Moodle Outage manager plugin

• Moodle Outage manager plugin
  • What is this?
  • Moodle Requirements
  • Branches
  • Screenshots
  • Installation
  • Theme configuration
  • Custom Theme Additional SCSS
  • How to use
  • Quick Guide
  • Why it is an auth plugin?
  • Tester restriction options
  • IP restriction
  • Access key
  • Feedback and issues

What is this?

This is a Moodle plugin which makes the student experience of planned outages nicer, and provides extra tools for administrators and testers that help before and after the outage window.

The main idea is that instead of an outage being a very booleon on/off situation, this plugin creates the concept of graduated outages where at predefined times before an outage and after, different levels of warning and access can be provided to students and testers letting them know what is about to happen and why.

Moodle Requirements

This plugin will work out-of-the-box with Moodle 3.0 and Moodle 3.1.

If you have an older version of Moodle you can still make it work but you will need to manually add one extra plugin, please check: * https://github.com/catalyst/moodle-local_outage

Moodle supported branches

Version	Branch	PHP
Moodle 3.9+	MOODLE_39_STABLE	7.2+
Moodle 5.1	MOODLE_501_STABLE	8.2

Totara supported branches

Version	Branch	PHP
Totara 19	TOTARA_19	7.2+
Totara 13-18	MOODLE_39_STABLE	7.2+

Screenshots

Manage outages page with a scheduled outage warning.

The warning bar during an ongoing outage.

The warning bar once the outage has ended.

Installation

1. Install the plugin the same as any standard moodle plugin either via the Moodle plugin directory, or you can use git to clone it into your source:

   git clone git@github.com:catalyst/moodle-auth_outage.git auth/outage

   Or install via the Moodle plugin directory:

   https://moodle.org/plugins/auth_outage

2. Then run the Moodle upgrade

If you have issues please log them in github here:

https://github.com/catalyst/moodle-auth_outage/issues

3. Go to Dashboard ► Site administration ► Plugins ► Authentication ► Manage authentication, enable the Outage manager plugin and place it on the top.

4. If you need to use the IP Blocking, please add the following lines into your config.php before the require('/lib/setup.php') call:

// Insert this after $CFG->dataroot is defined.
if (file_exists(__DIR__.'/auth/outage/bootstrap.php')) {
    require(__DIR__.'/auth/outage/bootstrap.php');
}

Theme configuration

This plugin must work gracefully with your theme, but every theme can be different so it's impossible to get this right out of the box (other than with the default moodle theme Boost).

There is an admin setting which allows you to add or override and css to fix css issues. Typically these include properly pushing the page down when the outage notification bar is visible, including making this work with fixed headers and when the hamburger menu is open / closed and at different responsive breakpoints.

This can be found at:

Dashboard / Site administration / Plugins / Authentication / Outage manager / Settings

Custom Theme Additional SCSS

Custom themes generally do not have the same $navbar-height variable set to 80px (MOODLE), therefore custom themes will not calculate the change in navbar height with page elements that calculate the navbar total height.

Add the following SCSS For Moodle 3.11+

body.auth_outage {
    #page-wrapper {
        #nav-drawer {
            top: $navbar-height + 100px;
            height: calc(100% - (#{$navbar-height} + 100px));
        }
        #page {
            margin-top: $navbar-height + 100px;
        }
    }
    [data-region=right-hand-drawer].drawer {
        top: $navbar-height + 100px;
        height: calc(100% - (#{$navbar-height} + 100px));
    } 
}

Totara is a little different with version 13+ and no variables are used to set the totaraNav height

Add the following CSS For Totara 13+

.totaraNav {
    margin-top: 100px;
}
.local_envbar .totaraNav {
    margin-top: 50px;
}
body.auth_outage #page {
    margin-top: 0;
}

How to use

1. Go to Dashboard ► Site administration ► Plugins ► Authentication ► Outage manager ► Manage and set up your future outages.

2. (optional) Integrate your maintenance scripts using the CLI in auth/outage/cli.

Example of CLI usage:

$ php cli/create.php --help
Creates a new outage.

  -h,  --help               shows parameters help.
  -c,  --clone              clone another outage except for the start time.
  -a,  --autostart          must be Y or N, sets if the outage automatically triggers maintenance mode.
  -w,  --warn               how many seconds before it starts to display a warning.
  -s,  --start              in how many seconds should this outage start or unix time to start outage. Required.
  -d,  --duration           how many seconds should the outage last.
  -t,  --title              the title of the outage.
  -e,  --description        the description of the outage.
       --onlyid             only outputs the new outage id, useful for scripts.
  -b,  --block              blocks until outage starts.

Quick Guide

Please see QUICKGUIDE.md for step-by-step examples on how to test and use the Outage Manager.

Why it is an auth plugin?

One of the graduated stages this plugin introduces is a 'tester only' mode which disables login for most normal users. This is conceptually similar to the maintenance mode but enables testers to login and confirm the state after an upgrade without needing full admin privileges.

Tester restriction options

Two options are available to restrict the site to only let testers in during the tester phase. Note: these restrictions build on each other; If both are enabled, users must meet both criteria to be allowed in.

IP restriction

Only allow users from a certain IP or range of ips to enter.

Access key

Users provide an access key in the URL params on first page load, which is then stored as a cookie for 24 hours. If the access key matches the one setup for the outage, they are allowed in.

Using IP restriction with access key

Users will be allowed if they are from the configured allowed ips OR if they provide the correct access key.

Feedback and issues

Please raise any issues in github:

https://github.com/catalyst/moodle-auth_outage/issues

Pull requests are welcome

If you need anything urgently or would like to sponsor a feature please contact Catalyst IT Australia:

https://www.catalyst-au.net/contact-us