Test Windows Installation Overview

Windows Installation Overview

This page is a test bed for concepts associated with installing Moodle 1.9.x and 2.0 (soon) onto the various Windows platforms. The current pages in Moodle Docs are in disarray. It looks like they have been grown organically, with little attention to weed control. Now they proliferate, but are disjointed and some information is confused and looks to be in conflict. Mostly, as they refer to different platforms, the instructions are pretty similar, but as they relate to different types of moodle installs and versions, they are horrendously haphazard. What follows is a proposed structure for a new set of pages that brings together the information into a clear set of documents and instructions. As well, there is a set of associated pages that describe issues found for each of the various Windows editions and their resolution, as best we can.

Standard Moodle Installations for Windows Servers

A server-based network consists of a group of user PCs, usually called Clients, that request and receive network services from specialized computers called Servers. Servers are generally higher-performance systems, and provide services as file servers, mail servers, print servers, fax servers, and application servers. In this environment a Standard Moodle Installation can provide Moodle for hundreds or thousands of clients. It is assumed here that the moodle will be installed into an Internet Information Server (IIS) environment.

There are several different versions of Windows servers

1. 1. Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition
   2. Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition
   3. Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition
   4. Windows Server 2008 Standard
   5. Windows Web Server 2008
   6. Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation
   7. Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
   8. Windows Server 2008 Datacenter

And this list is going to grow. Is it safe to assume though that each of these environments, all the 2003 will generate exactly the same environments for installing things? It can be reasonable to assume some similarities between 2003 and 2008, but the differences will become apparent during the installation process. Is there a need to describe the installation of PHP into IIS or could that just be a link to PHP.org's installation instructions?

Standard Moodle Installations on Standalone Computers

 NOTE: The Xamp installer is dealt with below as a separate item. 

A Standard Moodle Installation is installed to a WAMP (Windows, Apache, MySQL and PHP) computer. This is an installation that utilizes the full set of tools available in each of the programs used on a single computer, usually for private use. A paragraph of descriptive prose that describes exactly what the Standard Moodle install is can go here.

At this point there is a set of links off to external pages that describe installing onto XP, Vista, Windows 7. I suggest we can assume that if someone has considered doing this then they have sufficient knowledge and skill to be able to install a WAMP so I do not think we need go into any detail here. Instead, there can be links off to the various sites that describe the installation of their products.

Moodle/Xampp Installation for Standalone computers

The Moodle/Xampp installation is accomplished in two ways, either installing the full Apache Friends Xampp, available from ApacheFriends.org, or installing from the Moodle/Xampp-lite version from the Moodle.org downloads page.

Using the full Xampp will mean that you can download and install a Standard Moodle package.

Here there is a link off to a page that relates to XP, Vista, Windows 7 in a generic way, but also includes a link to the issues that can be found in each of these environments.

The Moodle/Xamp-lite installer is a single package designed for ease of installation. This is a setup that is not suitable for a productions site, that is, it is OK for a single user or a very small environment, of say 10 or 15 users, in a peer-to-peer network.

Here there is a link off to a page that describes the installation of the Moodle/Xampp-lite installer and I doubt there needs be a whole set of pages for each environment. I would suggest here that the Moodle forums be scoured for problems relating to the installation of Moodle, for another page that describes issues and their resolution.

See Also

• Whatever is needed here.