Hi,
I'm interested in whether anyone has quantified performance and stability of Moodle when hosted on Windows environment as compared to a Linux one. Is the prefered use of Linux more to do with open source culture - or are there actual performance and compatibility issues with moodle/mahara and optional modules?
We're currently running moodle on LAMP, but our IT dept want to move to WAMP as they don't support Linux. So far I haven't seen any issues with my test platform on WAMP - but would like reassurance (or evidence) before this gets set in stone.
Thanks.
Gordon - It has been several years but I do remember a significant performance gain when we switched from Windows to Linux using the same hardware. Unfortunately, I do not have any specific numbers but it was enough to warrant the switch. That said, you may want to do some of your own load testing with JMeter or a similar tool to see what the performance differences might be for you. Peace - Anthony
Hi Anthony,
Thanks for the input and interesting to hear you saw significant differences - will do some load testing once I can duplicate of the live site on WAMP - will be interesting to see the results.
Hi Anthony,
Will be happy to share results once I have them - will post into performance forum.
I did set up a Windows / IIS test site a couple of years ago when just starting to use Moodle and found it to be problematic - kept having to tweak security settings to get anything to work which made me feel uneasy. Currently testing with Windows / Apache and having far fewer problems. Thanks.
Prolly has something to do with MS thinking that they could demonstrate five nines just through purchase price and having as two fundamental IT rules a) reboot often and b) one server=one service. If your IT Dept "doesn't support" *nix it likely doesn't really support you either....
Hi Marc,
Funny - I've been noticing that I had to reboot pretty often while tweaking themes on test site - but thought it was a caching issue rather than a windows one - had to turn off eaccelerator.
Have to say our IT guys are great for some things - but when it comes to Moodle it's just me (and I bet i'm not the only one out there). Fortunately have a MP for support with Linux, but would be great to have some real evidence one way or the other about whether the move to Windows is a good idea.
As an IT Director coming from Higher Education and now for a medium sized school district I have plenty of experience in both Windows and Linux. Both platforms have benefits... the magic is fitting the right OS to the right application.
In the case of Moodle, we found significant reasons to use the LAMP approach. We initially ran Moodle on a Windows platform with great success in a sandbox environment.
However, performance indicators led me to choose an Edubutu environment for the Moodle server (primarily MySQL performance). A strong case can be made for LAMP mostly because Linux is and was the native development platform for Moodle. It also keeps in line with the primary Open Source model.
Please note that we (My IT department) are primarily a Windows shop running on a VMWare ESX with iSCSI storage. However, we also run several Linux virtual servers to support several systems including Drupal and Moodle.
To give a salute to your IT group, it is difficult to support several server platforms. Typically, Windows is easier to support (point and click is easier than code and script system building). Easier = lower cost in labor. If I were to guess, your IT department may not have the funds to pay extended salaries... or other budget constraints make it harder to support multi-platform environments. Either way, it all comes down to a function of money.
I believe you would be equally successful running Moodle under a WAMP platform. I would not be afraid of trying it. There are plenty of experiences out there to support a decision like that.
2.5 cents worth… please pay the parking meter attendant
Garren,
Thanks for reply - suspect you're right that cost is an issue for IT supporting different platforms (and rightly so) - but user experience needs to be considered too, which is why this discussion has been useful.
This "Social forum" is non-technical. The usual place for this endless discussion is the "Hardware and Performance" forum at http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=596 run a search in that forum for "linux windows" for example See http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=132847
Also check the docs first: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Performance and http://docs.moodle.org/en/Performance_FAQ
Also check the docs first: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Performance and http://docs.moodle.org/en/Performance_FAQ
Visvanath,
Thanks for pointing me at the discussion - I did try a few keyword searches first but was surprised that I didn't come across any relevant posts - have to say I don't find the forum structure clear. Main reason for chosing the lounge is that I anticipated people here would also comment on wider user experience and not just purely technical standpoint. Thanks.
Hi Gordon
You are welcome!
> have to say I don't find the forum structure clear.
"Moodle Lounge" http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=55 is a different course. You get the full list of available courses at http://moodle.org/course/ The central meeting place of the community is the top one "Using Moodle" http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5
You get all sorts of forums under that. The technical performance issues and less-technical topics like "Which OS is better?" belong to the forum "Hardware and Performance" http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=596 as already mentioned. That one is Unix-heavy. If you want to see the Windows-world check "Windows-based Servers" http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=6799
> Main reason for chosing the lounge is that I anticipated people here would also comment on wider user experience and not just purely technical standpoint.
You are right in calling this discussion "broad". There is no purely technical Windows vs. Linux dicussion, it is comparing apples with oranges at best, emotional at its worst.
You are welcome!
> have to say I don't find the forum structure clear.
"Moodle Lounge" http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=55 is a different course. You get the full list of available courses at http://moodle.org/course/ The central meeting place of the community is the top one "Using Moodle" http://moodle.org/course/view.php?id=5
You get all sorts of forums under that. The technical performance issues and less-technical topics like "Which OS is better?" belong to the forum "Hardware and Performance" http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=596 as already mentioned. That one is Unix-heavy. If you want to see the Windows-world check "Windows-based Servers" http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=6799
> Main reason for chosing the lounge is that I anticipated people here would also comment on wider user experience and not just purely technical standpoint.
You are right in calling this discussion "broad". There is no purely technical Windows vs. Linux dicussion, it is comparing apples with oranges at best, emotional at its worst.