Chapter 4. Installation Steps

Table of Contents

Minimum System Requirements and Recommendations
Suggested Server Hardware
Suggested Operating Systems
Required Software
Required Database
Other Required Software
Sources for Required Software
Software Distributions
Installation Checklist
Create a Non-privileged User for Rice To Use
Distribution
OS Setup
Install the JDBC Drivers
Rice software database drivers directory defaults
MySQL JDBC Driver
Oracle JDBC driver
Set Up the ImpEx Process to Build the Database
Obtaining the ImpEx Tool
Oracle ImpEx Preconfiguration Setup
ImpEx Configuration Overview
impex-build.properties Reference
Specific impex-build.properties database parameter setup
Verifying your Database Installation
Installing Kuali Rice 1.0.3 Standalone Server
UNIX-Like Operating Environments
Setting Up the Rice Application
Deploying the WAR file

Kuali Rice has the potential to run on most platforms that support a Java development environment (not simply a runtime environment), a servlet container, and an Oracle or MySQL relational database management system (RDBMS).

Warning

Only platforms and configurations that have been tested and are known to work with Rice are described within this guide.

Minimum System Requirements and Recommendations

Suggested Server Hardware

Note that hardware needs may vary depending on the amount of expected load, the operating system being used, and the number of applications that are integrated with Kuali Rice.

Kuali Rice is typically deployed with the database server separate from the application server. Requirements below are for the Rice Standalone application server.

The recommended minimum requirements are as follows:

  • Processor 1.5 GHz or faster (2 GHz preferred)

  • 1024 MB (1 GB) of RAM or more

  • 100 Mbit/s network card (gigabit preferred)

  • 200 MB of hard disk space (for Tomcat server and web application)

    • Additional space needed if storing attachments

Suggested Operating Systems

Since Kuali Rice is written in Java, it should in theory be able to run on any operating system that supports the required version of the Java runtime. However, it has been most actively tested on:

  • Windows (XP and 7)

  • Mac OS X (10.6)

  • Linux (Ubuntu)

Note that while Ubuntu Linux is the distribution most frequently used for testing, other Linux distributions such as Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, Gentoo, and others should also be able to run Kuali Rice.

Additionally, Kuali Rice will likely work on these operating systems, although the software has not been tested here:

  • Sun Microsystems Solaris

  • IBM AIX

Required Software

All of these packages are required on the server with Rice:

  • Sun Microsystems Java Development Kit (JDK 1.6.x)

    Warning

    You must use a JDK and not a Java runtime environment (JRE); the JDK you use must be version 1.6.x. Additionally, Rice has not been tested on JDKs other than Sun. So alternative implementations like OpenJDK should be used at your own risk.

  • Servlet container (Apache Tomcat 5.5+, or Jetty 6.1.1)
  • Apache Ant 1.8.1

  • Maven 3

Required Database

Ensure that the Oracle database you intend to use encodes character data in a UTF variant by default. For Oracle XE, this entails downloading the "Universal" flavor of the binary, which uses AL32UTF8.

Rice runs, and has been tested with the following products:

  • Oracle 10g

    • Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.4)

    • Oracle Database 10g Release 2 (10.2.0.4) JDBC Driver

  • MySQL

    • MySQL 5.1.+

    • MySQL Connector/J (5.1.+)

You can adapt Rice to other standard relational databases (e.g., Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, etc.). However, this Installation Guide does not provide information for running Rice with these products.

Other Required Software

Subversion 1.5 or greater if checking out projects from Kuali source control

Software Distributions

The Kuali Rice software is available through three different distributions:

Table 4.2. 

DistributionDescription
BinaryThis distribution consists of all the necessary binaries, supporting files and database schemas and data for running Kuali Rice as a web application or within an embedded client application.
SourceThe source code and build scripts necessary for compiling and building Rice, a process described in the appendices.
ServerRice in the form of a web application archive (WAR) along with database schemas and data.


Obtaining the Software

The Kuali Foundation makes the most current version of the Rice software available at: http://rice.kuali.org/download