Visvanath Ratnaweera

Hi

Generally I am reluctant to answer anonymous enquiries. Since I've already started, here it goes.

Out of the three question, two have been answered:
> Q1. Do we always need an Internet connection?

No!

> Q3. Which Moodle Version is best for us?

The latest: 3.5 today, 3.6 tomorrow.

The third question is still hanging:
> Q2. Is it something someone with little IT experience can install?

It depends - on how little the IT experience is and how unusual your case is. The most usual case, running a packages Moodle site in the Internet is a one-click affair if you go to a mass-hoster. Your case is unusual. And I'm sorry to say, you are also making incoherent statements.

Look at these:
> We have five labs and each lab has a server without internet. I'm not sure if they are internally connected.

This is a critical piece of information.

> But I if I could load Moodle on each server that could be a start.

A bad start. Apart from maintaining five sites instead of one, a Moodle site is not something you can jump from one to the other. The site contains user specific data, which is needed the next time the user pay a visit.

> I think we need internet for Moodle Cloud. We have desktop computers without internet in the labs. This is why we need a local server

So the Cloud is something you can reach without the Internet. (Notice the uppercase Internet.)

> We are trying to get our company to purchase tablets for the weaker students.

Are you in California. One iPad a student was supposed to upgrade the education system of the whole state!

> I suppose a internet connection would be needed then

So you are ready to give up on this:
> we don't want students going to others sites while online so having Moodle locally is best for us.

??? And more...

I suggest a) have a clear idea what you want to achieve b) decide finally on the infrastructure. Post those two things in this forum and the Moodle experts will tell what can be done.

The answer to your next question, How?, depends on the What you can do.

> I did make a "hard copy" by literally copying my entire server to RSync

If you can get the (entire) server going from that RSync, specifically the DBMS, then you've won.

If you know how, one can restore the MySQL DBMS from its files. The full information is in the files. Have done it a long time ago. You will find instructions on the Internet, if it is still possible.

James, if those "two Moodle servers" serve the same Moodle site, same $CFG->wwwroot, then what Howard described applies, with the additional point https://docs.moodle.org/en/Session_handling. Either the two servers share the session data through the common database (more resources) or can store locally (more efficient) if your load balance is "session aware".

This topic has been discussed many times in the Hardware and performance forum. But there is no Moodle-preferred method, simply because the architecture depends on the server environment you use.

This is long known in the Continent, under "die Qual der Wahl" (agony of choice). Reminded me of a beautiful TED Talk on this.

Edit: Found it! The paradox of choice | Barry Schwartz

Yes, https://moodle.org/plugins/qtype_algebra does exactly that! I don't see the users coming with higher maths very soon. So installed Algebra and the problem solved.

Many, many thanks for all the developers who are involved in that trove of plug-ins!