Hi everyone!
I have never worked with Moodle, but I have to downgrade Moodle from 1.9 to 1.3, can someone help me giving me documentation or any guide for this? I'd be very grateful.
Thank you and regards.
You cannot downgrade Moodle unless you have a backup. Why on earth would you want to do that? - neither of those versions are supported and both are extremely old.
Based on your response, I had to aswer why on earth we wanted to do that?
There was a problem in the communication and what we want to do is upgrade all the system from 1.9 to 3.3 with all the courses and information
So, could you help me giving me documentation, please?
Thank you very much.
Andres,
While it is probably possible to upgrade Moodle, you are probably much better off spinning a new server.
There was a big jump between 1.9 and 2.0. After that it went to time-based releases, and improvements were much more incremental.
You would have to upgrade to 2.2 first.
https://docs.moodle.org/22/en/Upgrading_to_Moodle_2.2
Then you would need to upgrade to 2.7
https://docs.moodle.org/27/en/Upgrading
Finally you could attempt the upgrade to 3.3
https://docs.moodle.org/33/en/Upgrading
Seriously though, I would consider just starting fresh. There has been so much change since 1.9, that you are probably better off.
Seriously though, I would consider just starting fresh.
That does depend on how many courses they have in Moodle. If there are a lot of courses and a lot of students then it may not be practical.
If starting fresh is not an option because of the amount of courses/users/data in the 1.9 site then copy the 1.9 production site onto a test server and then attempt the upgrade on there first. Do some vigorous testing in between version upgrades, including thorough COURSE and USER DATA testing. The changes in Moodle between versions 1.9 and 3.4 are huge, so a lot of testing is critical.
Also, some end-user training may be necessary to introduce the teachers and students to all the changes in Moodle since 1.9.
One approach you could consider is an incremental upgrade cycle over several weeks/months. Do the 2.2 upgrade first and run that for a few weeks to make sure it's stable. Then go to the next version, 2.7 and run that for a while to make sure it's stable. Repeat until you get to the current version, 3.4.
Luis, do you speak spanish?
Thank you for your response, it was very useful for make me an idea that how do the upgrade.
There are over 1015 courses, of which 229 are active, additionally over 1826 users with a concurrency of 30% and the database size is 5,92GB.
Do you recommend me an incremental upgrade cycle over several weeks based in the server info?
Thank you.
This is what I would recommend. Duplicate your server and do a test run. The success will depend a lot on how many plugins that you have installed. I have just taken two sites through this but they were much smaller sites than yours. However, the upgrade was successful and not nearly as bad as I expected!
Step 1. 1.9 - latest 1.9, then 2.2, then 2.7, then 3.3 or 3.4. I normally download them all ahead of time including the correct plugins for each version.
Between 2.7 and 3.3, you need to upgrade server to php 7.0 or higher. There are also database changes that you will need to make along the way (switch to barracuda and unicode formats).
You will probably need to redo your theme in order to take care of the new responsive features. You can set this up on test site and then repeat on the live site.
If you do not run into issues on the test server, then repeat on the live server. I would do it all at once. Site should not be down more than a few hours if is all goes well.
Two, I think, very important questions ...
1. is the platform (operating system) Linux? (if so what distro? Ubuntu/CentOS/other).
2. are you adverse to using the command line - which is really dependent upon #1).
I too have 'marched' moodles from 1.9's to now 3.3's but servers were linux and the first step was to get the code of the 1.9.x to the highest 1.9.highest under git. Used git from that point forward.
You cannot upgrade php to 7.0.x before you get to Moodle 3.0.highest ... so might be wise to put a 3.0.highest step in there ... then upgrade PHP to 7.0.x. Could keep that version through 3.4 but eventually, you will want PHP 7.1.
I have also done the other way .... fresh site installed with git ... then marching the 1.9 to a 2.highest ... using command backups (full course backups) of the 'active courses' and then restoring multiple courses in pre-setup categories of the new site - via moosh. And then one more hop with the restores to highest. Went back later and did the remaining ... not active courses.
Plugins/Themes were something to check at each stage ... not all plugins made the triip to 3.4.x.
A plugin could stop an upgrade using any method of upgrading ... cli via git OR web based. However, using command git one could actually be in the middle of an upgrade that failed due to plugin and correct it, then continue with upgrade.
Other things not mentioned ... tweaks to php ... along the way ... time for a script to run (default 30) increased ... memory a script can consume (128M -> 256M *IF* you can do that). Each time you upgrade the PHP, the settings you had from the older version will be lost and one needs to tweak again.
Tweaks to DB ... max_input_vars, max_packets_allowed ... plus DB character set, collation towards the end ... 3.4 especially.
This is no easy undertaking ... any route you choose. What ever/which ever way you do, do first on a clone of what you have .... and make backups along the way. Big change to moodledata on the hop from 1.9 to 2.2.
The size of your site means you might need remote (ie, another server) to house the backups.
Backups ... not only of code, but DB dumps ... at first, all of moodledata ... when you get to 2.x+-> not much change to moodledata ... but it is something to check along the way. When in doubt ... *** backup *** moodledata as well.
And ... after all that ... one will discover 'legacy' file system in the highest must be used ... cannot turn off ... until a fresh course is made under the new version.
Confusing, huh?
'spirit of sharing', Ken
Luis, do you speak Spanish?
No! Strictly English (and some Portuguese when I'm drunk...)
That's a big site so I would suggest copying the production site onto a test server and then attempting the upgrade on the test server, making sure that each incremental version is completed successfully and your courses/student data fully tested.
How many QUIZ ATTEMPTS do you have in the 1.9 site? Moodle 2.1 had a big Question Engine upgrade which requires a big question engine conversion process when you have a lot of quiz attempts.
If you have a lot of quiz attempts then 1.9 to 2.1 might be the best way to start. Use the Question Engine Upgrade Helper tool to help with the big question engine conversion in 2.1.
Otherwise try the 1.9.your_version to 1.9.latest, then 2.2, then 2.7, then 3.4 path.
You have so far mentioned versions 1.9, 1.3 and 3.3.
Perhaps you should get clear what you are trying to do and/or what your problems are? Whatever, you should definitely avoid running old, unsupported versions. 1.9 is now, effectively, stone-age!