Deployment plan for a school

Deployment plan for a school

由QLD BNE發表於
Number of replies: 3

Hi,


Since morning I keep reading moodle scenarios. I still couldn't get nor clarify followings. If you kindly share your profesional opinions that would be much appreciated. I am personally not very familiar linux environment.

Production Environment:

  • Dedicated HyperV virtual machine for Moodle only with Windows 2008 R2 Quad Core, 36GB DDR3, 400GB 15K RAID10
  • Active Directory, 1000 student and staff users will login with LDAP

 

Questions:

  1. Which MySQL version needs to be installed. On Moodle's doc, given link goes to 32 Bit MySQL! http://docs.moodle.org/23/en/Windows_installation  Since my environment is 64 Bit, I would like to use 64 Bit version of MySQL if possible but I could not find where it is! I found http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/ but file size is significantly smaller. That's why I little confused and asking which version of MySQL is most appropriate for me. If you could give me a link that would be great.
  2. Is it good idea to use for production environment Windows Web Platform Installer instead of dealing with the web server components one by one?
  3. If you highly recommended linux server, which distribution would you recommend?

Regards

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In reply to QLD BNE

Re: Deployment plan for a school

由Colin Fraser發表於
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If you go to the Standard Moodle Downloads page, that will give you the "minimum" specifications.

Be careful here, DO NOT download and use the Windows installer package. Use a standard package. The Windows installer is based in XAMPP, and was developed for non-technically literate persons who could not handle installing a web server, PHP and a DBMS as well as Moodle.

If you already have MSSQL on your system, use that, and not MySQL. For any number of reasons, you might find that more useful. Having said that, I have never used anything other than MySQL so have no real experience with MSSQL.

I know of no reason why you could not use 64bit MySQL, I don't think that an SQL database script would concern itself with 32 or 64 bit systems. I have had no trouble switching to a 64bit system, but then that Moodle was about 10% the size of the one you are planning.

My personal preference is to install things one at a time. To make sure each one is working before trying to setup the next. As you already have your server in place, and it is working, all you need do is ensure that PHP is working, then your DBMS is operational and useful then install the latest standard Moodle package.  It should all fit together without the need for WWPI. It takes a few minutes to setup the DBMS, and a few seconds to setup PHP. Are you using IIS? If so, there are a couple of extra considerations you have to make, but they are clearly detailed in the Docs. 

I have one Windows 7 box that is used in a small P2P network and that replaced an XP box within the last year. That system has not presented me with any real problems, as for a suggested Linux box, well, SuseLinux looks pretty good- but with so many flavours of Linux, just toss a dart at a list of all the linux releases and pick that one..微笑 

Moodle was developed in a Linux system, originally but it is a web application, that is it can work in any environment.   

The only think I would recommend, make sure you have a large number of TBs available for storage, you will be surprised how rapidly your Moodle will fill the available space once it gets going for real.

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In reply to Colin Fraser

Re: Deployment plan for a school

由QLD BNE發表於

Hi Colin,

 

Thanks very much for your detailed reply, much appreciated. I also was thinking to proceed step by step slowly one at a time. According to Windows 2008 R2's environment I would like to follow best practises. I also wanna thank you for the TB warning as I was thinking 400 GB was plenty 微笑)) I will definetely take your advise.

My existing SQL is already running in full capacity so that is not an option for me to utilize it for this purpose. I really need to clarify that database part. In that case should I deploy another MS SQL or MySQL? If MySQL, which one exactly I should proceed with?

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In reply to QLD BNE

Re: Deployment plan for a school

由Colin Fraser發表於
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You are using a dedicated virtual server, which means you should be able to create a new database in your existing MSSQL environment. It really depends on how comfortable you are with a known environment or an unknown environs- irrespective of how many instances that you are using.

I am more familiar with MySQL, so that would be my choice, but if you are happier using MSSQL, then use that. That should instantiate up to about 50 times I think it was.

.

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