Moving from 2.6 to 3.0 or 3.4 on new server

Moving from 2.6 to 3.0 or 3.4 on new server

by David Garden -
Number of replies: 2

Hi,


We've been running Moodle 2.6 on a server for about 4 years with about 500 users, each accessing up to 10 courses. 


I'm planning to move our site to a new server. Our current server runs PHP 5 and for Moodle 3.4, we'll need PHP 7. I've read various docs about migrating and upgrading but I have concerns about breaking the site by changing PHP versions, among other things. So my question is this:


Since we have so few courses, is it easiest to do a fresh install of 3.4 on the new server and then restore each course from a course backup on the  2.6 server? Is all student data carried over with a course backup? I'm assuming with multiple course restores that no student data is overwritten, just appended? Also, for users in the system that haven't taken any courses at all, I'm assuming their data isn't carried over? Does being registered for a course, even one that is non-attempted, include a user in the course backup?


Thanks in advance.  I know there's a lot of questions here!

Average of ratings: -
In reply to David Garden

Re: Moving from 2.6 to 3.0 or 3.4 on new server

by Howard Miller -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

That should work fine. Just one thing... ordinary teachers can't by default back up courses with user data so you'll probably be doing this yourself. 

Backups include data for all users enrolled in the course. It doesn't matter if they've done anything or not.  Users you might potentially miss are those who have Moodle accounts but are not enrolled in any courses. Watch out for teachers/staff who are only admins/Managers and have no enrolments. 

If you are using any non-core plugins (especially authentication and/or enrolment) make sure they are in place and configured on the 3.4 site. 

Other than that, it should work fine. 

Average of ratings: Useful (1)
In reply to David Garden

Re: Moving from 2.6 to 3.0 or 3.4 on new server

by Emma Richardson -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Plugin developers

2.6 to 3.4 is too awful to upgrade either - that would be another option and probably quicker even with the interim 2.7 and 3.0 steps.

Average of ratings: -