edX Managing the Production Stack

NOTE: These are instructions for the Production Stack configuration, not the Developer Stack.

Managing the server

manage.py commands

login to the server and change to the /edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform directory to use manage.py

• list all manage.py commands - sudo -u www-data /edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms --settings aws help

• create a final grade and generate a certificate for a single user - sudo -u www-data /edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms --settings aws regenerate_user -u [email protected] -c edX/Open_DemoX/edx_demo_course

• create a new user - sudo -u www-data /edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms --settings aws create_user -e [email protected]

• set or change password - sudo -u www-data /edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms --settings aws changepassword user

• set user to staff - sudo -u www-data /edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms --settings aws set_staff [email protected]

• launch the django shell - sudo -u www-data /edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms --settings aws shell

• create superuser -

  sudo -u www-data /edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms --settings aws create_user -e [email protected]
  sudo -u www-data /edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms --settings aws changepassword user
  sudo -u www-data /edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms --settings aws shell
  
  from django.contrib.auth.models import User
  me = User.objects.get(username="user")
  me.is_superuser = True
  me.save()
  

• run migrations -

  sudo -u www-data /edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py lms syncdb --migrate --settings aws

• delete course -

  sudo -u www-data /edx/bin/python.edxapp ./manage.py　cms --settings aws delete_course Organization/CourseNumber/CourseNumber commit

See help and help <cmd> for more information!

See what services are running

sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl -c /edx/etc/supervisord.conf status

you should see something like the following:

certs                            RUNNING    pid 19862, uptime 0:00:04
discern                          RUNNING    pid 19926, uptime 0:00:02
discern_celery                   RUNNING    pid 19857, uptime 0:00:04
edxapp:cms                       RUNNING    pid 19884, uptime 0:00:03
edxapp:lms                       RUNNING    pid 19879, uptime 0:00:03
edxapp_worker:cms_default_4      RUNNING    pid 19915, uptime 0:00:03
edxapp_worker:cms_high_1         RUNNING    pid 19901, uptime 0:00:03
edxapp_worker:cms_low_3          RUNNING    pid 19890, uptime 0:00:03
edxapp_worker:lms_default_3      RUNNING    pid 19897, uptime 0:00:03
edxapp_worker:lms_high_4         RUNNING    pid 19922, uptime 0:00:03
edxapp_worker:lms_high_mem_2     RUNNING    pid 19894, uptime 0:00:03
edxapp_worker:lms_low_1          RUNNING    pid 19908, uptime 0:00:03
forum                            RUNNING    pid 19855, uptime 0:00:04
ora                              RUNNING    pid 19875, uptime 0:00:04
ora_celery                       RUNNING    pid 19866, uptime 0:00:04
xqueue                           RUNNING    pid 19853, uptime 0:00:04
xqueue_consumer                  RUNNING    pid 19860, uptime 0:00:04
xserver                          RUNNING    pid 19854, uptime 0:00:04

Restarting Services

• LMS/CMS - sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl -c /edx/etc/supervisord.conf restart edxapp:
• Workers - sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl -c /edx/etc/supervisord.conf restart edxapp_worker:

(Note: the colon character : at the end of the line is mandatory!)

Updating Versions using edX repos

Use the /edx/bin/update to update repo versions on the server.

Allowed repo names [cs_comments_service,ease,discern,xqueue,xserver,edx-platform,configuration,edx-ora]

Examples:

• sudo /edx/bin/update edx-platform master - change edx-platform to use the latest on the master branch
• sudo /edx/bin/update cs_comments_service master - change the forums service to use the latest on the master branch

Generate certificates after a course ends

Using an edx-platform fork

• sudo rm -rf /edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform - to change the remote you need to remove the existing edx-platform checkout
• Add the following line to /edx/app/edx_ansible/server-vars.yml - edx_platform_repo: "https://github.com/<user>/edx-platform.git"
• sudo /edx/bin/update edx-platform master - update edx-platform using the forked repo

Compile assets manually

To compile javascript and css outside of the update script run the following commands:

• sudo -u edxapp bash
• source /edx/app/edxapp/edxapp_env
• cd /edx/app/edxapp/edx-platform
• SERVICE_VARIANT=lms rake lms:gather_assets:aws
• SERVICE_VARIANT=cms rake cms:gather_assets:aws

Troubleshooting

Unable to connect to the LMS

Check to see if nginx is running:

• sudo service nginx status
• sudo service nginx start

NGINX logs are located in /edx/var/log/nginx NGINX configurations are located in /edx/app/nginx/sites-enabled

Check to see if the lms/cms is running

• sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl -c /edx/etc/supervisord.conf status edxapp:

If you are still unable to connect to the LMS run the following commands:

• sudo service nginx stop
• sudo service supervisor stop
• sudo service supervisor.devpi stop
• sudo pkill -u www-data
• sudo service nginx start
• sudo service supervisor start
• sudo service supervisor.devpi start
• stop everything except the LMS and CMS

sudo /edx/bin/supervisorctl -c /edx/etc/supervisord.conf stop discern discern_celery \
  forum ora ora_celery xqueue xqueue_consumer xserver edxapp_worker:

• sudo tail -f /edx/var/log/{lms,cms,nginx}/*log

While tailing the log files try to connect your browser to the LMS or Studio

Log files

• The production stack sends all application logs to rsyslog which writes config files to the /edx/var/log directory.
• Supervisor logs stderr and stdout, its logs are located in /edx/var/log/supervisor