Moodle in English: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Howard Miller - Friday, February 12, 2021, 3:48 PM

"YAMIG"?? You're not even trying

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Matt T - Friday, February 12, 2021, 4:24 PM

Spent about 2 minutes thinking of a witty acronym. Gave up.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Thursday, February 18, 2021, 11:00 PM

If i get some time, I will try to follow it. Haven't installed PostgreSQL or Nginx before.
I have my own instructions which I use for a new install. Tonight was the first install in over a year and I found it useful for myself. Unless there is a way to integrate instructions into Moodle documentation, how to guides may not get much use past the creator.

I use Ubuntu/Apache/MySQL and I wonder if we should point to a main track to reduce the complexity of installs.

Just a thought - Moodle installs are dead easy if you have properly configured a server first. Maybe our instructions should be called Preparing a server for Moodle.

Perhaps I am old fashioned but I wouldn't find a screencast for installing on a nonGUI useful.😃

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Matt T - Thursday, February 18, 2021, 11:38 PM

I think nginx and php-fpm are preferable over Apache, and in particular, mod_php. You get significant performance gains for nothing. They're the way forward, in my view, and global install statistics back that.

It's a closer call between MySQL (or MariaDB) and PostgreSQL. For small scale installs, it probably comes down to personal preference. The Moodle database abstraction layer (XMLDB) will no doubt support both platforms for a long time.

As for the usefulness of the guide, you may be right that's it's mostly for my own purposes. But it was simply a matter of adding a couple of comments, and clicking share in Google Docs.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Howard Miller - Thursday, February 18, 2021, 11:46 PM

As usual, the choice often comes down to what your staff can support. Running large scale database installations is far from a trivial matter.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Matt T - Thursday, February 18, 2021, 11:50 PM

Absolutely. This guide assumes the server will assume all necessary roles - application server, database server, and file storage. It's not intended for large scale installations, or even mid scale, which will almost invariably be bespoke setups, or at least too varied to make a guide helpful.

Maybe I should make that clear at the outset.

If your database administrators are assuming responsibility for the database, then the guide may not be for you! The script I include for site backups is PostgreSQL specific. Also, backups aren't differential, and therefore it won't scale well. There's certainly more sophisticated ways to deal with backups.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Friday, February 19, 2021, 3:49 PM

I have heard good things about nginx and i am sure you have good reasons to use it. I use LAMP because Moodle Docs for Ubuntu give good guidelines and I don't think Moodle Docs are up to that standard for Nginx and PostgreSQL. Maybe that documentation can be improved.

I have also been toying with the idea of a flow chart to determine how a newbie wants to use Moodle and direct them to the best install instructions. Many people for example install on local machines and find it hard to make the next step of student use while their simple install has not prepared them for a VPS install.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Visvanath Ratnaweera - Friday, February 19, 2021, 5:43 PM

Hi Matt

Very thorough. I never thought that a full neat installation has that many steps!

On the discussion, Nginx vs Apache, MySQL vs PostgreSQL, php-fpm vs php-cgi, I would simply name the tutorial what it is, "VPS or dedicated with full (root) shell access, Ubuntu 20.04, Moodle 3.9-3.10, Nginx, PHP 7.4 FPM, PostgreSQL, ..." and forget the comparisons.

IMHO the reference to the "Cloud" at the beginning creates doubts and unnecessary discussions. If you are certain that your (VPS/dedicated) tutorial is valid for the well knows "cloud" servers, then mention that. I would avoid recommending nor go in to details. Those who are installing in the Cloud should know their clouds.

Is there any particular reason why you made the tutorial outside of MoodleDocs? I am asking because that is the recommended place here - no way implying that you should. In fact I made a similar tutorial a long time ago and retracted once it got multiplied - I did not want to maintain a dozen of copies.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Howard Miller - Friday, February 19, 2021, 6:10 PM

"Cloud" is just a marketing term. You have to be clear what you mean.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Friday, February 19, 2021, 7:11 PM

What is a better term for a VPS on AWS or Digital Ocean?

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Visvanath Ratnaweera - Friday, February 19, 2021, 7:47 PM

VPS, I guess.

Possibly my ignorance. An adjective like "auto-scaling" or "unknown location" or "distributed" might be needed. Or just use the branding names like AWS, droplet, or whatever.

All weather-related analogies will cause more confusion.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Friday, February 19, 2021, 8:03 PM

I have only started looking at it but I am not surprised there are so many steps.
I could suggest a couple more:
Create the sudo user
Allocate swap space for better performance

Depends on what level you expect the user to be but remembering Nix commands is a pain. Nice to be able to copy and paste.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Matt T - Friday, February 19, 2021, 8:36 PM

Good feedback. I was relying on the AWS AMI which preconfigured the user in the sudoers file. I assumed the Ubuntu installer would also create a user and add it to the sudoers file.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Saturday, February 20, 2021, 11:36 AM

I think this should be THE documentation for installing Moodle. On installs before, I have had to use DigitalOcean documentation, Moodle docs and Google searches for the syntax of Linux commands. Sometimes the page I used last time was missing, sometimes I had to wade through unnecessary guff (looking at you, Barracuda file format setup) and sometimes i forgot a step. I think many of us have created our own notes to ease the process.

I strongly feel an install process should start on a known and consistent start point - a blank VPS. Every command should use the command line. Every single step should be there so even someone with no experience can copy and paste. The install must include much more than the Moodle installation itself - it must cover the entire process of preparing a server for Moodle.
Some more specific feedback;

The install is for Ubuntu 20.04 but nearly all of it would apply to any Ubuntu version. i think after the php installation step,you could use php -v to get the version number and adjust the php files like php7.4-fpm accordingly. This could then be used for future versions of Ubuntu. Matter of fact, the guide would probably work for Debian too.
create sudo user and swap file on fstab table
sudo adduser jimmy
sudo usermod -aG sudo jimmy
su jimmy
sudo swapon --show
sudo fallocate -l 1G /swapfile
sudo chmod 600 /swapfile
sudo mkswap /swapfile
sudo swapon /swapfile
sudo nano /etc/fstab
/swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Howard Miller - Saturday, February 20, 2021, 4:35 PM

I am guilty of writing the current "official" install guide - after the original had become a rambling mess. It's not easy to keep it general. In fact it really isn't, as I don't know anything at all about Windows

All specific install guides are, by definition, opinionated. I come back to what I always say - on server systems you're better knowing what you're doing. You can describe installing moodle in about 5 lines to somebody who actually understands their own system.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Saturday, February 20, 2021, 11:11 PM

I hope I wasn't too harsh in my comments. Writing documentation is not easy especially if you are catering for different levels of knowledge amongst readers.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Howard Miller - Sunday, February 21, 2021, 4:23 AM

Not at all.... it's another aspect of "you can get a proper job writing documentation".

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Visvanath Ratnaweera - Tuesday, February 23, 2021, 4:02 AM

Hi all

This is not the first discussion on this topic, not the longest one either. So, a good part is repetition. Now it is my chance to repeat.

@Howard, the official Moodle install documentation needs to be generic. The only way of doing it is to tell What is needed, not How. The system administrator should know his tools to translate those needs to his environment. https://docs.moodle.org/en/Installation_quick_guide does just that, albeit Unix-biased. https://docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_Moodle goes in to many common combinations and covers the middle ground. The "user" can't expect more.

@James, how could an Ubuntu-20.04-Moodle-3.9-Nginx-PHP-7.4-FPM-PostgreSQL installation guide be THE installation guide? No harm having all kinds of specific installation guides, but they should be called what they are. See https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=418213#p1686620.

@Ken, I don't believe in copy-and-paste CLI guides. I don't say, shell scripts don't work. In fact, there are the most amazing ones circulating in the Net. Last time I saw one which converts a fresh Ubuntu Server (no GUI) on R Pi to a full Linux Mint desktop with a rich set of tools, beautifully configured. But it a tested, robust shell script, works without even having to look at the code. CLI snippets for the novice to run as the super-user is hair-raising.

I am a fundamentalist in this respect. Rather than heli transport the (CLI) tourist to Base Camp X, I ask them to carry their gear to Base Camp 1 - for their own safety. If they are unfit/unable to do that, they are not supposed to wander higher altitudes. I don't understand why the same is not true in the virtual world.

So that all this doesn't remain just words I take my own CLI courses around in our Sub-continent. As today, we are in the middle of one such course, the "first encounter to Linux CLI", short and fun course. The advertisement is here: https://ed-matrix.com/course/view.php?id=243. If anybody from the community is interested to have a closer look, drop me a PM. I will send the guest password. Please note that guest sees only part of the content - no MC, no assignments, no recordings,..

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Tuesday, February 23, 2021, 12:57 PM

First. there are many ways to have your own Moodle. A VPS CLI install is one of many and I would suggest Matt's guide should be considered a model for this particular type of installation.
I think a VPS CLI Moodle installation guide should cover the set up of a Linux LAMP or its equivalent. Even for someone who knows Linux commands, having all them in in one place is useful as the exact syntax and sequence of commands is hard to remember. I am not ashamed to admit most of my Linux is copy and paste.
Using your climbing analogy, there could be a danger in giving out a guide book and pointing out the mountain but I find the most effective way to learn is to have a problem which requires mastering new skills. A VPS can be reinstalled in seconds with no risk to your home setup so why not encourage people to be bold?
The problem with providing instructions on how to set up a Linux VPS to be ready for Moodle is that there are many choices of host, distro, webserver and database. I am agnostic on what is best but I would like to see a officially recommended main line, eg a LAMP server based on a generic Ubuntu 20.04 install where every package and command is specified, including https certificates, sudo users, database security, and everything else required for a secure and functional Linux.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Visvanath Ratnaweera - Tuesday, February 23, 2021, 2:22 PM

Hi

> there are many ways to have your own Moodle. A VPS CLI install is one of many

Exactly. It is easy to forget, "to have your own Moodle" doesn't mean you _install_ it. There are so many pre-installed variations. Unfortunately many such are also listed under https://docs.moodle.org/en/Category:Installation.

On copy-and-paste Linux CLI commands: Let us agree to disagree.

> a VPS CLI Moodle installation guide should cover the set up of a Linux LAMP or its equivalent

Sure, LAMP is the most common stack. The point is, it can't be _The_ Moodle installation guide.

> I would like to see a officially recommended main line,

I don't have an official position to answer that.

> eg a LAMP server based on a generic Ubuntu 20.04 install where every package and command is specified, including https certificates,

I thought there is one: https://docs.moodle.org/en/Step-by-step_Installation_Guide_for_Ubuntu.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Tuesday, February 23, 2021, 6:39 PM

To me, a VPS install has two parts.

Prepare a VPS for Moodle
Install Moodle

The reason for splitting these off is the second part - git the code, set up the database and data directory, run the installer - are standard for any install and quite straightforward.
Preparing a VPS for Moodle depends on the distribution, web server and database selected. Documentation such as the Ubuntu guide covers some of the steps required - for instance installing Apache and Mysql - but IMHO it doesn't cover all the steps. There is no reference to SSL and FQDN for example.
I may be out on my own on this one and I need to go away and see if my grand concept of Preparing a LAMP Server for Moodle from scratch is useful or just adds to the clutter.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Ken Task - Saturday, February 20, 2021, 2:03 AM

Well done!

Unless I missed it ... do have a suggestion ... web server setup ... begin with FQDN first and then second installation of a valid cert ($ or LetsEncrypt) so the site runs https and not http. Saves time later with Moodle install just one time.

Once perfected consider adding a/the lowest common denominator of an intelligent bash shell script.

'SoS', Ken

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Saturday, February 20, 2021, 12:01 PM

I think a one step installer through a shell script is not the best way. If you are going to install Moodle on a clean Linux server, I think you need to know some Linux commands and understand what you are doing. What would be useful is keeping the document focus on actual steps while creating unobtrusive links that allow each step to be explained in more detail, covering perhaps the reason behind each step and possible problems.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Howard Miller - Saturday, February 20, 2021, 4:36 PM

^^ This

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Ken Task - Saturday, February 20, 2021, 11:35 PM

Many moons ago, I used to conduct workshops for K12 folks that would bring their own server in a F-2-F for install of LAMP + Moodle. Had a course in a Moodle that took participants through the whole 'trip'.

First such workshop had a document with steps .... but discovered participants weren't exacting with their highlight and copy and thus when pasting to command line, commands failed to execute or whatever at the tail end would mess up.

Once in a moodle course, all commands participants were to copy and paste was 'preformatted' text with black background and green text. Instructions to double click the black background/green text box to highlight all then copy resulted in fewer (near 0, but there was always at least one despite efforts) participant errors.

Have seen 'how 2' pages that have boxes for commands with buttons for 'copy'. Those are nice. 'Idiot proof'?

Suggestion for a bash shell script meant for those who are in an extreme hurry. Scripts such as that are educational in themselves. Admins of a moodle will (in their future) learn how to do some command line scripts.

Ever see/get help on /admin/cli/install.php script? Do. A very long oneliner or with proper escapes and continues could be a time saver/error saver.

My 2 cents of course!

'SoS', Ken

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Sunday, February 21, 2021, 12:13 AM

if someone isn't capable or careful enough to copy and paste a sentence, they shouldn't be trying to install Moodle on a VPS. Get MoodleCloud or a Moodle Partner.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Ken Task - Sunday, February 21, 2021, 1:29 AM

Chuckle! Chuckle! Not disagreeing with ya James, but we know not of skill level of persons attempting to set up a moodle. Is there a document/page in moodle how 2's that list such 'skills'?

Hmmm ... idea ... an interactive survey for those thinking about running their own Moodle which would, at end, provide recommendations ... (yea/nay) as well as links to tutorials potential OP should bookmark/favorite (check ups from neck ups) etc.

Besides, have seen/heard objections to MoodleCloud/MP's - 'can't install a plugin' or 'cost'.

Why does Softaculous, Bitnami, other exist?

How many times have we seen ... 'am not a tech, but a teacher'?

And am certain that all would agree install is but tip of an iceburg.

It's a 'Journey' ... well worth taking, IMHO!

'SoS', Ken

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Sunday, February 21, 2021, 12:36 PM

Good point.
i think there are many ways to have your own Moodle.
One click installer on a local computer. Moodle Cloud. Virtual machines on a local computer. Softacolous on a hosting service. VPS in the cloud installing step by step. Bitnami on a VPS. Moodlebox. Moodle partner. And i am sure there are more.
All have advantages and disadvantages and I don't think we do a very good job at pointing newbies in the right direction. Questions that might help:
Do you intend to have students logging in? How many? On your network only or from their home?
What is your budget and level of technical expertise? Is money or time more important for you?
Do you want to gain skills as a teacher or as a Sysadmin/DBA?
How critical will a failure be to your Moodle installation?

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Howard Miller - Sunday, February 21, 2021, 4:18 PM

Most of these issues also apply to, say, Wordpress. Do you just want to get on with using Wordpress or do you want to learn to run a server. You can just get a hosted Wordpress site without any problem. Similarly MoodleCloud or your chosen Moodle Partner will give you a turnkey Moodle site. Of course, these tend to cost money for anything beyeond the trivial and that's the sticking point for many would be Moodlers.

We get a lot of grief from Softaculous and Bitnami, but I wonder how many people are out there using these services perfectly happily.

As an aside, I tried to use Bitnami to install Moodle on AWS some time ago - just out of curiousity - and couldn't understand it at all

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Sunday, February 21, 2021, 5:15 PM

I think most Wordpress sites are one click installs and I had the same experience as you with Bitnami.
Softacolous gets a lot of flak but if a non techie wanted a Moodle they could learn to be admin on with no intention of adding students or upgrading why not suggest it?

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Howard Miller - Sunday, February 21, 2021, 9:29 PM

It's like xampp I suppose - "not for production sites".

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Rick Jerz - Monday, February 22, 2021, 8:38 AM

There was some discussion about Softaculous back in late January. Brijesh Kothari, from Softaculous, made this post saying good things.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Matt T - Sunday, February 21, 2021, 4:27 PM

I'd move this to the Moodle Docs site if people think that's a more appropriate location. It would allow easier collaboration. Perhaps entitled 'Self-hosted server installation walkthrough' or something. I would give a lot of weight to Howard's view as a documentation writer as to whether this is a good idea. Howard - thoughts? I've got a feeling you might think what's there is good enough!

This was not intended to replace the 'main' install documentation, nor should it. It was intended to be a start to finish guide that makes a lot of assumptions about how the site will be configured. The current (predominantly Howard-authored) install guide is generalist in nature, and rightly so. I can't replace that.

While I see your point about the bash script Ken, I'm not really inclined to make this a one click script, for a few reasons. I do not have enough time to devote to making it foolproof and keeping it working. There are more sophisticated ways of automating installs, like the Docker containers. I also think there's something to be said for people understanding, even at a basic level, how their environment is configured. I will, however, think about expanding SSL to other certificate providers. I actually don't use Let's Encrypt on my site, I use Amazon ELB to deal with SSL. But I wanted a simple way to enable SSL so that people would not do the incredibly stupid thing of neglecting to set it up because 'I don't want to pay for this' or 'This is too hard'. Frankly, SSL is a PAIN to configure if you don't use Let's Encrypt or some reverse proxy based service (eg Cloudflare). Uploading CSRs, paying, downloading certificates, checking paths, adding calendar reminders for renewal date. Yuck.

I will install Ubuntu Server 20.04 bare metal and see what adjustments need to be made to the guide (well, actually in a VM, but replicating a bare metal install). Thanks for flagging that James. I'm not convinced it should cover older Ubuntu versions. People should use the latest version because the latest PHP version is in the Canonical supported repositories. I see no reason why people would use Ubuntu 18.04 or earlier. In my view Ubuntu is the best distribution to rely on, given that CentOS is all but dead now...

Comments about weather-related terminology noted.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Ken Task - Monday, February 22, 2021, 12:42 AM

Understand about complexity of a CLI script ... and after initial creation, support for it. An installation of the entire stack is one thing and it's very good that the initial installation of Moodle is done with git (makes updating and upgrading later much easier/reliable - fewer 'moving parts').

Maybe offered as supplements/extensions to an 'update' and an 'upgrade' script. The 'update' script would require no change but would/should require using the admin/cli/checks.php to assure no new requirements snuck in there in a point release of code.

Ditto for 'upgrade'.

As far as choice of distro ... latest Ubuntu LTS very good choice ... for now. Future ... probably (hopefully) a long time ... but kinda like the sale of Red Hat to IBM, 'never say never'. CentOS won't be 'dead' ... it will morph ... CentOS Stream is the plan .. and there is already a 'replacement' offered. The issue with those ... how quickly fixes/patches updates will be provided - especially PHP, me thinks (reliable 3rd party repos have always been needed for PHP on RH Family distros).

So far ... good work ... well done ... continue!

'SoS', Ken

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Ken Task - Monday, February 22, 2021, 7:53 AM

Consider an option to typical cron job.
Instead of:
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /var/www/moodle/admin/cli/cron.php > /dev/null
which is redirected to la-la land and one doesn't really get to see it work
cept by other means, suggest redirect a log file.

> /var/log/moodle-cron.log

Same log file name each run means moodle-cron.log gets over written each run ... won't build up and take up space + to watch it in realtime:

tail -f /var/log/moodle-cron.log

Doesn't have to be in /var/log/ ... can be in another location.

Truth ins sharing ... didn't come up with that idea ... now I can't find to whom that idea should credited! :|

'SoS', Ken

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Sunday, February 21, 2021, 4:31 PM

Some more feedback:
I don't think there is a "standard" Ubuntu as each install may have different packages selected. Using a Hostvds.com Ubuntu I found I had to install snapd and git. Nano is more standard but a line in the script installing the packages required would do no harm.
I am using that provider as I pay by minute and a 1 CPU/ 1 gig RAM package will run for six months on $5. I wouldn't recommend it for a student facing install but for installing and experimenting, good value.

About Ubuntu versions. I was looking forward rather than backwards. Ubuntu 21 may install php7.5 and so a change there may better future proof the script. That could make it a generic Ubuntu install rather than linked to a version.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by James Steerpike - Sunday, February 21, 2021, 5:53 PM

i also notice git is to pull down version MOODLE_39_STABLE. Perhaps a check of the latest Moodle version would be useful.

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Re: Yet Another Moodle Install Guide

by Matt T - Sunday, February 21, 2021, 6:06 PM

Installing Moodle 3.9 is an assumption of the guide. It seems to be a very popular choice for production environments. When the next LTS version is released, I will update the guide. I'll have a think about whether it should provide multiple options. Dependencies for 3.10 and 3.11 are satisfied using the steps in the guide. It seems to me that choosing a different version is as simple as changing the git branch you select.

An important amendment was just made. The guide did not provide instructions to increase resource limits. The default file upload size is 1MB by virtue of the default value of client_max_body_size in nginx. The guide now increases that limit to 100MB, the PHP maximum execution time to 60 seconds, and the PHP memory limit to 256M. Suggestions for sensible settings welcome.

I just installed Ubuntu 20.04 manually, and the user that you specify in the installer is already placed in the sudo group.

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Installing and upgrading help

Yet Another Moodle Install Guide