Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Bob Herrmann -
Number of replies: 16

I'm sure I'm doing something wrong or missing steps.  maybe someone can help me out.  I downloaded Moodle 3.0 zip file and copied to the server at our hosting company.  I unzipped the file.  I was looking at the folders under Moodle, and it looks like everything is there.  I thought I could now start using Moodle.  Or am I missing steps?  I have not created a database.  It seems Moodle would need a database.  I can't seem to find instructions on what i should do next.  And maybe I installed incorrectly.  Can I just copy and paste the Moodle folder to my site as I did?  

I'm doing all of this on a Windows server.


Any help would be appreciated!



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In reply to Bob Herrmann

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Bob,

Moodle being a dynamic learning script, it has to be built upon 3 underlying requirements, Web Server (That'll be  your IIS comes bundled with Windows Server O/S), Application server as in PHP as Moodle is written in PHP, and finally database server (MySQL,MariaDB, MS-SQL etc etc)

Just follow instructions HERE. As I created the videos for people just like us starting with Moodle on Windows server having no idea what to do. God willing In 2 hours time you'll be up and ready with Moodle running on your server.

Watch both videos, but preferably use 2nd video method using PHP manager.

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In reply to Usman Asar

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Bob Herrmann -

Thanks Usman!  


I'll check it out later today.

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In reply to Bob Herrmann

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Bob Herrmann -

Is there a step by step document available?  I was having a hard time with the videos and all.  I am a .Net web developer who was assigned the task of installing Moodle which somebody stumbled upon here at our company.  I know nothing about PHP, IIS, or configuring servers.  I know I'm asking a lot, but I was hoping there was an install document somewhere that would tell me exactly what to do each step of the way.


I didn't let the videos run long enough.  Seems like at first, nothing was happening.  I now see where the video is guiding me.  So ignore my rant above for now. smile

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In reply to Bob Herrmann

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

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

https://docs.moodle.org/30/en/Category:Installation

There is all sorts of documentation...

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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Bob Herrmann -

Thanks Emma.  My biggest problem is that I'm not a network / internet admin guy.  We had a guy like that here who suddenly quit.  The rest of us are web developers with little skills in this area.  I am scared to death to make changes to the server at our hosting company since I don't know what I'm doing.  I can't jeopardize messing up our eCommerce web site.  I don't even know what version of Windows we run on our server.

But I will take a look at the link you sent and I do believe everything I need is there.  I just don't know where to start.


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In reply to Bob Herrmann

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

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

Take the time to go through Usman's video - he really is very good on Windows - I am more of a linux person...if you have a hosting company - ask them if you have the necessary environment - they should be able to assist you with the basics of getting ready to install.

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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Bob Herrmann -

Thanks.

Yes, I will continue with Usman's videos.  I will probably have more questions as I progress.  smile

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In reply to Bob Herrmann

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Bob, the video was created for those who sat for the first time on windows server, that is why I took things slow considering Moodle users are usually teachers with no IT backgrounds, and yet you have .net development experience, so shouldn't be hard for you.

should you want documentation, then follow THIS link, this is though a bit old but this is the only one I could find.

As you just mentioned setting up server on already running server with several eCommerce sites, then tell me few things before I can assist you.

What Server version you're using?

PHP version?

also, what DataBase you're running?

I am hard time believing you've been handed already running server to try and test installing moodle on? unless it's NON-PAYING clients that your company wants to get rid of, not a good idea testing on a production server.

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In reply to Usman Asar

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Bob Herrmann -

1. I'm not sure what Windows server version we are using.  Like I said, our network / internet admin suddenly left.  I will have to check with our hosting company.

2. We don't use PHP so I'm struggling with what i need to do.

3. For our eCommerce site, we use MS SQL Server 2012.


I created a subdomain on the server at our hosting company.  I copied the unzipped Moodle files to this subdomain.  I did this so that I do not interfere with our eCommerce site which i developed.


I'm really weak with server administration.  I'm also very weak with IIS, SQL administration, security, permissions, etc.  My talent is in created ASP.Net web pages using C# and VB.Net that access a SQL database.  

Now I'm worried about using our production server to test the Moodle system.


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In reply to Bob Herrmann

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

If that is MS SQL server, then you can make use of it, as the document I referred to is built upon MS SQL Server, but then because MS SQL server uses ports 1433 as default, whilst MySQL/MariaDB uses 3306, so there is no conflict here, you can use either.

Regarding your Server, right click My Computer and open properties, it will tell you which version you're on, and as you just mentioned your other sites are on ASP, then again conflict free setup it would be, for PHP will take care of Moodle separately. So you're safe to use this production server for Moodle test.

As long as you're on Server 2008 R2 (came with IIS 7.5) there aren't many additional things, as for any previous versions, in IIS 7, you've to install FastCGI as separate module to handle PHP and any previous to that uses CGI to run PHP which isn't recommended for performance.

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In reply to Usman Asar

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Bob Herrmann -

Yes, we use MS SQL Server 2012.

We are running Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard,

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In reply to Bob Herrmann

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

OK All things good to go

now remains your choice regarding DB server, either install MySQL/MariaDB or use MS-SQL that is already there.

as .NET developer, I am sure you must have good grasp on MS-SQL Server, so just create a new moodle DB with test user and you're good.

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In reply to Usman Asar

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Bob Herrmann -

Usman,

Yes, I can create the SQL db.  That i can do.  

Also, I talked this over with my boss and we can get a cheap, shared server at our hosting company for $4 a month.  We may do that instead of messing around with our production server.  They offer Linux solutions as well.

Are we better off using Linux or Windows in your opinion?

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In reply to Bob Herrmann

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Bob, that remains your choice where to go, for since PHP 7 supporting 64-bit on Windows platform, both platforms are good to go, then it comes  down to your knowledge of servers, the more comfortable you are with a platform, go with that. I choose to go ahead with Windows for my understanding of Windows servers more than Linux.

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In reply to Bob Herrmann

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

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

Windows has done pretty well in recent years.  I always recommend linux - it always used to have better performance (but I don't think that is necessarily true any more) and with the exception of Usman (who is extremely helpful to our windows users) the majority of us use linux.  We do have some step by step solutions for linux installations.

If you do go with a hosted server, make sure it has enough resources to run Moodle.

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In reply to Emma Richardson

Re: Newbie: After install, how do I call first moodle page?

by Usman Asar -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Emma, thanks for appreciation for it's more than i deserve! people do use Windows servers, it's just that it's seldom discussed here so community members dont tend to open up discussions, else most of the links coming in to my blog posts are from educational institutes and some US defense contractors, and since PHP 7 with true 64-bit support on windows platform, I have seen windows server performing really well as last night I did thorough test between (CentOS + LiteSpeed + OpCache) on 3GB RAM & Windows Server 2012 R2 with IIS with OpCache + WinCache (latest build for PHP 7) on 2GB RAM and IIS, a small 100MB test course was done in 62 secs on Windows whilst took 142 seconds on Linux, also page rendering speed + amount of RAM was at least 20% less on Windows Server.

One of the points of PHP's 64-bit long integer support on Windows was has already been taken care of since PHP 7, whilst other being Linux doesn't require defragmentaion and windows does, SSD drives which are becoming crucial part of server platforms for their low power and heat consumption, doesn't require defragmentation anyway, and last being a full GUI vs command line interface, then with Server 2016, they are bringing Nano server, absolutely stripped off version of windows (not taking about Server core, that came with 2012/R2) and takes 2/3 seconds for a full reboot.

So now besides Moodle, I am going to push myself into learning more of Windows platform, and if it assists others on Community, why not!


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