Moving from GoDaddy Shared Linux Hosting to Virtual Private Server

Re: Moving from GoDaddy Shared Linux Hosting to Virtual Private Server

by Gary Lebowitz -
Number of replies: 5

Hi Rick,

Thanks for getting back to me. I have decided to just rebuild my single course in the clean Moodle 2.2.3 install I did. I have one database that the automated install created (automatically given the name moodle6, just to give you an idea of how much trouble I was having getting the car to start!). My question now is related to the video streaming feature we talked some time back that is built right into the Moodle platform. I uploaded an .FLV file to a resources directory in my Moodle 2.2.3 and created an "external" URL link in the Add Resource area when in editing mode. And I do indeed see the video. But at least when using UBUNTU to open Moodle, I am asked to download to my harddisk! Which is not at all what I wanted; what I wanted was to have a window open with no way for the user to download the file. I thought that's what the video streaming feature of Moodle itself would get me; maybe I was wrong. I realize, as Howard pointed out earlier, that there is no way I can make sure someone doesn't do a video of the screen or something more sophisticated to get the contents of the video, but I did promise my people that at least there would be no "Click here to download" button that pops up. Any ideas as to what I'm doing "wrong" here? I tried to upload the file using the File Picker, but all I got there was a little spinning icon to show that was happening, but I let it go for hours, but at the end of those hours I saw no file in the files area. My PHP setting should allow files of 120MBytes in size be uploaded, and the file in question was only 110MBytes. Or maybe there is somewhere else besides the php5.ini in my Moodle setup that I should tell my virtual dedicated server to allow bigger files be uploaded. Maybe it's like that that I need to do the streaming and not by creating an "external" URL pointing to the same VDS where boh the Moodle 2.2.3 site is installed and all resources (in an appropriate subdirectory on the same server). Any help will be appreciated as usual. I am getting really close now I feel. And am about to use the materials in my Dropbox account to recreate the course and re-add the 11 people who will be continuing on.

Finally, I have used the chat facility of Godaddy that one gets with a VDS. The people there are highly competent, by the way, and willing to teach newbies whatever they want to be taught. I've used it a couple of times and it's a very efficient way to get help.

Regards,

Gary

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Re: Moving from GoDaddy Shared Linux Hosting to Virtual Private Server

by Gary Lebowitz -

Hi Rick et all,

Just an update re my previous post and to avoid your having to figure out what's going on. I fixed my problem and the streaming this time is happening the way I want it to. No download possibility within the free Flowplayer that is now popping up with each resource. I think I had the right link but the wrong info in the HTML behind the link so I just went into the HTML editor and fixed the directory reference (that was out of sync with the link due to updating one but not the other). All is now well. This is what I wanted Moodle to do for me. And it is. smile smile smile

Regards,

Gary

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Re: Moving from GoDaddy Shared Linux Hosting to Virtual Private Server

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

Well, it is good to hear that you are there!  Now you can have some fun with your course.

Yes, I agree that the GoDaddy "Chat" folks are quite good.  Sometimes, I will use my Dragon Naturally Speaking product to type what I say.

Hopefully, your administrators will appreciate what you have done.  I think your students will enjoy Moodle.

I think that the way to accurately describe your video playing is "progressive downloads", not "streaming".  But everyone calls it streaming.  One reference is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_download.

I doubt that your administrators will really want to know the difference.  You have avoided the easy "right-click to download" scenario.

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Re: Moving from GoDaddy Shared Linux Hosting to Virtual Private Server

by Gary Lebowitz -

Hi again, Rick,

OK, I have the videos running properly and got the MySQL database imported correctly into the new site on the new server with no hiccups; the only thing that is giving me trouble now it the import of a 0.9 Gig upload of one of the the two courses I'd like to upload. I am getting a message saying that max_post_size limite directive in php.ini might be wrong. Well, I went into both php5.ini and /etc/php.ini via vi and upped the max_post_size to 2000M. But still I get this message and cannot import my unzipped course. Given the fact that I have all course materials I could simply (and I might just do this) rebuild the course manually. But it would be nice to know what the heck's going on. Have you ever run into this problem? Just to be sure I asked the fine folks at GoDaddy if they or CentOS 6.3 put a cap on file sizes (0.9 Gig being pretty big), but they say no they don't. And I assume Moodle 2.2.3 doesn't as long as /etc php.ini and php.5.ini are not artificially limiting size. Again, help would be appreciated just in case I ever have to restore a much larger set of courses. By the way, might it be an idea to restore not just the course, but rather the entire moodle site from a large downloaded backup file? Regards, Gary

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Re: Moving from GoDaddy Shared Linux Hosting to Virtual Private Server

by Rick Jerz -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Testers

You may still need to do a few more things.

In php.ini, change upload_max_filesize to 2000M, and maybe max_execution_time to 600.

Then, you may also need to reboot your server (from your control panel) so that these changes take effect.

You might have global php.ini file and a user php.ini file.  I am not sure which one is controlling your Moodle install.

You might not have an info.php file in your website root, so I am attaching mine for you to move there.  If you put this in your root, then type www.yourdomain.com/info.php, it will report what your server sees.  You can then verify that your changes are correct.  It is suggested good practice not to keep this info.php alive on your server.

You might also want to reduce the filesize limits once you do your moves so that you don't accidentally allow students to upload 1GB files to your Moodle.

Not being a Moodle administrator, I hope that I am on target with my advice.  Others might be able to jump in and clarify what I am it saying.

I do site backups because my entire site is not that big.  My moodledata file is now 1.3GB.  This is after around 500 students, 20 courses, and 1 1/2 years of running 2.0.

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Re: Moving from GoDaddy Shared Linux Hosting to Virtual Private Server

by Gary Lebowitz -

Hi Rick,

Many thanks for your express reply! I will try doing all of this. I did reboot Apache, but maybe that isn't enough. I will also stick the file in and see what comes out. Will let you know. Regards, Gary

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