Just starting

Just starting

by Windell Frederick Rebong -
Number of replies: 11
Hello everyone. We have a PowerFrame MF 5000 Platform http://www.xitrix.net/cgi-bin/bin/p_detail.pl?partid=105 What OS do you recommend we get if we will use this as our Moodle server? Thank you very much.
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In reply to Windell Frederick Rebong

Re: Just starting

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

What on earth is one of those? Don't expect us to go and read the specs... wink

Moving to hardware and performance too!

In reply to Windell Frederick Rebong

Re: Just starting

by Visvanath Ratnaweera -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Translators
The usual answer is, take the OS you know well. Implicitly it means, you know the OS well enough that you know it will work and how. The illogical part is, in that case you won't be asking here! If you ask, people will adivice you the OS which _they_ know well!

BTW, what kind of load? 3 kW is lot of power for teaching! "Up to four 1,000-watt DC output power supply modules with 110-240V AC input. [Full system configuration power requirements: 3,000 watts" http://www.xitrix.net/cgi-bin/bin/p_detail.pl?partid=105]

Did you go through the initial pointers in https://moodle.org/mod/forum/post.php?forum=94 ?

P.S. What are exceptiona? The website says, "A simple, flexible system that provides exceptiona".
In reply to Windell Frederick Rebong

Re: Just starting

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Its based on a chipset that is 9 years old, utilizing dying DDR-2 technology, unless you got all modules pre-packed with 32GB Memory, finding and buying memory for this server would not only be difficult, but thrice the cost of buying the latest memory modules.

but, with box already in shelf and Marcus and Visvanath already have made their recommendations, and mine's not different, but this old machine I would not recommend for a Windows based servers, as the licensing cost for the Windows O/S would be 10 times for what you've actually paid for this, so ideally go for Linux.

In reply to Windell Frederick Rebong

Re: Just starting

by Albert Ramsbottom -

Physical hardware? I had forgotten that it even existed

clown

Been at least 6 years since I saw and touched a server

I would put it in a box, in the loft and sell it as classic in 10 years to a museum


But in answering the question you should use whatever you are familiar with.  If you only use Windows then go for it, although Moodle works better on Linux. But you have no experience in Linux then it will be a pain to set up and even worse to maintain

Albert


In reply to Albert Ramsbottom

Re: Just starting

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

You wrote:
> But you have no experience in Linux then it will be a pain to set up and even worse to maintain

I am deeply sorry that you had this experience. As far as the answer to the OP goes, _you_ here means not the OP but, you, Albert, right?

P.S. The note about virtual servers is usefull. A 3 kW Moodle server for an unknown load will give us more historical summers like the one this year.
In reply to Visvanath Ratnaweera

Re: Just starting

by Fakhr Ezzeldeen -

Hi Visvanath ,

- From the previous posts I knew that no issues faced with Ms Windows  but I knew before that Moodle is not recommending Windows because it  has technical issues and it ( windows) will not be stable with moodle , and Moodle is recommending  Linux , so please help me about that ,

- What about moodle with blade servers and SAN storage  ( installation and configuration .....etc.)

https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Windows_installation


Thanks


Fakhr

In reply to Fakhr Ezzeldeen

Re: Just starting

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

We run Moodle within HyperV on a blade server with SAN storage.  We use Linux Debian for our OS.  I am not sure why the comments about Linux being a pain to set up and worse to maintain.  When I started, I had never used Linux..after a day of getting over the initial fear, I had my site up and running in a couple of hours.  Maintenance has never been an issue...the phrase "it just works" comes to mind! 

The main advantage is the Linux is reported to run Moodle more efficiently and faster than Windows. 

In reply to Fakhr Ezzeldeen

Re: Just starting

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Who said moodle has technical issues with windows?

On my post I recommended windows considering his hardware is based on blade servers, so he has to buy a license for every blade, where Linux is free.

Considering performance, there are schools with 10000+ students enrolled running their Moodle on windows servers, the only point that arises is support for 64-bit PHP on windows platform which is going to overcome in PHP 7.0 though still experimental packages are available in all current versions.

It's all about your comfort, you may end up with disaster even on a Linux platform if you don't know how to optimize the software and hardware, so my recommendation, choose which ever platform you are good at.

In reply to Usman Asar

Re: Just starting

by ben reynolds -

At least some Moodle Docs pages are clear that Windows is not the ideal server.

On the basis of those pages, my institution pushed to get off Windows servers, which we found slow and cumbersome.

Since moving to linux varieties, we are much happier.

In reply to Fakhr Ezzeldeen

Re: Just starting

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

Where did I say Windows is unsuitable? There are many Moodle sites on Windows servers, some of them even very big. What I said was: "take the OS you know well". Which translates to: Those who run Moodle on Windows servers know their operating system!
wink

Your question:
> - What about moodle with blade servers and SAN storage ( installation and configuration .....etc.)
> https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Windows_installation

Sorry, I can not answer that, simply because I do not use MS Windows - neither servers nor clients!

P.S. I believe your question should be a new discussion rather than attached to https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=317493#p1273449.