NO IDEA WHATS GOING ON
spent the weekend uploading lessons and getting everything ready for the first real week of moodle and...?
im totally locked out my password as site admin suddenly is rejected Your session has timed out. Please login again.
HOW BAD DOES MOODLE HAVE TO TREAT ME BEFORE I GIVE UP? massive time investment, and i get this?
Warning: Unknown(): open(/data/session/f/0/sess_f0e2e4821df27808fa0caaca441d76d8, O_RDWR) failed: No space left on device (28) in Unknown on line 0
Warning: Unknown(): Failed to write session data (files). Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct (2;/data/session) in Unknown on line 0
omce again ....
MySQL database: up to 8 add an extra database
MySQL version: 4.0.18 Documentation
PHP version: 4.3.9 See the phpinfo() Documentation
and virgin pristine perfectly working install of moodle 1.6
PLEASE HELP - ANY EMERGENCY FIXES TO RESCUE ME FROM CHAOS ON MONDAY MORNING?????
P.S. I HAVE 99% OF MY 80 GIGSHOSTING SPACE LEFT TO USE,,,,
2. There is a warning there about lack of space - are you sure you still have space left after uploading all the lessons etc? If it can't write to the session directory then you can't login. Can you go to the command line on your system and check space and permissions?
3. Try clearing all cookies from your browser, close and re-start the browser.
4. Test from another workstation.
2. see my post - 80 gigs (count them) of space left
3. done both browsers on two diff machines
4. see three - tried two machines - one mac one pc
would love to know where the session files are so i could at least trty wiping them?
found "/www/moodledata/sessions/" but its empty.... the desparate hunt continues 1.30 a, lessons in 6 hours....
1.45 am read more docs ....tried ..... http://www.sharedteaching.com/lib/session-test.php
result=
No session found - starting a session now.
what???
----------------------------------
2am lessons start im 5 hours - giving up - furious
-bed-
It could be that the problem is with your server, or the way that you have set moodle up. When asking on an open source project forum then if only for political reasons, I think that it is best to keep an open mind. Personally, with respect, I really do think that you will find that the error was not with Moodle.
Assuming that you did set the persmissions on your data & sessions folders to such that moodle can write to them (you seem to have been usign moodle so that seems likely but then you should see session data in data/sessions) then I suggest that you store the sessions somewhere else completely - in the database.
If you get phpmyadmin set up on your same server or you use
navicat (trial version)
mydbstudio (free software)
client side database admin tools, you can effect changes to the Moodle database without being able to log into moodle. I always have a database administrator on hand. You will need your database name, database username and database password from moodle/config.php
Then you can try changing the setting for "dbsessions" - which is explained in the admin detailed settings as follows
If enabled, this setting will use the database to store information about current sessions. This is especially useful for large/busy sites or sites built on cluster of servers. For most sites this should probably be left disabled so that the server disk is used instead. Note that changing this setting now will log out all current users [from moodle] (including you).
Db sessions is the 22 row in the table "mdl_config"
It may have been that you had inadvertantly been using dbsessions and for one reason or another it became impossible to write session data to the database. If dbsessions is true try switching it to off.
Tim
Even if you have 80GB, they are probably allocated elsewhere. Talk with your hosting company: moodle cannot find room for its files in the place where it needs to put them. Sort that out with them.
drwxrwxrwx 2 apache apache 4096 Jan 1 1970 sessions
Check the permissions on that folder, would be unusual for it to change all on it's own. When at the command line issue a df command to see the available disk space, if any line shows 100% or close to then talk to your hosting company.
One more reason why I host my own server!
Im totally confused (secondly) becuase the answers seem to contradict. Are the sessions stored on my server or aren't they? There is a session folder but ikts empty (as my original post says)
I AM upset with Moodle becuase I have spent a second weekend uploading content and putting trust in it. Im sure its an amazing programme but please see it frolm a teachers POV. I am completely locked out from the site (Ive done nothing - it really did "just go like that" when I came back to it a few hours laters, and unless I hack through the back door on the FTP and find some nice soul to please tell me what to do, I will remain utterly locked out, and worse still so will all the kids whoese lessons i have to teach tomorrow.
So Back to the question
Sessions corrupted or full? Cant see any in my session folder. Session folder hosted on another server (hosting companies upstream server? How do I find that out??) whenever I talk to Lycos Hosting UK they say "sorry mate we dont get involved in the programes you run on your server" If I call them again, they'll say the same thing.
So Im stuck...
And DESPARATE to know what to do. And so will 125 pupils in... 4 hours time.
If it helps anyone out there heres my config file
<?php /// Moodle Configuration File
unset($CFG);
$CFG->dbtype = 'mysql';
$CFG->dbhost = 'localhost';
$CFG->dbname = 'sharedteaching_com_8';
$CFG->dbuser = 'sharedteaching_com';
$CFG->dbpass = '**********';
$CFG->dbpersist = false;
$CFG->prefix = 'mdl_';
$CFG->wwwroot = 'http://www.sharedteaching.com';
$CFG->dirroot = '/data/members/paid/s/h/sharedteaching.com/htdocs/www';
$CFG->dataroot = '/data/members/paid/s/h/sharedteaching.com/htdocs/www/moodledata';
$CFG->admin = 'admin';
$CFG->directorypermissions = 00777; // try 02777 on a server in Safe Mode
$CFG->slasharguments = 0;
require_once("$CFG->dirroot/lib/setup.php");
// MAKE SURE WHEN YOU EDIT THIS FILE THAT THERE ARE NO SPACES, BLANK LINES,
// RETURNS, OR ANYTHING ELSE AFTER THE TWO CHARACTERS ON THE NEXT LINE.
?>
heres the verion info
<?php
// MOODLE VERSION INFORMATION
// This file defines the current version of the core Moodle code being used.
// This is compared against the values stored in the database to determine
// whether upgrades should be performed (see lib/db/*.php)
$version = 2005060230; // YYYYMMDD = Moodle 1.5 Date
// X = Moodle 1.5 Point release (0,1,2...)
// Y = Interim incrementer
$release = '1.5.3+'; // Human-friendly version name
?>
php etc posted at the top
the error messages in your orginal post are telling you that your "PHP sessions" folder is full. This is different from your "Moodle sessions" folder.
I suggest you try emptying the following folder:
It may be that you do not have access to this folder, because you seem to be on a shared host. In this case ONLY the hosting company can help you. I suggest you cut and paste the following message to your hosting company's help desk.
my PHP scripts are failing because the PHP sessions folder is full.
Here are the error messages I got:
Warning: Unknown(): open(/data/session/f/0/sess_f0e2e4821df27808fa0caaca441d76d8, O_RDWR) failed: No space left on device (28) in Unknown on line 0
Warning: Unknown(): Failed to write session data (files). Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct (2;/data/session) in Unknown on line 0
I cannot access the "data/session" folder or check php.ini so please could you check these for me.
please let us know how you get on
Gordon
P.S.
In terms of the automobile, you cannot move your car because there is a traffic jam ahead. Getting annoyed with the car manufacturer is wrong way to think about the situation
. That said, I am a teacher too, and I can imagine the frustration you must be feeling.Since all the moodle gurus are helping you out of your lock-out, i shall not butt-in on that aspect. But elsewhere i read your post which says you downloaded your moodle version from some lycs site.
Joseph had promptly pointed out that it might be corrupt or older or any other problem.
It's useless asking why you did not download from moodle.org at this stage but i guess it'd be wise to let these gurus know the source from where your moodle installation files came from. May be they something about that particular option.
p.s. i have tested manhattan, castle, atutor, tcexam, moodle
Moodle is by far the stablest, most user friendly and has the GREATEST support fora. Your outburst anywhere else may not have been treated as kindly. Please appreciate that we all are here to use an open source programme and none is obliged to give you support.
N.B. Who is your hosting company anyway? (Don't answer this if you don't wish to) but if this turns out to be their fault, message me & i'll tell you about a very small company who host moodle very well for you. My own site is with them.
regards
However to answer your question about the moodle sessions, when you setup Moodle one of the config options was where to store the session data. In the 'Administration - Configuration - Variables - Operating System' you will find this:
| dbsessions: | NoYes |
| If enabled, this setting will use the database to store information about current sessions. This is especially useful for large/busy sites or sites built on cluster of servers. For most sites this should probably be left disabled so that the server disk is used instead. Note that changing this setting now will log out all current users (including you). |
If it is set to Yes then there will be no session information in moodledata/sessions as it is stored in the Moodle Database.
For your own sake, you need to get one of the excellent MySQL admin programs, check the MySQL site for information and elarn how to do some basic editing of the database. As one involved in school IT support I doubt you will ever find a system that does not require you at some stage to tinker a little bit 'under the hood'. You are not a car mechanic either, but does that stop you frpm checking the level of the oil and water, air pressure in the tyres, inflating tyres, changing tyres etc?
I called Lycos today (I was NOT happy_ and they INSISTED that.,.
1. Its not their problem its Moodles fault and they dont get involkved with Moodle its "up to you to sort this out"
2. They said that the PHPO sessions folder is NOT on their servers (Either way I STILL dont know where this folder is, Ive spent hours hunting on Core FTP to find it. and I cant)
4 They said the numerous 502 proxy errors were nothing to do with them and that upstream server= my ISP not their lousey underperforming shared SQL databse
But after the chat IMMEDIATELY things started working even though I had done nothinbg. I walked back to my office and it was strangely working. I made no changed but suddenly "it all worked" ??? VERU SUSPICIOUS..
HOWEVER
I was working on it today and this sums up my experiences...
An error has occurred with your database server that requires you to re try or re launch your browser.
X 30-40 times a day
Error: Database connection failed.
It is possible that the database is overloaded or otherwise not running properly.
The site administrator should also check that the database details have been correctly specified in config.php
X 100 times a day
Proxy Error
The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server.
The proxy server could not handle the request GET /login/index.php.
Reason: Document contains no data
X several hundred (yes hundred) times a day
Then this evening I got so many error messages that ONCE AGAIN I cannot get into my site and neither can anyone else.
So.... Im stuck once, again. and I need to chase Lycos to "secretly fix their server without admitting fault"
again...
I do so hope you guys can see why I am so fed up and pulling my hair out. Somewhere inall this Im tryuing to be a full time teacher with 40 lessons a week
ANY SUGGESTIONS? WHo is lying? Moodle or Lycos?
Is there a well known Moodle-guru that eould be kind enough to have a look if I provide my Admin password and user name?
Im fed up beyond all possible words.
Hi Dom
I think everyone who has been following your troubles with Moodle on Lycos can sympathise . As we share the same timezone, I'd be happy to take a look.
Ken
I see that Dom's sessions are working now.
While this is not a problem with moodle software, sine many folks have suffered from session problems (including myself, person1, person2, person3, person4, person5, person6) I pulled the information I could find together.
1) Change the permissions of data/sessions to allow moodle to write to the folder. In the last resort use "777" which means that everyone can write to the folder, and should only be used if the data folder is above or in the same folder as "public_html" }
(the folder which is web accessible). If you have access to your server then this will probably mean using the command chmod on the data folder like this (the path is only an example)
chmod -R 0777 /home/username/data/
if not then you can use a ftp program
To do this use right click on the folder and one of the options will usually be "change permissions". Try 777 and see if the problem is
cured. (Later you can reduce the number and the level of permissiveness, by trial and error - 700 is recommended) This often works
2) If the permissions can be set to 777 (everyone can access and write and execute to the folder) then it should not matter, but (see suexec below) sometimes it is not possible to set very loose permissions allowing anyone and his dog to write to the data/sessions folder.
In this case, it is importand that server knows that moodle is the owner of the data/sessions folder and that means that the username under which moodle is running, and the owner of the folders is one and the same. Normally moodle (which is a php) program runs under the username "apache". Apache is often the name of the web-server, and php runs as a web server program. If this is the case, then the owner ship of data/sessions should also be set to apache. With the command (again the path to the data folder is only an example)
chmod -R apache:apache /home/username/data
This can not usually be done via FTP so if using "777" is not working for you and you do not have access to your server, you are going to have to ask for the cooperation of your host. IF you are not operating your own server, ask your host the ownership of the folders and the username under which moodle is running and ask that they make them match.
3) If you have problems, sometimes it helps to create the folders yourself using ftp, rather than let fantastico (an automated moodle installer which may result in session data path problems on some servers), for instance, create them for you. This can have the opposite effect, if say you are logged on as root to your server, and you create the folders as root, because then moodle as apache
will not be the owner of the folders. On a shared host however, using ftp to create data, data/sessions and data/cache is worth a try.
4) If your server is running "php suexec" then this will prevent the use of very permissive permissions (e.g. 777) and make it critical that the owner of those folders is the same as username underwhich moodle runs. Ask your host if they are using "php suexec." Sometimes, conversely, it has been necessary to recompile using suexec, but no one expained why.
5) Very occasionally there will be extra security software, such AppAmor which is bundled in SuSE Linux, and SELinux which is in Fedora Core, in operation on the system, which does not like it when php writes a lot of files to the disk. Find out if any such security software is in operation by asking your host and change the configuraton of this security software.
6) As mentioned in the installation instructions, when php is operating in "safe mode" it may not be able to write to the sessions folder. You can find out if it is operating in safe mode by looking at "php info" or asking your host. If it is then either ask them to turn off safe mode, or set up a data/sessions directory that works for you.
7) Check that the sessions save path is going to the write place in php info where there will be a setting session.save_path and apparently some people have found the solution in changing their php.ini file to set the session.save_path to the right place
particularly when using a windows server with an icorrectly configured php.ini
There are all sorts of other reasons why there should be problems with sessions, although most of these will result in a different error message:
1) Having the same cookie name when using more than one moodle at the same time. The solution is to rename the cookie for each of your moodle installations to something unique in the admin detailed sessions.
2) Having the wrong ULR for your site in moodle/config.php, particularly be aware that you should be consistent with the use of "www.domain.com" and "domain.com" if you are going to access yoursite without the www then do not put it in the URL setting.
3) If your apache serve is giving out incorrect or "expired cookies". This will require you to reconfigure your appache server.
4) If you really have run out of disk space, in session data directory. But since session data files are small, since moodle 1.3 stopped using the global session data folder this is unlikely.
5) If you have specified $CFG->dataroot, the path to the data folder incorrectly.
5.1) Avoid trailing spaces in the path!
5.2) Make sure you have the first slash in the path!
5.2) If the path is wrong you may not realise immediately, because, in this case the session data folder will sometimes default to the global (system-wide default) directory which is often /tmp. The system-wide default as well as your setting is shown in php info. See Penny Leach's post here.
If you can not get session information to save to the data/sessions folder, then try turning dbsessions on using the Admin detailed settings dbsessions. This will mean that session information is stored to the database not to a folder on the disk. If you can not log in as Admin to make this change then use php myadmin or a client side database administrator like navicat or mydbstudio to change the mdl_config->dbsessions to on. This is not recommended as a long term solution for small moodle installations, and changing the database directly always involves risk.
Tim
this is great stuff for a docs.moodle.org session problems troubleshooting page. Actually, I think docs.moodle.org should generally have a troubleshooting and faq category that gets this as the first entry
I took the liberty of adding a link to this forum from
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Installation_FAQ
I agree that a troube shooting FAQ would be a good idea.
My dumbed-down, teacher-speak version above is not appropriate for the installation FAQ. If someone went to their host with my answer above the host sysadmins think "this software is amateurish" (when moodle is not, only as sysadmins us teacher-users are) so it really needs to go in a trouble shooting page for users rather than an installation FAQ read by sysadmins.
Tim
What lessons can be learned ....... Like Martin says this is great for the Moodle documentation.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
As a risk manager lets look at the facts as they are and can we as a community learn from them.
1) Moodle is now very complex to both in stall and maintain and administer for anyone who has little or no IT experience in installing and managing systems. In today's consumer environment - one "expects" to hit the install button - an icon appears and all is well and running sweetly. 1st misconception .......
2) How many times have we seen "teachers" try and install Moodle on a "hosted system" (because in many cases it is a 1 or two button strep) to get Moodle running, and then seen a posting on Moodle.org seeking help.
3) Moodle is both simple and complex .... simple in real terms to a techie who loves to get their hands dirty and demonstrate how good they are, and complex that when the wheels come off for many of us it is the "LAST STRAW". 2nd misconception - generally it is not a Moodle application fault - but something that someone has done wrong and there are 1,000's of combinations. Martin and the team have done a great job, and yet there are issues to resolve, but issues like this are not grated through poor programming - just inadequate planning, time, skills and knowledge.
4) Many cheap hosting companies are GREAT at supporting your environment for your humble $5 - $20 per month ...... misconception # 3 ....... either use a Moodle Partner, install your own server and develop expertise / employ experienced support engineers, or find a Moodle user close to you who has their own server and buy their expertise.
5) If you program is placed up at the last minute and you have not tested it in the production environment at least (the very minimum) a week before, then purely and simply you are not a professional educator - pure and simple ..... Sure if you have had a system up and running for say 12 months and all runs smoothly and you have uploaded many times before on the night before your programs are due to run, you will generally get away with it ..... but sooner or later it will all crumble and bring you to your knees.
6) Undertake PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ... Learn about how Moodle works, how to administer it, how to maintain it , lean about the operating system you deployed it on, etc etc .. it takes TIME and lots of it .... Moodle IS NOT FREE ....... if nothing else you will invest large amounts of time, and if you don't have the spare time, don't get involved in it . All Moodle allows you to do is deploy a feature rich CMS environment at a zero software cost and zero licence fee ...... zero maintenance cost ..... that is it ...... pure and simple ...... Everything else you HAVE TO PAY FOR ...... hardware, bandwidth, hosting etc .... the list goes on ..... so in a small environment you may save approx $5,000 per year and in a larger environment .... over $250,000 per year in the big side of towns fees – in the scheme of your size the saving is small compared to the overall coat of your envioronment ...... misconception # 4 to run Moodle is free or at the very least a petty cash application for a business / school / institution.
I am going to step out of the square and be radical. Is it now a time to introduce "paid support" for Moodle and questions like this within Mooodle.org? Nothing radical, but if one has a technical query and seek the help of the community, and the community puts time and effort into supporting the community, people are using the community to substitute engaging their own technical support personnel. What I would suggest is a $5 or even a $10 support ticket for each support thread started on Moodle.org, maybe payed for via paypal with the funds going back into Moodle for further development, maybe in the further development of the Docs project - or whatever. I am not talking here about general education discussions etc, or moodle improvements, but technical queries where people like Dom are screaming for help.
food for thought
The main lesson to be learned here (aside from your good points above) is to read the __ documentation. For example, BEFORE installing Moodle, READ the documentation regarding INSTALLATION and make sure your host/server is set up correctly.
With the right host, installation IS as easy as the click of a button. If I can do it, anyone can. However, if you want to do complex things with Moodle, you can, and yes, it does take time and/or expertise for that.
Open source is also about making money!
If people want to pay for a quick response, and that money were used to fund further moodle development, in a user-desired direction, then that would be great, as far as I am concerned.
I would really-seperate-groups, group-relative time, quizes using flash, and all sorts of things but I can't afford them. I very much doubt that I would be able to afford them via supporting people but you never know and it may make support even quicker.
I agree though that Moodle installation is generally one click. Dom got unlucky. Looking at some of his other posts it seems that the Lycos/Fantasico installation was damaged from the start.
Tim
Eric
One- a paid support for moodle kills the basic spirit itself. It's not that we gravitate to moodle coz it's free, but because it's better than others and one of the most important factor, that makes it better is the extremely vibrant community contribution.
It can certainly be argued that Moodle's technical people give their time to solve issues but then again, they don't ALWAYS do so and it still is voluntary.
two - Speed: i wonder if the speed of redressal would increase. I have seen problems getting solved in a matter of 60-120 mins. by moodlers helping each other.
three: Some serious SOS Cases which might have sparked this suggestion are typical cases of a non-swimmer jumping into the pool first and then shouting for the coach urging him to teach swimming befor he drowns. In open source world, you are supposed to know what you are playing with. And moodle help files, documentation and fora are more comprehensive than most(if not all) paid softwares' help files etc.
So i guess odd situations which do arise once in a while do not warrant that payments be made but would it be a good idea to ALSO have paid support along side these fora. Maybe a button saying: "Is your problem not getting solved? ask for paid support." But I am still skeptical about what kind of a message would that convey to newbies because i can safely say that moodlers here are solving almost everything for each other (with the help of moodle employees).
lastly: Individual payments? well, let's all of us have our paypal details in the profile page and apart from ''send message'' button, let's have a 'happy with him/her? pay him/her'.......
)I would have to disagree with you on the point that "It's not that we gravitate to moodle coz it's free, but because it's better than others " Most institutions and private people are migrating to Moodle very much because it is better, but primarily as a means of getting access to a CMS that is "free of initial cost and ongoing licensing fees" - pure and simple.
If people desire to go down the "paid support" pathway, then the easiest way is through a Moodle Partner and engage their services at their determined rates.
I believe that the techies would still respond in the same manner as they do now, but it would also be nice to know that their contribution is also fuelling small donations back to Moodle - and not individuals ..... there in lies the big differentiator ..... any payments go back into Moodle development ..... so the whole community benefits ...... something small I think in the bigger scheme of things.
Chardelle and others ......
In stepping out of the square, I am not advocating that individuals are paid for their support, however some contribution coming back into the community to support further development.
I also agree with Trimothy, that areas need to be split and remain free. The diferentiator is in the areas of installations and upgrades where people fly blind and "don't read the documentation" before plunging head long into it and when it goes belly up - scream for assistance. What I am advocating is a minimal "payment / donation" and in the scheme of today's reality $5 is a minimal and affordable contribution by all for this level of assistance.
As Chardelle comments, "if I can do it, anyone can." Well Dom was not able to Chardelle and hence the "catch 22". Is a $5 donation / payment to Moodle that supports further development per new thread that is created, too much to ask? In many areas of western communities, it is cost of a cup of coffee. If someone can afford to deploy a server infrastructure or pay for hosting, then they can afford a small support donation.
"Cheap hosters" should be supporting the user, but like so many, they are just in it for the "money".
That said so are Moodle Partners, but if there is a problem, they at least will "fix the problem" and in many cases, well before you even know or realise that a issue ever raised its ugly head. What are you paying for in the longer term - quantifiable support.
Remember - in most cases, you will only get what you pay for.
Well Chris....
a US$ 5! eh?
converted to Indian currency, it is about 250/- INR.
Let me say that my domestic servant, who comes to wash dishes at my house, charges us Rs. 150/- per MONTH. for doing dishes twice a day.That would be around US$ 3 a month.and doing that in 5 houses, her carry home is about US $ 15 per month.
Having said that, I also say that she is not exactly going to be a moodler but i just wanted to say that US$ 5 is not a sum which may be taken for granted either. Western Communities are not the only users of moodle
Hi Fellow Moodlers
Firstly many thanks for the kind help and considerable thought offered.
Where I am at now
1. I am still stuck and will have the same problem all over again when my PHO sessions folder overflows, as I cant find it ANYWHERE - any suggestions I spent a whole evenig looking NOT DATA but the PHP SESSIONS folder_ I have CORE FTP but there is no file or folder search so.... (and the moodle/sessions folder is ALWAYS empty)
2. Moodlers say this sessions file storage issue is Lycos issue and Lycos say "no not interested - its a moodle issue the sessions folder is on your site" (and so go away) (though like I say cant find a PHP folder) So Im stuck between two points of view/ I believe the Moodle folk but try telling that to Trevor Day at Lycos Professional hosting supoort, UK 0870 730 1135 (!!!! hes not listeing to me as Im not a tecky!!)
Responding to (certain posts) Idont want to add to the post mortem some comments really do require further "light" I wont reply to the replies as I really am hugely pressed for time.
1. "One click install. Cant be expected to work" I diagree to some extent. If a company like Lycos feel it has enough user base to add it toits "portfolio" then there should be a reasonable expectation. Product branding is important and I think Moodle is up to the job. Didnt choose Moodle because it was free but because its the "standard" for CM / VLE
2. "teachers" try and install Moodle on a "hosted system" (because in many cases it is a 1 or two button strep) and then get messed up. Yes we do. and there are others on this site. With taxpayers (rightly) watching every last penny of cash (I am on £23,000 after 12 years industry experience and a Electronics degree and a two year teaching post graduate diploma) any new ideas have to come from the classroom and school hate change and WONT pay big bucks.So teachers HAVE to push Moodle we have to experiement and we have to do it in the spare hour or two after 10pm when we have finsihed lesson planning for the nexst days start at 7.30 lesson start
3, "generally it is not a Moodle application fault - but something that someone has done wrong and there are 1,000's of combinations. Martin and the team have done a great job, and yet there are issues to resolve, but issues like this are not grated through poor programming - just inadequate planning, time, skills and knowledge." See my last comments and the next comments. I have been playing with Moodle for 6 months before launch amd dry ran for a week. BEFORE uploading all the resources. No "poor planning" there. Teachers ARE planners. Its what we do 
(Usually late into the night)
4. "Many cheap hosting companies are GREAT at supporting your environment for your humble $5 - $20 per month" Very true. Thats why I pay £50 a month (three times that figure) for a VPS. Its not dedicated true but Im finding this (£ 700 per annum) rich CMS / VLE out of my own pocket. Not tax payers pounds / dollars as taxpayers dont want to pay for innovation. (yet) But I think the kids deserve the best practices and resources. And this way I may well get the school to see the value and power of Moodle backed by professional Partners (I would be very interested in talking to some recommended trusted UK MPs)
5. "If you program is placed up at the last minute and you have not tested it in the production environment at least (the very minimum) a week before, then purely and simply you are not a professional educator - pure and simple" See my last comments. This is a troubling comment, and dare i say ill judged and as you can now see, not linkedto reality. Unintentional - I know - but now you know
6. Undertake PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ...I have to pursudae and prove the concept first (see above) Learn about how Moodle works, how to administer it, how to maintain it (yup ditto see above), lean about the operating system (going a little too far there teachers really dont have time to learn PHPO scripting, Apache admin and (so on) , please see this from a teachers POV) you deployed it on, etc etc .. (yup ditto see above)
7. "and if you don't have the spare time, don't get involved in it ." It should be clear that this black and white approach ("if you aint a techy dont touch it" sounds like a passable argument on first reading but one of the opportunities for OSS IS the ability to toe-dip, to gently test and trial, and ideally to move to proper support whether is t Moodle, Red Hat or whatever... The biz model is there. But the way that the real world of education works is that "well it has to be seen to work. In an inner London school, with huge demands for special needs, refugees, EAL, SEN targets, PC sharing, new ideas HAVE sometimes to be rolled out in ways that cant compare with a £20,000 PA "business partner" development programme. Those things never happen sadly.
Lessons to be learned
1. I will try to conceal my utter rage at technology when it completely fails me just when I have spent days uploading content I have to count on.
2. Try and somehow keep things running until the school sees the value (ALREADY they are rather impressed) And THEN find a moodle parnet AND dedicated hosting
3. Take the "you have to be a PHO guru to use Moodle" comments with a well meaning pinch of salt.
4. Tell as many people NOT to use Lycos shared hosting as their upstream SQL servers are a DISASTER in terms of client server response times (THATS why the PHP session folders are rammed full. The SQL disconnect is flooding new sessions all the time) (I just wih I knew where that folder WAS!!
5. MOST IMPORTANTLY - Dont assume that because a site works OK on light test for a few weeks it will work for ONE DAY when Lycos are still learning how to configure MYSQL 5.0 servers to weeks after they SAY they have finished.
Any Moodle Partners PLEASE GET IN TOUCH!! I need some quotes.
(here endeth the rant - hopegully a well mannered, balanced one)
Once again my huge thanks to the replies (most of them!) its just a shame that a lot fo the instructions about hacking into SQL databases with obscure OSS database tools is beyond me. (wahhh)
I think that we are all pretty well agreed that if you are trying to run Moodle for an entire school, you will have to know something about the server side. Most schools have an IT staff that know about these things, but individual teachers may not be able to get that kind of support. The server side can be quite complicated--especially when you take security, patches, various updates, etc. into consideration. If that problem had been taken care of by someone else, you would have had a far better experience!
We do often boast about how easy Moodle is to install and use (remember this thread, from a while back?) But, the server side is the server side and requires some specialized knowledge. So I hope that you will not give up on it!
atw
When you say you can't find the session folder on your site, you do not mention any of the information in an earlier post by Timothy as to how to find it. So can I ask some specific questions:
1. Do you have command line access or only FTP?
2. Do you have access to php.ini? Probably not in a shared environment, which would also mean that you do not have access to your php session folder as it is listed in that file. Ask Lycos where php.ini is located as you wish to edit it, if they say you can't then they have control of the php session folder.
Have just noticed that if you got to the Admin screen in Moodle, then 'Test environment' and finally 'php info', the path to the session folder is listed (search on the page for 'session'). That should sort out once and for all where it is located and whether you have access!
3. If you do have access to php.ini have you looked through for the location of the sessions folder?
4. If you do have command line access you can try:
locate sessions
to find any folder called sessions, if you find it then also run the command:
df
post both answers here and we will be able to tell you how much space is left on the drive containing the session folder. It is confusing in Linux as there is only on filespace regardless of the number of physical drives, as opposed to a basic windows setup where folders and filespaces don't cross from one drive to another.
Question for Moodle Developers:
I notice in my php/sessions folder that there are a large number of stale sessions. I can just delete them as I have access, however would it be possible for Moodle to run a command rm path/to/sessions/sess*?
If this is a shared folder would that delete other peoples session files or are they locked as open?
I notice in my php/sessions folder that there are a large number of stale sessions. I can just delete them as I have access, however would it be possible for Moodle to run a command rm path/to/sessions/sess*?
If this is a shared folder would that delete other peoples session files or are they locked as open?
You can setup a cronjob to delete _old_ session files. Just make sure they are old enough (where 'old enough' is up to you to define
Then use something like:
find /path/to/sessions/dir/ -type f -cmin +XXX -print0 | xargs -r -0 rm
+XXX is expresed in _minutes_ and it means that the file's status was last changed XXX minutes ago. So this will delete all files that haven't changed their status in the last XXXX minutes.
Saludos. Iñaki.
I think you summarised it quite well. It's not so much about opposites. Many cheap hosters give good quality support (and other's don't!), and even within a hosting company you might be lucky and deal with an outstanding technician on Monday, and an unfriendly or not very knowledgeable one on Tuesday. Sometimes a great company has a management change and the expert geeks leave, and it gives bad service. Sometime a star steps in and brings it all back.
Like restaurants -- some are good one season, bad the next. Or depending on who's cooking tonight.
And in terms of expertise, many non-techies are lucky and get it all sorted. And sometimes you get in trouble and need help -- if you are in a hurry, it may make sense to pay professional services -- or you can be nice and get people to be nice back to you and help with your problem. Not very different from other realms in life.
I am new to Moodle, and your post scares me a little. I was led to believe that Moodle had a sharing community that helped each other, but some of the responses to your plight are a bit uncaring and/or unhelpful. I teach full time and then go to post-graduate school at night to work on a learning technologies degree. I was very excited as I was searching for information on loading Moodle onto a host server tonight, because the possibilities for units taught with Moodle are phenomenal. Now I have to ask: do you still think the investment in time to learn Moodle is really worth it if the Moodle community isn't really there to help you when you run into trouble? There seems to be a lot of blaming the user....
Starla
Hola Starla!
Take a look at the thread above, and look at how many people with funny {M} icons under their pic posted something. Those are old-timers, people who help a lot, present at conferences, write books and articles about moodle, are core developers, etc.
Dom got a lot of help on this thread. I am a bit sad that he accused Moodle of being bad or lying -- but I underestand he was frustrated. I do think his hosting company let him down, or that he got into a very cheap service that counts on you "knowing what you are doing or just being lucky". Hosting complex software like moodle is a tricky business -- when it just works it's great, but when it doesn't you need expertise to sort it out.
So, don't be scared
Thank you for the encouragement. I am seriously considering using one of the moodle.com hosts. (Less time working out bugs = more time planning collaborative learning experiences for students!)
I have read some of your posts on other threads, as well as posts by other Moodle "gurus" and now realize that the good press was well deserved.
- Tell as many people NOT to use Lycos shared hosting as their upstream SQL servers are a DISASTER in terms of client server response times (THATS why the PHP session folders are rammed full. The SQL disconnect is flooding new sessions all the time) (I just wih I knew where that folder WAS!!
OK, I'll bite
If you are on a shared hosting environment (or at least sharing the database with other users), don't use database stored sessions. This will only make the problem worse
Make sure you set 'dbsessions' to 'no' (under Administration >> Configuration >> Variables). This will make Moodle use whatever settings your PHP has for sessions (which 99'9999% of the time is files based sessions).
Also, there was a bug in Moodle until 1.6.2-something (can't remember exactly what date it was fixed) that didn't have 'sessiontimeout' into account when using files based sessions. Instead Moodle used whatever default your PHP installation had for session lifetime (1440 seconds by default, unless your provider changed that value).
I hope this helps you.
Saludos. Iñaki.
I'd be pleased to help out if I can. I'm rather tied up today but could give you a call tomorrow if you like? Please respond by email:
Sean M Keogh
Proprietor - pteppic.net
Authorised UK Moodle Partner
http://www.pteppic.net/
First, realize that you are not the only one to experience the frustration of working with any program/computer. We've all wanted to pick of our computer and throw it out the window at some time.
Second, my advice is that you backup whatever you can (e.g. your lesson, etc. may be in your moodledata folder) and tell Lycos you want your money back and look for another host. There have been some threads on the subject such as the one you yourself started: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=55729
and this one: http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=42688
I've actually used two or three different hosts (and some for less than you are paying--see my reply to your email) and have never had problems installing Moodle. For example, once upon a time, before there even WAS any Moodle documentation, when Moodle first got into Fantastico, I used it to install Moodle and all it took was a few clicks. Bottom line: if thousands of users can install Moodle and get it running, then the problem obviously is with the host/server setup, etc.
>>Moodle community has consistently been one of the more positive and responsive open source communities<< This is so true Anthony! The help in this thread speaks for itself.
I agree wholeheartedly with Chris.
While I am by no means an expert Moodler, I am an affiliate of Experts Exchange who DO charge subscribers to have their technical questions answered by experts in their respective fields.
Lets get real here, 'Time is Money', and while I have no problem with free support, it gets to the stage where experts are devoting a large portion of their working lives providing support for little, or indeed, no reward. Perhaps there should be a concept of a 'Corporate Support Licence', where Moodlers who use the package in a live production environment would pay a small fee for ongoing technical support.
Regards.
doesn't your idea go against the principles of open source and especially moodle?
I thought that one of the ideas behind moodle was that newcomers, like Dom in this case, would get a lot of help from more experienced members of the moodle community - thereby saving time and money in getting moodle running. After the novices have burned their fingers a bit and gathered more experience and help from the community, they should then pay back by helping other newcomers out. And so the cycle continues - like from father to son.
(I think the community demonstrated a lot of patience and help here. Personally, I would have wrung Dom's neck for shouting earlier on and for complaining about moodle without understanding it. That's no behaviour for somebody looking for help. Sounds like a spoiled brat demanding more cookies.)
sorry for screaming this out but as a previous customer/victim of lycos I have to scream this out so it can be heard. Lycos provides many easy installations of moodle and other open source packages but for £5 per month you really get what you pay for. Their server as well as their installations and customer support are totally unreliable. Remember you get what you pay for. It's ok for playing about but not for doing any short of professional work that you have to rely on. Also they will never admit fault - so whatever problems they cause to you because of their badly configured and maintained server they will try to convince you that it is either your fault or it is the program's fault...and of course when you are dealing with a customer base that are attracted to lyco's ease of use and thus are not very techy it's not very difficult to convince people that it is all their fault.
Your fault in this case is that you relied on a £5 per month hosting service to do a professional job. I've been there, done that, and it doesn't really work. Ever since I moved to 1and1 - a more expensive but also more professional webhost - my moodle has been working perfectly. Of course I was very carefull to download everything correctly from the moodle server and to unzip it on the 1and1 server. And yes, it is safer to install a slightly older but more mature and well tested version of moodle - i went for 1.54+ and it works great.
it's easy for us to blame moodle and its community but it is worth keeping in mind that we always get what we pay for so the least we can do is to help develop moodle further rather than cry about how bad it is when the problems lie elsewhere.
best
yanni
I AM paying £45 + for Lycos hosting - NOT £5. NO PEANUTS NO MONKEYS. Ok thats that what else?
Someone said spolit bratt. See what non technical users have to say about comments like that. The experienced moodlers also kindly agreed that there was another side to the "argrhrghrgrh Ive lost all my work" coin.
Anyhow. AGAIN THANKYOU (99%og you fantastic people) for your massive help.
My only problem is finding SOME time to learn enough to understand what the technical answers mean!
For the record...
1. I ADORE Moodle now. And hate Lycos. If I knew how to run a DoS on their corp site I would LMAO
2. I dearly wish I could avoid these endless session timeouts, the quiz errors posted on "quizzes" and REALLY wish I could fix the Questionnaire Modul (but the author no less!! is helping me out - Hows THAT for support?)
3. I badly want to find a Moodle Partner and get some "solution" quites (but there are onyl three in the UK and US hosting involves potential bottleneckign surely on the larger backbones? Hmmm slightly suspiciously small number of UK MPs) And the ONLY reason for considering MPs is becuase I dont think even the nicest folk here would have the patience to translate their tecky suggestions into something cretin level for me.
4. I hope that I'll be able to put something back into the group once I have either the money or the knowledge to do so... in the meantime i have lots of (endless ebdless) cookie / cache deleting to do (to keepo things running) before i can get enough proof to get the school to pay for a dedicated attatched webserver!!) NO idea how much all that will cost!!
Kind Regardsto everymoodler.
this has become a personal issue for me
If you can log in as admin, could you paste the 'session' table excerpt you get (among lots of other things) when you go to http://www.sharedteaching.com/admin/phpinfo.php ?
That should help us track the root of the error down.
Saludos. Iñaki.
I assume your £45+ is a month with Lycos?
You don't endear yourself to people with your joke about DoS attacks.
besides i have NO idea how do do onewere you actually taking me seriosly?????
Cue much online chat with my hosting co. No resolution so I've been scouring this forum. I also had another issue which meant a futher chat. Then when I mentioned to this second operative that I had a problem storing session cookies he sorted it in 5 seconds by chnaging this line in php.ini
;session.save_path = /tmp
to
session.save_path = /tmp
Now he wasn't able to explain why this file has suddenly acquired a comment in that line and I sure as Heck never put it there, so I think someone at the hosting company had been making some changes last week without telling me.
Anyway - I just thought I'd tell you how the problem got resolved here.
Best wishes
John