Spark Setup

Overview

This is a semi-technical tutorial that will walk the user through the process of installing Spark Teacher Evaluation System, created by DuPage High School District 88. Spark is distributed as a OVA virtual machine appliance. 

 

Setup

  1. Down load the spark virtual image from https://www.dupage88.net/getspark
  2. Import into your virtual environment of choice (VMWare, Virtual Box, etc)
  3. Power one the appliance and log in with the:
    1. Username: administrator
    2. Password: password
  4. Change your password by issuing the command passwd
  5. Configure a static IP address with the following command: sudo setup-network
  6. Open a web browser and navigate to the IP address you just assigned the host
  7. Login with the following username and password:
    1. Username: admin
    2. Password: password

Adding Users

User accounts for Spark are managed with a bridge system called User Central Management created by DuPage High School District 88.  This system can be configured to connect to a LDAP server to allow a single password experience for your staff members.   

  1. Open a web browser and navigate to:
    http://x.x.x.x:8080/DoubleThink

    where x.x.x.x is the ip address of your appliance
  2.  Login with the following username and password:
    Username: admin
    Password: password
  3. Click on the "Users" tile.
  4. Click "Add User"
  5. Select "Staff" user type.
  6. Complete the user form.  
  7. Now locate the user in the user list
  8. Click on the Check Mark icon under actions
  9. Assign the user one of the following roles:
        net.dupage88.role.spark.building.admin
        net.dupage88.role.spark.super.admin
        net.dupage88.role.staff

Updating Spark


Spark is updated using the standard update method for updating packages in Ubuntu, with the command apt.  

You can check for updates by issuing the following commands:

sudo apt update

sudo apt upgrade

After updating spark you'll need to confirm that the backend address is correct in the following file:

/var/www/html/assets/config/configuration.json

The IP address (or hostname) in this file should be the IP address of the server running spark, if not you'll need to update this file manually or running the sudo setup-network command will also update this configuration file.