VMWare for Moodle 2.2

VMWare for Moodle 2.2

by Tiffany Morgan -
Number of replies: 6

We are looking at upgrading to Moodle 2.2. In meeting with server admins the question was asked of me "Can Moodle 2.2 run on VMware?" My search of the forums and docs seems to suggest it is not a good idea, but those posts were 3-4 years old. 

I'm wondering with this most recent version is the recommendation still to avoid VMware?

Our current conncurrent users number is fairly low (we only serve ~900 students per year), but it is possible we could ramp up those numbers soon to ~2000 per year so maybe ~250 concurrent users.

Thanks!

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In reply to Tiffany Morgan

Re: VMWare for Moodle 2.2

by Tim Hunt -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

That advice probably is out of date.

These days, the OU is running our web servers in VMs. However, we keep the database as real hardware for various reasons to do with performance.

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In reply to Tiffany Morgan

Re: VMWare for Moodle 2.2

by Grant Mucha -

Hi Tiffany,

I cannot see any reason to avoid VMware.

The above will depend on how many virtual machines you are running, the type of hardware, and lastely the configuration.

You may find issues IO issues, if you use inadequate hardware or your not familar with VMware setup.

-G

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In reply to Tiffany Morgan

Re: VMWare for Moodle 2.2

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Hi

> We are looking at upgrading to Moodle 2.2. In meeting with server admins the question was asked of me "Can Moodle 2.2 run on VMware?"

First of all, the connection between upgrading Moodle and running it on VMware is not clear to me. Is your present Moodle is not VMware? Or, does your migration plan involve running many Moodle instances in parallel which means as many virtual machines to your administrators?

Now tothe question: Of course Moodle 2.2 will run on VMware, or on most of the virtualization techniques available for that matter. The silent question could possibly be, "How efficient?"

> My search of the forums and docs seems to suggest it is not a good idea,

Still it would have been nice, if you quoted them, just to make sure that we are talking about the same thing. Here are all the posts in this forum with "vmware" in the body http://moodle.org/mod/forum/search.php?id=5&words=vmware&forumid=94.

> but those posts were 3-4 years old.

I'm not aware of a break through as far as VMware, *APM stack and Moodle is concerned.

> I'm wondering with this most recent version is the recommendation still to avoid VMware?

Versions of what? "LAMP" stack? Moodle? VMware? Note that you haven't even mentioned operating system. The kind of useful information is given in the introduction to this forum. Also note that VMware is not the only virtualization technology.

> Our current conncurrent users number is fairly low (we only serve ~900 students per year), but it is possible we could ramp up those numbers soon to ~2000 per year so maybe ~250 concurrent users.

This "concurrent users" thing needs some getting used to. Here is the most compact way of formulating it: http://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Performance_FAQ#How_do_you_define_.22concurrent_users.22.3F. Search this forum for those terms for more details.

Ask your IT people to go through the two document pages and make use of the 'advanced search facility' on this forum: all given in the introduction to this forum.
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In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: VMWare for Moodle 2.2

by Tiffany Morgan -

Thanks for the response

 

1.  Correct, we are not currently running on VMWare. It was not an option when we started our hosting contract. We have three instances of Moodle running on one server and and at the same time we make a move to Moodle 2.2 our hosting vendor wants to also move of to VMware.

2. Sorry I did not include them. 

3. The most recent version of Moodle. 

4. I reviewed the referenced post for concurrent users already and am using that as a source as I address other performance questions. 

5. I have passed it on to them but in the structure of my organization is my responsiblity to filter the info for them, which I do to the best of my abilty--sometimes I just dont know what I dont know. 

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In reply to Tiffany Morgan

Re: VMWare for Moodle 2.2

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
Hi Tiffany

1. Your vendor wants to move to VMware, you are supposed to prove that Moodle will work in their new environment? A funny twist of responsibilities!
sad

2. You can still include them.

3. OK. What about the other software components? Quoted from the introduction to this forum:

"Please include as much background information as possible about your hardware, the operating system, the web server, the database server, the PHP scripting framework, etc. If your machine is virtualized, also mention the host hardware, the operating system, the virtualization technology used and the resources assigned to the guest OS. If you use a hosting service, mention either the hosting provider and the package or the resources they've allocated to your Moodle instance."

4. OK

5. The vendor should be informed about this discussion itself.
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