Installing and upgrading help

Greetings Luis Carlos,

I am in the same boat, I have given up. I think I will just start a new environment on Moodle 2.7.  There is no direct path, in theory this is the upgrade path 1.9.6 >1.9.latest>2.2>2.7

Now, let me tell you I am very new too Moodle, however, I have tried upgrading moodle 1.9.7 to moodle 2.7 and I have not been successful. Everything is fine up to version 1.9.12. After that, you start having all sorts of problems.

I have tried this procedure at least 300 times in the last 4 months, I am not lying.

If you care for my thoughts, these are it:

1. A lot of the plugins used in Moodle 1.9.X are not available in moodle 2.7 let alone 2.8 (e.g. Trouble ticket )

2. Some of the quiz question types are re-formatted or lost. So you will have errors in your quizzes.

3. Your theme in moodle 1.9.X will definitely not work in versions 2.X and you will have to re-create it.

4. I found myself having to change the database from being "utf8_unicode_ci" to "utf8_general_ci" because if you leave it unicode, you will run in to problems when trying to upgrade to anything newer than Moodle 2.2

5. In my opinion, it is way too much work to upgrade rather than start a new environment. It even says it here: 

https://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Upgrading_to_Moodle_2.0

"Lastly, consider not upgrading at all. It might be a good time to start with a completely fresh install of Moodle 2.0 and migrate your courses over (note that restoring 1.9 course backups into Moodle 2 will not be available until Moodle 2.1 is released)."

So pretty much moodle official documentation is saying If you can, don't upgrade. Just start from scratch.

That being said, give the path I listed above a try. Folks in these forums are very helpful.

Cheers!
DM

PS. Provide more information like what OS is your server running is this a Linux or Windows Server?

Cheers!
DM

Luis, here are few videos that I created for someone once upgrading their moodle from 1.9 to onwards, may be they will help.

Video 1: http://www.screencast.com/t/7di1TIv9NH

2: http://www.screencast.com/t/isCbx6rnVd

3: http://www.screencast.com/t/QfsROwJCz

4: http://www.screencast.com/t/p59D8pnX8h

5: http://www.screencast.com/t/BKK0rRLd1

6: http://www.screencast.com/t/ZtdiUTSrItGX

Well, am going to add to the confusion here, but after having had much experience at the 'moodle march', the one approach I've not take, I now think might actually be the 'best' .... depending upon number of courses, knowledge of teachers in learning new and rebuilding courses, etc..

Bottom lines:

1. leave the 1.9.6 but upgrade it to highest 1.9.19 (I think).   That in itself is enough of a challenge via the upgrade route.

2. install a fresh 2.7 (assuming the server meets the requirements to be able to run both the 1.9.19 and the 2.7).

3. In the 1.9.highest, do a custom backup of the courses .... however, do NOT backup any link that is to a file or that contains files.   Reason/purpose: avoiding legacy files (new file system is a major change in 2 and once a course is in 'legacy' it's in legacy forever and ever (one of these days Moodle HQ will drop support for legacy files).   Don't include quizzes ... you can export them instead and import them after the course has been established in the 2.   If you had any addon in the 1.9 don't include them in the backup.   Also do NOT include any users - they won't come across anyway.

4. in the new 2.7 restore the course (considering that you've stripped it of many items that cause higher processing and have 'hickups' those restores should be fairly quick and 'trouble free' (fingers crossed).   Then add your files and links to files (those files will be under the new and improved file system then - ie, no legacy).   Import the exported quiz banks in the 2.   NOTE: quiz banks might still need to be rebuilt to some extent ... hopefully you've not used any quiz addons that are no longer present in any 2 or have been known to cause issues.

One side advantage in doing this ... it does force the teacher to re-think what activities/resources, etc. they might have been using for years.   Might even explore new media - audio/video (files or resources).

What you end up with ... re-constructed courses with no legacy files and perhaps a better course.

Yes, it's work.   If you have many courses, maybe not the best choice ... but let's talk migration of site now ....

Taking a 1.9.hghest to 2.2.highest will convert all the files linked into legacy.   You'll have to continue to use Legacy  until the courses that contain legacy have been rebuilt to remove it.  New courses, BTW, do not use legacy.

Users won't come across so all users will have to be re-imported - or go through whatever process you desire to register for courses.

It's been my experience, that only site migrations and upgrades done via git (which involved command line)  are less troublesome ... the 'old' ftp up etc., while it can be done, takes many hours and prone to human error (more so than git).   At each upgrade, best to do a full site backup as a fall back point should the next 'step upwards' fail for some reason (you've not lost all you've gained).

So the real bottom line ... any direction you go there is yin/yang and there will be work to do.   Pick your poison and enjoy the ride! ;)

And for future note ... don't wait so long ... ie, don't get so far behind in versions it becomes a major undertaking.   Moodle marches only forward ... never staying the same.   When they release 2.9 would think that it time to upgrade the 2.7 you have.  Kinda like the philosophy of Windows upgrades.

'spirit of sharing', Ken