To Start The usual pattern for a Koha installation is the setup of a dedicated server in the library to support the installation of a server grade operating system and the necessary support software. Koha was originally designed to run with Apache running on Linux. Most sites have continued this trend. Koha should run with little or no adjustment necessary on most versions of Unix. Similarly, there are no Apache specific areas in the code, however we have little feedback on how the application will run with other HTTP daemons. Any feedback is most appreciated.

It is possible to run Koha on Microsoft's Windows server platform with appropriate ports of support tools. See KohaOnWindows for more information. Or you can subscribe to a mail list devoted to windows related koha issues at (http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=16466):

NB: All the Koha system administrators are firm believers in backing up the database on a regular schedule, especially before upgrades to existing Koha installations.

Option 1: Automated Configuration The preferred method of Koha installation for anyone running a Unix operating system and a machine explicity for Koha is to run the installation script:

perl installer.pl

which can be found with the tarball.

Using the Installer

The installer.pl utility will:

Check for perl modules

Prompt for an installation directory for the OPAC files. (Default value is /usr/local/koha/opac/.)

Prompt for an installation directory for the Intranet files. (Default value is /usr/local/koha/intranet/.)

Prompt for an installation directory for koha.conf. (Default value is /etc/koha.conf)

Prompt for a name for Koha's Mysql database. (Default value is Koha.)

Prompt for the hostname where the database is located. (Default is localhost)

Note: Using a database hosted on another server will probably break installer.pl at this point, as it uses mysql client tools (mysql and mysqladmin) for creating and populating the database.

Prompt for a mysql user for Koha to use. (Default is kohaadmin.)

Prompt for a mysqlpassword for the Koha user. (There is no default.)

Prompts for an email address for the Apache Virtual Hosts (Default is webmaster@YOUR.DOM.AIN.)

Prompts for the domain name or ip address of the server. (Default is the installing machine's hostname.)

Prompts for a port for the OPAC virtual host. (Default is port 80.)

Note: Using port 80 for the OPAC interface will “hide” any other web content being served from Apache's default root directory. If the server is serving other web content already, the OPAC interface should be put on a port other than 80. Port 8000 might be a good suggestion.

Prompt for a port for the INTRANET virtual host. (Default is 8080.)

Copies all of the files to their final locations.

Prompts for the MySQL root password.

Creates and Updates the Koha database.

Prompts to install the sample data. (Default is No.)

Note: If you are installing Koha for evaluation purposes, you may install a batch of sample data now. If you are installing Koha with the intention of populating it with your own data, you probably don't want this sample data installed.

If you do install the sample data, the script will prompt the user for a library branch and a printer. Default values are “Main Library”, “MAIN” and “Library Printer”, “lp”.

The install.pl displays a message stating that the INTRANET interface can be reached at http://your.machine.name:8080/ and the OPAC can be reached at http://your.machine.name:80/.

The last prompt is to restart the apache webserver. (Default is No, as this is a tad aggressive!)

Post installation steps for users of installer.pl

The Z39.50 Client requires a separate daemon process to be running to process the queue that is generated through the web page. This daemon is not automatically installed by the Koha installer due to the widely varying configurations for starting up daemons. You should check the documentation for your variant of Unix for more information.

A script is included for starting up this daemon in:

   ./intranet-cgi/acqui.simple/z3950-daemon-launch.sh

You will need to edit this script to set the “RunAsUser” variable to the user that your web server runs as, and the KohaDir variable to the location of your acqui.simple directory.