4
Where can I download SchoolTool?
5
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
7
There is no "Download" link to install SchoolTool.
9
SchoolTool is a full stack web application. That is, it comes with its own web
10
server and database. To make sure all the necessary components are installed
11
correctly, we distribute SchoolTool to users as packages, through Ubuntu Linux.
12
This gives users a simple "app store" one-click installation experience.
14
What follows is an explanation of this choice, hardware recommendations, and in
15
subsequent pages instructions for installing various versions of SchoolTool on
16
various versions of Ubuntu.
24
The core SchoolTool development team recommends new installations of SchoolTool
25
on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Long Term Service).
27
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS will be actively supported at least through the end of 2014,
28
but we will be focusing on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS for the foreseeable future, and we
29
recommend all users test and upgrade to 14.04 LTS at the earliest convenient
30
time (i.e., between terms/school years).
32
Going forward, we will not be focusing our efforts on non-LTS Ubuntu releases,
33
as we have found most prudent and experienced school sys admins prefer to
34
stick to LTS releases.
39
SchoolTool is written in Python, a highly portable open source programming
40
language. SchoolTool can be ported to Mac OS, Windows, or other Linux or Unix
41
versions with a moderate amount of work. We have done this in the past.
43
We have created packages for multiple operating systems, but the core
44
development team could not *support* them. The Mac OS version ran slowly and
45
occasionally hung for no discernible reason. We could copy/paste some code
46
to make SchoolTool run as a Windows service, but we didn't understand how it
47
worked or fix it if it didn't. A student information system is mission
48
critical for a school; we don't want schools running systems that nobody is
49
responsible for fixing.
51
We welcome additional ports and packages; the core development team just does
52
not have the capacity to provide and support them ourselves.
60
SchoolTool can be installed on any hardware or virtual server that is
63
School Level Deployments or Greater
64
-----------------------------------
66
For production deployment in a school or district, a real or virtual server
67
dedicated to only running SchoolTool is recommended. This makes it easy to
68
resolve any puzzling operating system level problems by simply backing up the
69
SchoolTool database and data files, and reinstalling the whole system from
70
scratch. This can usually be done in about an hour.
72
SchoolTool can be hosted in "the cloud" on any server (physical or virtual)
73
that provides root access to the server OS or the equivalent. You will need
74
to have rights on the server to install software and add SchoolTool as a
75
system service. A simple "web hosting" service that allows you to add HTML
76
and PHP pages is not sufficient.
81
For personal use, SchoolTool can be installed and used on a personal desktop
82
or laptop computer running Ubuntu Linux, accessing the web interface locally.
83
This type of installation is not going to be under heavy load, since there is
84
only one user, but it will eat up some memory while running in the background.
86
Technical Specifications
87
------------------------
89
The primary bottleneck in SchoolTool's performance is usually memory. The
90
bare minimum RAM requirement for testing is estimated to be 512 megabytes.
91
At least 1 gigabyte of RAM, plus at least 2 gigabytes of swap space is
92
recommended and if you are setting up for a small production server, adding
93
more than 1 gigabyte of RAM is worth it if you can afford it. More memory
94
equals faster database performance.
96
Faster processors will make SchoolTool run faster. Over 1 GHz is recommended.
97
Generally speaking, SchoolTool performance will benefit more from raw
98
processor speed than adding cores running in parallel.
100
Ubuntu SchoolTool packages are available for low-power ARM architecture
101
processors, as well as i386 and AMD64 PC and server processors.
103
By the scale of modern storage technology, SchoolTool doesn't require
104
significant disk space. One gigabyte may handle it for quite a while.
105
Disk read and write speed is more important than volume.
added
removed
i18n/hi/build/html/_sources/system-requirements.txt
