Install Guides

 

• Blackboard 7.0 or 8.0
• Java 5.0 or above

NOTES:

• For information on new features and/or bugs fixed in this version, please read the release notes.
• If Expo LX is installed on your Blackboard server, it is required to upgrade Expo LX to v3.0.10 before you upgrade Teams LX and Journal LX to v3.0.10. Additionally, it is important that the Expo LX, Teams LX and Journal LX building blocks are all upgraded to 3.0.10.
• Building block update: If upgrading from a 2.8.x or later version of Teams LX, be sure to run the "Archive tool links" administration task PRIOR to uninstalling Teams LX. For more step-by-step instructions, see the "Update/Upgrade" section below.

 

Due to an issue in Blackboard, you may experience a "PermGen space" error when installing or activating Campus Pack. The PermGen space is a special area of the Java memory map, called the permanent generation heap, used to hold class files and related data. Repeatedly installing building blocks tends to leak memory in this heap. When the heap becomes full, building blocks may fail. Sometimes they fail when they are activated (made available); other times they fail during use. Typically, restarting Blackboard (or just Tomcat) will resolve the error, as all old classfiles will be eliminated. Deployments that perform nightly Blackboard restarts rarely see this problem; on the other hand, deployments that have not restarted in some time are quite likely to see it.

As of Blackboard 7.2, 256 MB is allocated to the permanent generation heap. This is sufficient for many building block installations. Earlier versions of Blackboard allocated only 64 MB which is not sufficient to support installing many building blocks. On such systems it may be necessary to increase the PermGen space to prevent the out-of-memory error from occurring. To do so, perform the following steps:

1.       Edit the file blackboard/config/bb-config.properties. Note that this file may use UNIX line feeds which are hard to edit under Windows; it will appear as one long line with square characters instead of new lines. Please do your best to edit it anyway.

2.       Search for the bbconfig.jvm.options.extra.tomcat setting (you can typically just run a Find for "extra").

3.       Add the following value after the = character:
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m -XX:PermSize=64m
This will increase the heap size from 64 MB to 256 MB.

4.       Run the blackboard/tools/admin/PushConfigUpdates script and wait for it to complete. If you have a load-balanced system with shared configuration then you will need to bounce Tomcat on your other appservers; otherwise repeat this process on each appserver.

Note that you should only perform this process if you are familiar with, and comfortable running, the PushConfigUpdates script. For further information or assistance, please contact support@learningobjects.com.

IMPORTANT: If you have a previous release of Teams LX on your server, please review the update section at the end of this document.

1.       Download the loi-teamslx-2.9.x.x.war file from the download site and save it to your desktop.

2.       Navigate to the System Admin tab in Blackboard.

3.       Click on Manage Building Blocks.

4.       Click on Install Building Block.

5.       Click on the Browse button.

6.       Navigate to your desktop, and find and select the saved loi-teamslx-2.9.x.x.war file.

7.       Click the Submit button on the web page. The file will then upload.

8.       Click on the OK button on the receipt page to return to the Manage Building Blocks page.

9.       Change the status of Teams LX to Available. In Blackboard versions prior to 7.2, availability is set only for the entire institution. In Blackboard 7.2, the availability must be set for both the system and courses/orgs. Note: If the Teams Building Block is not enabled here for all courses and organizations, then Teams must be enabled individually in each course by the instructor.

10.   Click on the OK button on the Make Building Block Available page.

11.   The extension is now installed.

1.       Login to the Blackboard server as an administrator.

2.       Click on the System Admin tab.

3.       Click on Manage Teams LX link under Tools.

4.       Click on the Register your extension link.

5.       Complete the form on the Register Teams LX page and accept the license. If you do not have a promotional code, leave that field blank.

6.       Click Submit on the form.

7.       Click OK on the receipt page.

Within 24 hours, a registration key will be emailed to the address entered in the form.

8.       Return to the Teams LX License page.

9.       Click on the Install your key link.

10.   Copy the key from your email into the text box.

11.   Accept the license.

12.   Click Submit on the form.

13.   The extension is now registered.

1.       Login to the Blackboard server as an administrator.

2.       Click on the System Admin tab.

3.       Click on Manage Teams LX link under Tools.

4.       Click on Configure Teams Portal Module and follow the instructions.

1.       Login to the Blackboard server as an administrator.

2.       Click on the System Admin tab.

3.       Click on the Manage Teams LX link under Admin Tools.

4.       Click on the Manage Settings link.

5.       Update the name of the tab that the Teams LX portal module is on.

6.       Update the concurrent editing options.

7.       Click Submit.

A full list of known issues is in the Campus Pack release notes

If a previous release of Teams LX is installed, it must be uninstalled by following the uninstall instructions (below), and then installing the newer release.
If upgrading from a 2.7.x or earlier version of Teams LX, please contact support@learningobjects.com for additional upgrade details.
If upgrading from a 2.8.x version of Teams LX, you must execute the "Archive tool links" admin task PRIOR to uninstalling in order to ensure that tool links will not be lost. To do this, perform the following steps:

1.       Navigate to the Admin Panel and select the Manage Teams LX link.

2.       Select the "Administration Tasks" link.

3.       Select the "Execute" button for the "Archive tool links" task.

4.       When the archive task is complete, the state will be listed as "ok." Once the task is complete, uninstall the Teams LX Building Block and install the new version.

5.       Install the new version of Teams LX and make it available.

6.       After installation is complete, navigate back to the "Administration Tasks" page.

7.       Select the "Execute" button for the "Restore tool links" task.

8.       When the archive task is complete, the state will be listed as "ok" and all tool links to the wiki tool will be restored.

• All Teams LX content remains in the system during an upgrade. There is no need to do anything to any Teams sites or their content.
• If a link to the Teams LX tool existed in the course menu prior to upgrade, the link must be re-created after upgrade. The content that existed in the tool prior to upgrade will be accessible after re-creating the link.
• If a license key was installed with the previous release, it will continue to function with the newer release. The license does not need to be reapplied.
• If the Teams LX course tool was disabled, it must be re-disabled after the update.
• If you are on Blackboard 7 or later, a Migrate Filenames script will automatically be run upon installation of the 2.8.x build in order to avoid corruption of Teams wikis due to a bug in Blackboard 7. To review the status of this script, navigate to the Manage Teams LX area in the Administrator Panel and select the "Administration Tasks" link. The "Migrate old-format filenames" task will indicate the progress of this script. If the script has not fully executed, you may select the "Execute" button for this task in order to execute the script manually.
  Note: In previous versions of Teams LX, adminstrators were required to run the Migrate Filenames script. This is the same script, but the administrator is no longer required to manually initiate the script.

If you have a load-balanced configuration, special care must be taken when upgrading to be sure that all of the application servers properly reload the new version. The best way to ensure this is to restart each application server after upgrading each of the Campus Pack applications. If you are unable to restart your application servers, please wait 2 to 5 minutes after removing the old versions before attempting to install the new ones.

You can check to be sure that each of the application servers upgraded correctly by viewing the Teams LX logs.

1.       Login to the Blackboard server as an administrator.

2.       Click on the System Admin tab.

3.       Click on Manage Teams LX.

4.       Click Download Logs.

5.       When prompted, save the log archive to a temporary location.

6.       Open the ZIP file and view each of the included Teams LX log files. There should be one for each application server.

7.       Look in each log for a message showing that the old version stopped, and a following message showing that the new version started.
Example:

2009-06-22 14:50:42|INFO: Teams LX v2.8.0.4487 stopped [com.learningobjects.util.ExtensionUtil.destroy]

2009-06-22 14:58:41|INFO: Logging at level INFO [com.learningobjects.util.ExtensionUtil.initLogging]

2009-06-22 14:58:41|INFO: Teams LX vx.x.x.x started on Blackboard v7.1.1.374 [com.learningobjects.util.ExtensionUtil.init]

8.       If any application server is missing these messages, restart Tomcat on that server to force it to reload the application. After it finishes restarting, check the log for that host again to ensure that the correct version is running

Uninstall

IMPORTANT: Due to an issue with the uninstall process in Blackboard; additional steps must be taken to fully remove a building block.

1.       Login to the Blackboard server as an administrator.

2.       Click on the System Admin tab.

3.       Click on Manage Building Blocks.

4.       Change the status of Teams LX to Inactive.

5.       Click on the OK button on the receipt page to return to the Manage Building Blocks page.

6.       Return to the Manage Building Blocks page.

7.       Click on the remove button for Teams LX.

Upgrading Blackboard

If you are upgrading to Blackboard 9, before starting the upgrade, it is recommended that you install Teams LX 3.0.10. If upgrading from a 2.8.x or later version of Teams LX, be sure to run the "Archive tool links" administration task PRIOR to uninstalling Teams LX. For more step-by-step instructions, see the "Update/Upgrade" section above. If upgrading from a 2.7.x or earlier version of Teams LX, please contact support@learningobjects.com for additional upgrade details.