On 8/26/07, Peter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I downloaded sage 2.8.2 and installed it on a ubuntu server
> (everything went amazingly smoothly, except that the notebook()
> command got stuck since I didn't realize that obviously apache-ssl
> needs to be installed; perhaps a message in the output of
> notebook.setup() would be useful, and it would also help to mention
> that notebook? will produce additional useful info).
It is not (or rather -- definitely should not) be necessary to have apache
or apache-ssl installed in order to use the notebook. What problem occurred?
If you do
sage: notebook(open_viewer=False)
it should work irregardless of apache. SAGE includes its own complete
secure web server (built using Twisted).
It is possible that there was a SAGE dependency on openssl, and by installing
apache-ssl you also installed the relevant depenency, which caused whatever
problem you had to vanish.
> This particular ubuntu server is currently not used for anything else,
> and I am hoping to use the sage notebook for a discrete math class and
> an introduction to abstract algebra class. I looked at the
> instructions for running the notebook in a chroot jail, but I'm afraid
> this is beyond my current unix skills. If I create accounts for the
> students (but disable account creation) and tell them not to vandalize
> the server, what other security or performance implications are there
The chroot jail business is only necessary if you are using the machine
for other purposes -- if it is *just* for running the SAGE notebook, there
is basically no advantage to using a chroot (in reality this would depend
some on how your main server is setup, of course).
> if the notebook is run from a single user account on the ubuntu server
> and is accessible to the students over the web?
After all the students have accounts, you should be sure to disable
new account creation (which is the default when you run the server; type
notebook?). Then only your students can use the server.
It is also an *excellent* idea to setup users on the ubuntu server like this:
(1) A user named "server"
(2) Another (or several) users named "worker".
(3) Setup ssh keys so that server can login as worker without having to
type a password -- instructions for this are at the end of the help
if you type notebook?
(4) Given the worker logins as argument to the server_pool option of
the notebook command.
Doing the above is a major advantage, because it means even if your
students type "rm -rf <blah>" they will not be able to harm the server's
data files or process, only the files of other worksheets. If you don't
do the above, a nefarious student could e.g., change all the passwords
of users in the notebook, kill the notebook server at will, etc.
> Also, as far as logging notebook activity, is it possible to keep
> rotating logs of all commands typed in the various notebooks, together
> with a username and timestamp?
This is currently not implemented, but would probably be easy to
implement. I hope you can wait a little for this. Do you have a trac
account? If so, it would be good to post a request for the above
on the server? If not, contact me and I'll make an account for you.
> Thanks for all the hard work on sage and for making the installation
> so easy.
You're welcome.
William
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