Re: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access
The short answer is, No. Moodle is not designed to be set of distributed servers. The reason is simple: Moodle is highly interactive. There is no way of keeping the servers synchronized.
There were different approaches by different people. They were mostly discussed in the Hardware and performance forum. Try the Advanced search https://moodle.org/mod/forum/search.php?id=5.
One thing I've noticed. You said, "Moodle installed in intranet and currently students access through local network within the campus. As expected everyone wants to access the site from home through internet. Unfortunately the internet speed in the campus is very slow but students may have better speed at home." My question, if the connection intranet to Internet is slow, how could the students have a high speed from the Internet?
Re: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access
Thanks for your input.
Yes...students have good internet speed at their homes. But internet speed in the college is not sufficient to cater the number of students. Thats why I have installed Moodle on intranet.
Moving my Moodle site from intranet to internet will cater the need of students in accessing site from home.
But access from within college would be very limited because of internet speed. Therefore removing moodle from intranet and installing on internet will make difficult for incampus access.
Re: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access
How do you plan to change that?
Re: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access
So I wonder if you could keep the database internal and then have a second apps server outside the intranet. While it would not be a perfect situation because you would still need to use the campus internet connection to access the database, it might help a little bit. Any other solution would require continual syncing somehow between the two servers which would not help much.
Another option is to encourage students to use the app because you can download all the course content to be available offline with the app so they could still interact with the moodle courses and then just upload their assignments etc when they get back to campus.
Re: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access
= Database server and the web server separated by a "slow" connection =
I think the idea is about a compromise. From neither side Moodle will have its maximum speed, but still the average performance is better than having one fast side and one slow side. It depends on how the users are divided. 99% work is on campus, 1% at home will give a different result than 50% to 50%. (Everybody wants to work from home, does not mean they do. ;)
I wonder how a slow network connection to the database affects a Moodle web server, especially during an on-line exam. To complicate the matters, a "slow" connection could mean it is specified at a low rate/latency but behaves as specified. Or, it is a supposedly fast connection which feels slow because the connection is unstable. Just the other day I watched the ping times of a public Wi-Fi connection. They fluctuated from 30 ms to 5 seconds within minutes. There was even packet loss!
And the other thing, for visitors coming from the database side of the connection, the result of database queries cross the slow connection twice, right?
= Switch to Moodle mobile =
That is a neat side-effect of the Moodle for mobile! The idea is people switch to either the https://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_Mobile app (Andriod and iOS) or the https://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_Desktop (Windows, Mac and even Linux!) Yes, they not only store static content (files) but also allow off-line interactions like submitting assignments and even taking on-line tests!
Re: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access
The idea was to have two web servers - one inside and one outside and then the database inside. The inside connection would work as it does now. The outside connection would just use the internet connection for the database connection - but whether that is a good solution or not, I do not know. Might be something worth trying though.
Re: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access
Re: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access
You can't do this. Moodle's architecture was never intended to work in this mode.
Various people have tried to do this and it's never been successful.
[OT] (was: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access)
(Also https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=365847)
Still, h i l a r i o u s!
Re: [OT] (was: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access)
I'm not sure that was "no". More like, "I'm sorry you are clearly on a different planet to me".
I don't understand this cloud stuff. Well, I understand it enough to be reasonably sure it's not much use for me.
Re: [OT] (was: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access)
https://www.cnet.com/news/discovering-aliens-extraterrestrial-life-wont-freak-out-humans/#ftag=CAD590a51e
(found in https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/18/02/16/2244239/would-you-fear-alien-life-or-welcome-it, where else?)
Re: [OT] (was: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access)
huh...
so many discussions....hope some alien will help me one day...or i will look at completely different server level solution. Because heard about very similar approach for Office 365.
Re: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access
You said:
> ...or i will look at completely different server level solution. Because heard about very similar approach for Office 365.
So your requirements are satisfied by Office365?
You've only "heard" about a similar approach or you know for certain? Similar approach to what?
Re: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access
Assuming your Moodle server is configured and optimized, me thinks this is a networking issue.
Concept: networking comes before application (application being the moodle server).
Define: Campus ... does that mean ... multiple building each of which is connected to the wide area network of the college? or does that mean a single building with Departments etc. on certain floors?
When students connect to the Moodle while on campus, are they using wired workstations? or are they using personal devices connected to a segment of the campus wireless network? Many entities do have wireless available but that entire wireless network is on a different segment of IP addresses and could be filtered or firewalled differently from wired workstations.
What is the circuit (data pipe) that connects the entire 'campus' to the internet. Is it a single T1, a T3, or ? etc. Yes, that's a technical question and the only way you can answer is to talk to the IT staff on your 'campus' ... the networking folks.
Breaking apart DB from Moodle web server might not be best ... actually it could make things worse.
On your Moodle server, how many 'hops' is the server from the 'gateway' to the internet? That gateway ip address is, for all practical purposes, the data pipe leading to the internet from your 'campus'. Speed/Access might improve (to both inside and outside traffic) *IF* the moodle server is moved physically to the switch that's closest to the gateway.
Bottom line *** Talk to the networking people on your 'campus'!
'spirit of sharing', Ken
Re: In-campus access thru intranet site and outside internet access
You indeed prove to enjoy the 'spirit of sharing'.
I will take a look in your point of view and get back here if I find out any ways and means.
Regards