json and cms.auth.json) found in the folder /edx/app/edxapp or by creating server-vars.yml in /edx/app/edx_ansible and updating the instance.
e.g. see

P.S. In case of BitNami stack, the above mentioned config files should be located in /edx/app/edxapp/conf

On Mon, Jul 23, 2018 at 5:00 AM, Jia Sheng Hor <jsho...@gmail.com> wrote:
I am an university student, which assigned by my lecturer to deploy a edX platform on any could server, but after I install it using Bitnami package, I couldn't do any customization (logos, theme, name, links, etc.) within the platform. Do I really need Devstack to do so? Or I can edit the platform only using Django admin page? If I can do so, can anyone please guide me to do so? My deadline for this project is on 10th Aug 2018. Thanks in advance.

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Jia Sheng Hor

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Jul 23, 2018, 9:30:32 PM7/23/18
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Thank you for your reply.

Another question from me, which file should I need to modify to change the logo, theme, names, etc? And how to upload a file (says my institution logo) into the directory?

I am now using GCP and access it through web browser ssh which do not require a SSH key.

Lupus Furyo

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Jul 24, 2018, 5:55:36 AM7/24/18
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Open edX has extensive documentation found at

For comprehensive theming refer to

1. To start with comprehensive theming, copy the red-theme found in

2. Change logo, etc, then place your new theme in
/edx/var/edxapp/themes

the dir structure should look like
/edx/var/edxapp/themes/your-theme-name/lms

3. Change ownership/perms

cd /edx/var/edxapp/themes
chown -R edxapp.www-data your-theme-name
chmod -R 0755 your-theme-name

4. Enable comprehensive theming
sudo nano /edx/app/edxapp/lms.env.json

"ENABLE_COMPREHENSIVE_THEMING": true,

"COMPREHENSIVE_THEME_DIRS": [
    "/edx/var/edxapp/themes/your-theme-name",
],

"THEME_NAME": "your-theme-name"

5. Compile assets manually
 sudo -H -u edxapp bash
source /edx/app/edxapp/edxapp_env
cd /edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform

# these will take time
paver update_assets cms --settings=aws
paver update_assets lms --settings=aws

6. Lastly, restart your platform
/edx/bin/supervisorctl {stop/start/restart} all



Jia Sheng Hor

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Jul 26, 2018, 4:50:09 AM7/26/18
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When I install it into GCP using the Native Installation steps shown, it show Ansible failed, what is the problem with it?


PLAY RECAP *********************************************************************
localhost                  : ok=182  changed=140  unreachable=0    failed=1   

INFO:/var/tmp/configuration/playbooks/callback_plugins/task_timing: install python requirements --------------------------------------------------- 586.09s
INFO:/var/tmp/configuration/playbooks/callback_plugins/task_timing: Create Diffie-Hellman parameters to prevent weak key exchange ----------------- 197.68s
INFO:/var/tmp/configuration/playbooks/callback_plugins/task_timing: Install system packages ------------------------------------------------------- 146.82s
INFO:/var/tmp/configuration/playbooks/callback_plugins/task_timing: code sandbox | Install sandbox requirements into sandbox venv ----------------- 145.64s
INFO:/var/tmp/configuration/playbooks/callback_plugins/task_timing: checkout edx-platform repo into /edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform ------------------- 76.81s
INFO:/var/tmp/configuration/playbooks/callback_plugins/task_timing: install node dependencies ------------------------------------------------------ 42.71s
INFO:/var/tmp/configuration/playbooks/callback_plugins/task_timing: code sandbox | Install base sandbox requirements and create sandbox virtualenv - 23.18s
INFO:/var/tmp/configuration/playbooks/callback_plugins/task_timing: Install mysql-5.6 and dependencies --------------------------------------------- 17.07s
INFO:/var/tmp/configuration/playbooks/callback_plugins/task_timing: Install rabbit package --------------------------------------------------------- 14.29s
INFO:/var/tmp/configuration/playbooks/callback_plugins/task_timing: Install packages needed for single server -------------------------------------- 11.58s
INFO:/var/tmp/configuration/playbooks/callback_plugins/task_timing:
Playbook Configure instance(s) finished: 2018-07-26 06:49:29.086341, 318 total tasks.  0:24:18.375565 elapsed. 

 
========================================
Ansible failed!
----------------------------------------
If you need help, see https://open.edx.org/getting-help .
When asking for help, please provide as much information as you can.
These might be helpful:
    Your log file is at logs/install-20180726-062413.log
    Your environment:
        OPENEDX_RELEASE=open-release/ginkgo.master
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