Is this using Manual authentication or something else?
Email-based self-registration authentication method
See a screenshot of the test performance- is there maybe something there? (there are a few other things which have me worried about the performance e.g. activity tracking is delayed)
Not really... but what made you think of the cache?
Have you implemented session caching?
Grasping at straws (I'm desperate!!)
Session caching- not on purpose- how would I know if its on be default (newbie question!!)?
(There is clearly something wrong- I've just opened the training again, and after having closed the TAB in the browser 30 minutes ago, I don't even have to login to access it)
I see the session handling timeout is set to 2 hours (default)
It isn't... you would know.
The settings are in config.php (well config-dist.php)
Pardon intrusion ...
users that find themselves logged on as another ... what's the typical student environment? In a lab students sharing workstations? or are we talking about students who remotely login to the moodle?
how often are you running cron?
Comment: 2.6.3 is very old ... un-supported for fixes ... etc.
Added to Moodle in 2.7.x a thing called 'task' ... not present in 2.6.x ... allows one to do specific cron jobs (task) - don't have a 2.7.x running any more to look at what task specifically might address sessions and the clean up of stale sessions ... but that's what cron in 2.6.x is supposed do.
'spirit of sharing', Ken
Thank you.
No, these are users located all over the world.
Cron- great question, I've been reading frantically and came upon this a couple of hours ago.
I went into cpanel and changed it to 1 min (see below). (Can't remember what it was)
I'm leaning on your experience, any there any other settings (for cron or something else) you can suggest?
Thx!
Well, we now have a hint as to hosting .... cpanel. I take it the yellow box to hide sensitive details for the path to the cron.php script in Moodle. That path, BTW, should be pointed to cron.php in codedirectory/admin/cli/cron.php ... from what I re-call of 2.6.x.
The -q switch supposedly runs it 'quitely' ... but then, do you then know it's working? All of it? Is there an error in some of the sub-crons ... like the checking for stale sessions in moodledata/sessions/ and cleaning those up?
Got ssh to server? Suggest ssh into server, changing into the moodlecode/admin/cli/ directory and running the cron.php script to see if there are any errors reported or what it might not be doing. Run it several times.
If you have ssh into server, might also have access to a cli thing called 'top'. Run that ... shows things like memory, swap space, as well as running processes ... in real time.
Not all hosting providers are 'moodle friendly' ... oh, yeah, they might provide you a script to install - one of those infamous one click installers ... which might/may not work as they should. Was your moodle installed with one of those?
Don't think that sharing where site is hosted to be that much of a security issue AND you might also share info on the package you are using ... relates to shared hosting or VPS or whatever chosen. Sometimes, hosting providers have their own customer FAQ's or Forums that are open to the public ... one can find some interesting responses from technical staff about issues with hosted packages, etc.
1000 user site isn't large, but then again, 1000 user site might actually be too much for what's been rented.
'spirit of sharing', Ken
Thanks for your comments & suggestions.
With the Cron running regularly, things seem much better. (At least I've not been able to reproduce the problem!)
As I've just launched a new course, I will keep the changes to a minimum for the next week or so. Then I'll dive in- I think the Moodle upgrade will significantly improve the user experience.
Upgrading hosting is on the agenda in the medium term.
Thx again!
Just a quick update:
Even after the Cron, the problem persisted. I eventually upgraded to 2.9, and that made no difference. Then a did a clean install of 3.4, and that's made no difference either. I conclude that its a server issue. Agree?
Does anybody know someone that is a specialist to look into this further (to even possibly hire?)- its clearly beyond my capabilities?
