Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

by Dave Dillon -
Number of replies: 10

I'm considering installing moodle using an automatic installer built into plesk.  My first issue with it was that it installed moodledata in the web folder, not a good thing.  I also want to set it to auto update. My question is this:


I'm planning on moving the moodledata folder out of the webdirectory.  But if I set it to auto update will it move the moodledata folder when it auto updates?


Anyone any experience with the quick installer on plesk and auto update, or is there anything else I should watch out for?


Cheers

D

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In reply to Dave Dillon

Re: Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

So .... for the benefit of all ... what is Plesky Parallels?  That must be on a Mac OR a PC cause it makes no sense to run those sorts of things on a Linux platform.

Just a thought ... IF the one click installer put moodledata in document root, that you know Moodle dosn't like, then is it logical to assume, if doing it their way will be in their 'autoupdates'????  

With the 'standard'/more traditional methods of updates/upgrades, nothing is touched in moodledata to set that up - only the code directory.

PIck your poision ... know of/learn the antidote before going for 'auto'.

'spirit of sharing', Ken

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In reply to Ken Task

Re: Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

by Richard Oelmann -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Plesk Parallels is a bit like cPanel - its one of the backends used by some webhosts.

I have used it in the past - and had nothing but trouble trying to sort the moodledata out.

I ended up removing the moodle it installed, asking my webhost to manually create the moodledata folder in a suitable location (I was on a shared host) outside the web root and then manually installed moodle myself - it was easier both in the short term and the longer term for updates!

I can't say that would be everyone's experience, others may have had no issues at all - but it was mine a couple of years ago. Fortunately I had a very helpful hosting company (who have since unfortunately been bought out)

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In reply to Richard Oelmann

Re: Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

So we're back to 'ask provider' smile ... especially what they mean by 'autoupdate'.   In that process does the original (very important file) config.php file stay?   Do the additional themes you may have installed stay?   That also goes for any mods/blocks/, etc..  What is current version of Moodle they provide and what will autoupdates do?   Same series?   Or up one? Or two ... depending upon what they originally installed for ya.   How often?   Moodle releases updates every week.

Are you notified of upcoming update?   Sometimes getting out there on 'leading' edge could mean a 'little bleeding' too!

Do they backup your site ... code directory, data directory, and a DB dump before it autoupdates?

There is no 'undo'.   So if there is a major hickup one doesn't 'roll back' a site ... one restores from a full site backup (code, sql dump, data directory to match).   Will they restore after an autoupdate?

Much un-known ... much to consider.

'spirit of sharing', Ken

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In reply to Ken Task

Re: Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

by Dave Dillon -
Appreciate all the replies.  Ken hit the nail on the head, thats kind of all the things I'm wondering  was just wondering of peoples experience with it.  On other webplatforms Ive used auto update on wordpress etc and it works flawlessly but I rarely have custom plugins...  I totally appreciate that its a completely different beast tho.  Was just looking for some experience with auto updates
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In reply to Dave Dillon

Re: Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

I've not seen nor read anything that offered 'autoupdates' to Moodle.   Now am gonna switch sides of the fence .... maybe, just maybe, Plesk folks have investigated and found that it's really trivial to update/upgrade a Moodle if using git.   And they have built into their autoupdate feature the use of git for Moodle.   Most of those who have responded have had past experience with Plesk or cPanel ... yes, that's kinda what you wanted, but am not sure that any have used git yet.

So it might be like Windows users who have suffered for years due to 32 bit versions of PHP and un-stable 64 bit versions.    Sometimes someone/something makes a discovery and improves.  Once saw a quick demo of a product the 'revolutionized backups' ... nice GUI in front of rsync.  If one studied rsync a little one could do same without paying the price for this 'revolutionary' program.  

Maybe ... just maybe ... Plesk folks have figured out usage of git with what they are calling 'autoupdate'!

It's worth asking for details from the Plesk folks themselves, IMHO.

Not meaning to brag ... just share .. have several school sties that have multiple instances of Moodle on a single server.(hs, jh, elem, pd, other as example).    Takes literally minutes to update/upgrade one of those instances .... about 30-50 minutes for all sites ... and most of that time spent watching the backups before/after upgrades or updating and dependent upon if a backup of moodledata is made at the same time.

Using git, one could cron their own 'autoupdate' (with a sensible time schedule) and be in control of when that autoupdate took place.

2 cents worth... and from one who has had not experience with Plesk or cPanel ...

'spirit of sharing', Ken


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In reply to Ken Task

Re: Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

by Ken Task -
Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers

Follow up to own posting/contribution ... called 'truth in sharing'.

Decided to investigate Plesk autoupdate and what I"ve found in descriptions of how it works, have determined it's not optimal for Moodle autoupdating.  IMHO, one would be better off using git.

Still though the idea of one being able to update a Moodle (core) from within Moodle is a goal ... just to keep pace with things like WP and Joomla's.   I know it sounds simple, but know it's NOT so simple.

'spirit of sharing', Ken

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In reply to Dave Dillon

Re: Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

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

My experience with plesk is about 4 years old.  I tried it, could never get my moodle to work, and then gave up and switched to cPanel.  Then I had success.  Probably just me, but you asked.

Also, for my first two years of using moodle I did use a one-click install.  Seemed to work fine, until it was time to upgrade.  Then I had headaches.  I recommend learning how to install moodle manually by yourself.  But this depends upon your knowledge.  Do you have a Linux hosted server, or something like that?

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In reply to Rick Jerz

Re: Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

by Dave Dillon -

Thanks for this rick.  Thats the kind of perspective I was looking for.  Up to now I've been installing manually.  The plesk is basically a virtual server and I can set up as many server 'instances' as I like really.  Each instance acts as a seperate server with full root permissions etc.


It was more about the robustness of auto updating.  Moodle can be a wieldy thing to update

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In reply to Dave Dillon

Re: Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

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

Okay.  I will recommend sticking with the manual method.

Moodle shouldn't be that hard to update, unless you have many plug-ins added to your moodle.  I typically update my moodle in less than 30 minutes, which includes an experimental moodle upgrade first.  My vitural server is usually "down" for less than 5 minutes.

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In reply to Dave Dillon

Re: Plesk Parallels Auto Installer anyone any experience with it?

by Fernando Acedo -
Picture of Plugin developers Picture of Testers

Plesk had many problems with moodledata in the past as Rick said. I remember very old versions needed to make changes in the configuration and recompile Plesk from scratch.

I made some installations lately and you can setup PHP to access moodledata.

But, try to avoid auto-installers. Doesn't matter if you are using Plesk or cPanel. I have many problems when auto-installers when you need to update moodle. So the best choice is to install moodle manually and then configure Plesk to access directories outside html.


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