Ishan Sheth (imsheth)

The Hows - Open edX Nutmeg with Tutor 14 on Ubuntu 20

Jun 29, 2022

The motivation for writing this post is in the hope that it helps others save lots of time, energy instead of going through various links but hitting dead ends due to lack of community support, broken features, features lacking updates and improper documentation prevailing around the topic.

This post is focused on how to setup Open edX Nutmeg with Tutor 14 on Ubuntu 20

Ubuntu 20.x.x

Picking the versions listed in the Open edX platform Dockerfile fox maximum compatibility and support

Check the machine operating system, it should be Ubuntu 20.x.x
Our test machine operating system details (Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS (Focal Fossa))

cat /etc/os-release

It is recommended to use the LTS version but not necessary
This completes Ubuntu check

python 3.8.10

Install python 3.8.10 and required packages

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:deadsnakes/ppa && sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade && sudo apt-get install software-properties-common && sudo apt install build-essential zlib1g-dev libncurses5-dev libgdbm-dev libnss3-dev libssl-dev libreadline-dev libffi-dev wget libyaml-dev && sudo apt install python3.8 && sudo apt-get install python3-dev && python3.8 --version

Verify python 3.8.10 installation path

whereis python

Set environment/path/alias variables for python 3.8.10 & pip 22.1.2

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:"/usr/bin/python3.8"' >> ~/.bashrc && echo 'alias python="python3.8"' >> ~/.bashrc && echo 'export PATH=$PATH:"/home/ubuntu/.local/bin"' >> ~/.bashrc && echo 'alias pip="pip3"' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc && echo $PATH && python --version

pip 22.1.2

cd /tmp && curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py && python get-pip.py && pip install --upgrade pip --user && pip --version

This completes python and pip installation

Docker 20.10.17

Install docker 20.10.17

cd /tmp && curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh && sh get-docker.sh && docker --version

Enable docker remote API on docker host (comments section)

sudo vim /lib/systemd/system/docker.service

# Comment the original line for backup to revert if needed
#ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// --containerd=/run/containerd/containerd.sock
ExecStart=/usr/bin/dockerd -H fd:// -H 0.0.0.0:2375 --containerd=/run/containerd/containerd.sock

Reload - restart daemon and verify docker remote API response

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo service docker restart
curl http://localhost:2375/images/json

Install docker compose 1.29.2

sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.29.2/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose && sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose && docker-compose --version

Run docker without sudo

sudo groupadd docker && sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}

This completes docker 20.10.17 and docker compose 1.29.2 installation and setup

Tutor 14.0.2

Install Tutor 14.0.2

pip install "tutor[full]" && tutor --version

Set environment/path variables for Tutor 14.0.2

echo 'export PATH=$PATH:"/home/ubuntu/.local/bin/tutor"' >> ~/.bashrc && source ~/.bashrc

Setup Tutor 14.0.2 with interactive shell

tutor local quickstart

Assign static/elastic IP to the instance
Add domain mappings to the static/elastic IP

A       openedx     x.x.x.x                 600s
CNAME   *.openedx   openedx.imsheth.com     60m

We have our openedx running
We have our openedx studio running
We have our openedx admin running
View logs from all containers (as per need)

tutor local logs --tail=100 -f

Local deployment reloading settings (as per need)

tutor local restart

Creating a new user with staff and admin rights (works with studio and admin portals, can also be used on the learner portal) [pass1234 is the password entered on the prompt here]

tutor local createuser --staff --superuser imsheth contact@imsheth.com

Importing the demo course

tutor local importdemocourse

This completes Tutor 14.0.2 and Open edX Nutmeg installation and setup

Open edX APIs

Authenticating as an edX REST Web Service User

Enable API access config at admin
API access config is enabled at admin
Fill the API access request form at api-admin
Submit the API access request form at api-admin
Your API access request is available at admin
Approve and save your API access request at admin
Your API access request is approved at admin
Fill the form to generate API access credentials at api-admin
Your API access credentials are generated and available at api-admin
Get CSRF token from account registration endpoint response headers
Use it in headers in access token endpoint
Get JWT token from access token endpoint in response using client_id and client_secret generated in step 9 above
Most of the GET endpoints are open and do not need authentication like account registration form endpoint
Use JWT token in "Authorization" key and CSRF token in "X-CSRFToken" key in header and hit account registration endpoint
Hit account registration endpoint with proper body attributes by referring to API documentation at https://courses.edx.org/api-docs/
Above approach worked fine to fix CORS issues, but the below links didn't work in the same case

Customizing Settings

Turning off rate limiting

tutor config save --set RATELIMIT_ENABLE=False

Turning on debugging

tutor config save --set DEBUG=True

Using Google SMTP

tutor config save --set RUN_SMTP=false

tutor config save \
 --set SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com \
 --set SMTP_PORT=587 \
 --set SMTP_USE_SSL=false \
 --set SMTP_USE_TLS=true \
 --set SMTP_USERNAME=gmailid@gmail.com \
 --set SMTP_PASSWORD=gmailidpassword

Applying settings

tutor local restart

#openedx #openedxnutmeg #tutor #tutor14.0.2 #docker #docker20.10.17 #python #python3.8.10 #pip #pip21.1.2 #ubuntu #ubuntu20.04.4lts #tech #edtech #lms #learningmanagementsystem