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Maintaining RAP4

Once RAP4 is running, there are maintenance tasks you might want to do. The most frequently used tasks are described here for RAP-3 maintainers to refer to.

The purpose of maintaining software is to guarantee continuous operation for all users. In this chapter we use the RAP4 server at OUNL as an example, trusting that you will figure out what to do for servers of your own.

Tasks

Here is an overview of all tasks described on this page. Refer to the related section below for details on each specific task

Connect Before doing any maintenance, you need credentials to gain access to your server. Then you can connect to the server. We assume you gain access to a command-line interface (CLI) of your server. In this text that CLI is /bin/bash on a linux machine.
Check the configuration When you start a maintenance session, you may want to check on the system. RAP4 runs in containers on a docker-platform, so you can check whether the containers are running and you can check the configuration in which they should be running.
Upgrade to a new version of RAP
Upgrade to a new version of Ubuntu
Refresh the configuration Refreshing the RAP4 configuration is something you need to do only when developers tell you to do that.

Connecting to the RAP4 server

The RAP-server has been configured to communicate via ssh. The Open Universiteit allows ssh-connections only through VPN. So I made sure my VPN-connection is active.

I entered the server using command ssh rap.cs.ou.nl and the right user/password combination, upon which I gained access to the CLI.

The RAP4-instance is installed from directory ~\RAP4, which is the working directory from which maintenance is done.

This is what you can expect to see:

Checking which containers are running

The server should show at least two containers, a database container called rap4_db and a RAP-container called rap4. There may be a third container called phpmyadmin, which is there to gain access to the database (for maintainers only). To verify, give the command docker ps. This is what you may expect to see:

In this case it appears that a fourth container is running. This poses no problem, because other processes may run concurrently without interfering with RAP4.

The configuration file that specifies this configuration is the only file in the working directory:

By inspecting the contents you can see whether the configuration matches what you see in docker. This is what you can expect in docker-compose.yml:

The directory volumes contains the Ampersand data, which is kept outside the containers so the data persists if containers get killed or if you restart the software.

There are three data sets. The directory log contains logging information of the RAP4-server. The directory mysql contains the data from MariaDB. The directory scripts contains the student scripts and the files they generated when working in RAP4.

Upgrade to a new version of RAP

If you need to upgrade RAP4 to the latest release run this command:

As you can see in the configuration (docker-compose.yml)

Upgrade to a new version of Ubuntu

When you connect to the server, you get hints about the state your Ubuntu server is in. E.g.

In such cases you can update by giving two commands:

Sometimes a package is kept back because there is a problem with dependencies. You will have to upgrade such packages by hand.

Refreshing the code

In the rare event that the configuration of RAP4 has changed (to be announced by the developers), you must update the file docker-compose.ymlby hand, using the command:

Maintaining RAP4

Once RAP4 is running, there are maintenance tasks you might want to do. The most frequently used tasks are described here for RAP-3 maintainers to refer to.

Tasks

Here is an overview of all tasks described on this page. Refer to the related section below for details on each specific task

Connect Before doing any maintenance, you need credentials to gain access to your server. Then you can connect to the server. We assume you gain access to a command-line interface (CLI) of your server. In this text that CLI is /bin/bash on a linux machine.
Check the configuration When you start a maintenance session, you may want to check on the system. RAP4 runs in containers on a docker-platform, so you can check whether the containers are running and you can check the configuration in which they should be running.
Upgrade to a new version of RAP
Upgrade to a new version of Ubuntu
Refresh the configuration Refreshing the RAP4 configuration is something you need to do only when developers tell you to do that.

Connecting to the RAP4 server

The RAP-server has been configured to communicate via ssh. The Open Universiteit allows ssh-connections only through VPN. So I made sure my VPN-connection is active.

I entered the server using command ssh rap.cs.ou.nl and the right user/password combination, upon which I gained access to the CLI.

The RAP4-instance is installed from directory ~\RAP4, which is the working directory from which maintenance is done.

This is what you can expect to see:

Checking which containers are running

In this case it appears that a fourth container is running. This poses no problem, because other processes may run concurrently without interfering with RAP4.

The configuration file that specifies this configuration is the only file in the working directory:

By inspecting the contents you can see whether the configuration matches what you see in docker. This is what you can expect in docker-compose.yml:

The directory volumes contains the Ampersand data, which is kept outside the containers so the data persists if containers get killed or if you restart the software.

Upgrade to a new version of RAP

If you need to upgrade RAP4 to the latest release run this command:

As you can see in the configuration (docker-compose.yml)

Upgrade to a new version of Ubuntu

When you connect to the server, you get hints about the state your Ubuntu server is in. E.g.

In such cases you can update by giving two commands:

Sometimes a package is kept back because there is a problem with dependencies. You will have to upgrade such packages by hand.

Refreshing the code

In the rare event that the configuration of RAP4 has changed (to be announced by the developers), you must update the file docker-compose.ymlby hand, using the command:

Maintaining RAP4

hashtagTasks

hashtagConnecting to the RAP4 server

hashtagChecking which containers are running

hashtagUpgrade to a new version of RAP

hashtagUpgrade to a new version of Ubuntu

hashtagRefreshing the code

Maintaining RAP4

hashtagTasks

hashtagConnecting to the RAP4 server

hashtagChecking which containers are running

hashtagUpgrade to a new version of RAP

hashtagUpgrade to a new version of Ubuntu

hashtagRefreshing the code

Tasks

Connecting to the RAP4 server

Checking which containers are running

Upgrade to a new version of RAP

Upgrade to a new version of Ubuntu

Refreshing the code

Tasks

Connecting to the RAP4 server

Checking which containers are running

Upgrade to a new version of RAP

Upgrade to a new version of Ubuntu

Refreshing the code