What are the possible issues with moving an installation from Unix to Windows?
I have an existing 2.8.5 Moodle site on Redhat and MySQL.
I am without a Unix engineer but have lots of Windows engineers here at work. It was suggested that since we are 95% windows that perhaps we could move Moodle over to windows.
Your thoughts, please!
Constance
I never thought I would say this but if that is where your support is and there is no potential for change, then it is probably a wise decision.
Overall, most of us prefer Linux for running Moodle but the Windows environment has improved from what I understand in relation to Moodle and is no longer such an inferior option as it used to be.
There would have been issues in the past, since PHP support on Windows platform was limited to 32-bit with limited support for 64-bit, so large courses restore and backups could have been, since PHP 7 it comes with full support for 64-bit in windows platform. One catch though, So far only Moodle version 3.0.1 (onwards) are tested and certified to use with PHP 7, so i'll recommend upgrading your Moodle, or meanwhile use older versions of PHP 5.x.x until you upgrade.
Assuming your guys are good enough in setting up IIS environment for Moodle, if not, there is full tutorial on setting up IIS on Windows Server 2012 R2 for Moodle HERE. another recommendation, making use of Zend OpCache (that moodle recommends as well) together with WinCache plug-in specifically built by IIS team to accelerate PHP applications., and they have recently updated it for PHP 7 as well.
If you dont have hardware already, I'll as well recommend going through whole post.
This probably should be posted in ''Advocacy" but ... since you asked everyone ...
Truth in sharing ... am a Linux 'bigot'! And a correction ... RedHat isn't Unix ... it's Linux. ;)
Food for thought .... ok 95% Windows "Engineers" ... who/what is in the other 5%?
Do any of your Windows Engineers have experience with open source software on their platform?
Replying to own post ... how sick is that? (just trying to keep it in the thread, really).
My crystal ball is as good as anyone's so by all means take that into account.
In your 'industry' (from profile related to govt at city level?) like other 'industries' there is a great deal of interest (actually movement towards) mobile/wireless 24/7 connectivity and from anywhere.
Another question to ask ... how many of your Windows Engineers have Windows smartphones? How many have iPhones? Got any Androids? If it follows that Microsoft Centric staff/workstations, etc. should have a Moodle on the Mircosoft platform, then it should also follow that Windows Smartphones would be the phone of choice.
It used to be, in a Windows centric network, server and IT staff dictated what workstations were and what software was provided, etc.. Is that still true with web and mobile?
It might be advisable to get a handle on that and keep the "end point" (tech) in mind as well as the 'end in mind' (content) for how one uses the Moodle.
There's a generation coming of age ... you've heard of them coming ... millenials. It's natural ... and they are moving up in the work force AND having influence upon tech/IT, etc..
Heck, you might find that, for your industry, staff, folks you train, etc. a better platform might actually be Microsoft's newly announced 'Classroom' which centers around O365, etc.. (kinda doubt that, but ....).
Interesting times ...
'spirit of sharing', Ken
I should have said that 95% of our APPLICATIONS are windows-based. Any that are not MS WIndows were purchased/licensed or are open-source.
We have only MS engineers at this point and two people with minor knowledge of Unix/Linux. We are limping along, hoping for the best, etc. (Waiting for the hammer to fall...)
Yes, I work for city government and as finances become pinched they have become more open to the use of open source (non-MS) applications.
That said, HOWEVER, I can't get Moodle updated due to the lack of a qualified Unix/Linux engineer. My prod instance is actually 2.5; my dev is 2.8.5 and I am ready for prod if I can get an engineer to test one last conversion. [I don't want to attempt to go to prod with the current engineers without one more test. So I KNOW they can do it.]
So I am in a quandary.
Therefore, I am looking for issues that could arise if I attempt to do this conversion to Windows.
FYI - We are currently running on a VM on CentOS (and MySQL MyISAM) and our site is external, i.e. on the internet. It has been running fine. The upgrade to 2.8 required a new OS entirely and so our then engineer brought in Red Hat and I upgraded the DB to InnoDB. We have lots of balls in the air....
Your location doesn't lack for interest and local expertise
that could assist you with the few things that are relatively minor from what you've discribed.
RVaLUG - Richmond VA Linux Users Group
http://www.meetup.com/RVaLUG/members/
Where there is such groups, there are persons with expertise you seek.
Is City adverse to hiring a contractor to do what is needed on existing system? Does that contractor have to be a 'certified engineer' by city policy/requirement?
Granted it would be nice to have someone on staff and that could be the first 'go to person' but there are many corps (large ones too!) that outsource for the expertise and on a per job basis which isn't all that often (depending).
Wise to have current staff step through it cause the first steps in
migrating to another platform is a full site backup. Then restoring
that full site backup on the new platform.
But, I'll point out that is but tip of the iceburg .... then comes regular backups, maintenance and updates/upgrades. No direction chosen will result in 0 admin and/or update/upgrade once and forget it. Am sure you know that.
'spriit of sharing', Ken
That particular Unix engineer learned how to install Moodle and then moved to another job.
The Unix expertise is a Mainframe Systems Programmer nearing the end of his career.
That makes perfect sense and should illustrate changes that are happening. When Linux arrived on the grid, the first positions that were in danger of 'adapt or die' were Unix MainFrame types.
Fast forward ... 10+ years later ... shop is still MS centric. Citizens of Richmond have not stayed status quo .... mobile tech is now the rage. There isn't really any MS smart phone even considered in the 'race', Now I know we're talking about Moodle but .... sort of illustrates to me that Richmond needs to look around. And considering there is a freeze and budget is tight, etc. even more reason to run a 100% on reliable stable Linux ($0 cept for time of staff) as a place to start a strategic transition that needs to begin (note the word 'strategic'). Am not saying everyone MUST run a Linux desktop ... although there have been Cities that have done exactly that.
Now specific to Moodle ... ok, it's primary purpose is training of city staff, but what of educating the citizens on City matters? Every school is to teach about our political systems (City is one). One finds corps that are not in education, providing something instructional for kids/teachers to use. I's a BIG 'social plus' ... actually might lead to loyal cusotmers etc.. Hmmmm ... why? The 'training' of citizenship begins at an early age ... why not get involved ... with the Moodle.
Tip of iceburg?
This just in ... articles/postings like the following are NOT un-common:
http://www.zdnet.com/article/the-pc-industry-needs-to-evolve-or-get-ready-for-extinction/
'spirit of sharing', Ken
While it may make sense to standardise on a single operating system, a Moodle upgrade has very few operating system specific issues. It is unwise to switch your Operating System and Moodle version at the same time. Where I work our live and test systems are on Linux and run copies of those systems on a local Wamp/XAMPP (Windows).
The only time the operating system comes into play significantly is things like resizing disks and network configuration, but again these are not really Moodle specific.
There are no major issues with this, it's basically a case of building the new server and testing the migration process and that the resulting site meets the requirements. It sounds like you're already approaching this project in this way.
As Usman says you'll want PHP 5.5 or 5.6 for Moodle 2.8. This will need to be configured to work in IIS (Apache is an alternative). Microsoft have an installer for this, I prefer to follow PHP's instructions.
I normally start by installing MySQL and PHP and then setting up a temporary empty Moodle site to test that the basics are in place, mainly the PHP extensions are enabled and configured appropriately so that there are no warnings on the Moodle Environment report.
You can then backup the MySQL database on the Linux server, copy that across and restore it on the Windows Server server.
The Moodledata files can be copied across too, FileZilla can be used to transfer files via sftp.
(But "yes" to what everyone else is saying: deploying a CentOS 7 VM and upgrading to Moodle 2.8 on that should be a pretty straightforward operation if there's anyone available to you with Linux admin skills).
Here is a photo of a window engineer
Well my two pence worth!!
I am a Linux guy but after working with Windows, IIS, SQL Server last summer, I have to say that apart from a few issues with large backups the platform was faster than any Linux installation I have used
I couldn't believe it really, multi-node web servers, with replicated moode data, fast as lightning
Sorry, really sorry
Albert
I do appreciate all of the replies. I agree that changing the OS AND the version at the same time is not good.
So perhaps we will migrate the current 2.8.5 into prod and then go about an upgrade to Windows. I don't know. Having a meeting today about this at work.
The current situation is that we are frozen on positions and must get City Council permission to fill ANY jobs here. All discretionary spending (even coffee & cups) is frozen. So a contractor is not an option.
It may come down to me learning to be a UNIX admin myself.
However, I am encouraged by the comments on the Windows version on Moodle.
Thanks for all of the input.
Constance
City of Richmond, VA
@Albert, I can +1 on IIS's performance as had to remotely change a school's moodle from Apache to IIS because they were having performance issues, same hardware resources allocated on VM, after switch I was forwarded the messages of students telling "incredible speed difference", and that backup issues would be resolved since PHP 7 on 64-bit.
@Constance : I as well upgraded moodle version to latest 3.0.3 first thing right after switch from Apache to IIS - Absolutely no issues there. if you're having trouble setting up Moodle on IIS, get me moodle, moodledata and MySQL backup and i'll do whole setup for you without costing a penny.
It doesn't get any more cruel than that...
