Step-by-step Install Guide for Solaris 10 with Oracle 10

The VDAB (Public employment and vocational training service of the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium) is currently preparing an implementation of Moodle 1.9 on a large scale for its clients.

As a first step we have installed Moodle on a standard environment for VDAB being a Solaris 10 with Oracle 10g. Since this operation went succefully, problems encountered were solved, the VDAB offers the installation documentation to the Moodle community.

Contact person: Gerd Goetschalckx

Installation Documentation

for

Moodle at VDAB

1                Document information

Document status:	Final 2008/07/23
Owning process:	VDAB
Created by:	Toby De Loght

Table of Contents

1 Document information____________________________________________________________ 1

2 Purpose of this document__________________________________________________________ 2

3 Setting up the Oracle Database_____________________________________________________ 2

4 Configuring Apache_______________________________________________________________ 2

4.1 Install Apache................................................................................................................... 2

4.2 Install OCI 8 and Oracle Instant Client.............................................................................. 3

4.3 Install PHP....................................................................................................................... 4

4.4 Change PHP settings......................................................................................................... 6

4.5 Add GNU Coreutils........................................................................................................... 7

5 Install Moodle___________________________________________________________________ 7

5.1 Prepare the Moodle installation files.................................................................................. 7

5.2 Choose installation language............................................................................................. 8

5.3 Check PHP settings........................................................................................................... 8

5.4 Set installation and data directories.................................................................................... 9

5.5 Set Database connection.................................................................................................. 10

5.6 Server checks for installed components............................................................................ 11

5.7 Install language packs..................................................................................................... 12

5.8 Confirmation for written configuration file...................................................................... 14

5.9 Licence agreement.......................................................................................................... 14

5.10 Release information....................................................................................................... 14

5.11 Automatic database setup.............................................................................................. 15

5.12 Setting up the administrator account............................................................................. 16

5.13 Set up Frontpage........................................................................................................... 17

5.14 Start with empty Moodle............................................................................................... 18

6 Document control_______________________________________________________________ 19

 

 

2                Purpose of this document

This document provides an in-depth installation manual for Moodle on Solaris 10 with Oracle 10.2.0.2.

We provide an overview of the different steps involved:

l  Preparing Oracle 10g for a large Moodle installation

l  Configuring Apache 2.2 for a secure and high-performance webserver

l  Preparing all necessary PHP packages for Apache and Oracle

l  Preparing PHP settings for Moodle

l  An overview of the steps in the Moodle installation wizard.

3                Setting up the Oracle Database

We set up 2 parallel Moodle installations on one and a database on a separate server. Both installations share the same Oracle database, but use a different tablespace.

The Oracle 10.2.0.2 database runs on a Solaris 10 and is set up using Oracle's DBCA tool.

l  This is testzone1 on the test server testitis00

l  Database name = testitis02.vdab.be

l  We used the General purpose template for the database set-up;

l  And set UTF8 character encoding to NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.AL32UTF8

For each Moodle installation we create a separate Tablespace:

l  First Moodle installation on testzone2:

  MOODLE_DATA with initial size of 300MB

  User: MOODLEUSER, password: moodle

  The user only has rights within the specified tablespace

l  Second Moodle installation on testzone3:

  MOODLE_DATA2 with initial size of 300MB

  User: MOODLEUSER2, password: moodle

  The user only has rights within the specified tablespace

  

4                Configuring Apache

4.1          Install Apache

First download the latest Apache e.g. httpd-2.2.8.tar.gz from <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi">http://httpd.apache.org/download.cgi</a> to the folder /usr/local/apache2

Log in as root, uncompress the Apache files and go to the installation folder.

# gzip -d httpd-2.2.8.tar.gz

# tar -xvf httpd-2.2.8.tar

# cd httpd-2.2.8

Adapt the Environment Variables to make sure the correct gcc and make are used.

# export PATH=$PATH:/usr/sfw/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:.

Configure and make Apache:

# make clean --> only if necessary

# ./configure \

--prefix=/usr/local/apache2 \

--with-included-apr

# make

# make install

In order to increase performance edit the following in the httpd.conf file:

# vi /usr/local/moodle_1.9+/moodle/httpd.conf -- > opens text editor

DirectoryIndex index.php

Listen 8002 -- > for VDAB

DocumentRoot “/usr/local/moodle_1.9+/moodle”

AcceptPathInfo on

 

4.2          Install OCI 8 and Oracle Instant Client

Download the 32bit Solaris Basic en SDK: instantclient-basic-solaris6432-10.2.0.3-20070101.zip and

instantclient-sdk-solaris6432-10.2.0.3-20070101.zip from

<a href="http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/oci/instantclient/index.html">http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/oci/instantclient/index.html</a> to a folder e.g. /oracle/product.

 

Log in as the user oracle and uncompress the installation files:

$ cd /oracle/product

$ unzip instantclient-basic-solaris6432-10.2.0.3-20070101.zip --> creates the directory instantclient_10_2

$ unzip instantclient-sdk-solaris6432-10.2.0.3-20070101.zip --> is put into the directory instantclient_10_2

 

Adapt the tnsnames to set an alias or Oracle net service name. Each net service name entry contains connect descriptors that define listener and service information.

$ cd $TNS_ADMIN --> for VDAB this is /var/opt/oracle)

$ vi tns_admin _--> Below an example adaptation:_

moodle =

       (DESCRIPTION =

             (ADDRESS =

                   (COMMUNITY = TCPDEV.world)

                   (PROTOCOL = TCP)

                   (HOST = testzone1)

                   (PORT = 1521)

             )

             (CONNECT_DATA =

                   (SID = testitis02)

             )

       )

 

If necessary, create and adapt a sqlnet.ora file. For VDAB this was not necessary.

 

Create two Symbolic Links.

$ ln -s /oracle/product/instantclient_10_2/libclntsh.so.10.1

/oracle/product/instantclient_10_2/libclntsh.so

$ ln -s /oracle/product/instantclient_10_2/libocci.so.10.1

/oracle/product/instantclient_10_2/libocci.so

4.3          Install PHP

To install PHP on the Apache server, download php-5.2.5.tar.gz from <a href="http://www.php.net/downloads">http://www.php.net/downloads</a> to the folder /usr/local/apache2

Log in as root, uncompress the PHP files and go to the installation folder.

# gzip -d php-5.2.5.tar.gz

# tar -xvf php-5.2.5.tar

# cd php-5.2.5

Adapt the Environment Variables to make sure the correct gcc and make are used.

# export PATH=$PATH:/usr/sfw/bin:/usr/ccs/bin

# export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/oracle/product/instantclient_10_2

The following table provides a brief overview of the PHP extensions and what they are used for. All of these are required to do a fully functional Moodle installation.

 

<thead> </thead>

PHP Extensions	Description
GD Freetype 2	GD is commonly used to generate charts, graphics, thumbnails, etc. on the fly. Freetype provides an API to manipulate fonts.  Moodle uses these modules to generate dynamic graphs from the logs.
OCI8	Required connector for Oracle
zlib (alternatively use zip or unzip)	Zlib is required for zip/unzip funcitonality based on the deflate compression method. Moodle itself can also handle this functionality, but this impacts the use of server resources.
curl	curl is a client to get files from servers. It is used for handling files using a wide variety of protocols. This is a requirement for Moodle 1.8 and later
openssl	Library to enable secured connections to a server. This is mainly used for connections between Moodle installations e.g. to share courses.
php5-LDAP	Enables the use of LDAP functions in PHP
aspell-xx	The optional aspell modules provide a free spelling checker functionality embedded in Moodle. This module support a very large number of languages. XX represents the 2-letter code for the language.

 

For a default Solaris most of these modules are available by default. We only need to install curl and enable these modules in the Apache-Php configuration.

We first install curl. Download the package curl-7.18.1.tar.gz from <a href="http://curl.haxx.se/">http://curl.haxx.se</a> to /usr/local/apache2.

Log in as root, uncompress the curl files and go to the installation folder to make and install.

# gunzip curl-7.18.1.tar.gz

# tar -xvf curl-7.18.1.tar

# cd curl-7.18.1

# ./configure

# make

# make install

In order to test the curl installation do

/usr/local/bin/curl -V

If necessary, extend PATH to /usr/local/bin. This was not necessary for VDAB.

Next, we will configure, and install the PHP for Apache make links to the PHP extensions.

# cd /usr/local/apache2/php-5.2.5

# ./configure \

--with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apxs \

--with-config-file-path=/usr/local/apache2/conf \

--with-oci8=instantclient,/oracle/product/instantclient_10_2 \

--enable-sigchild \

--enable-mbstring \

--with-gd \

--with-openssl \

--with-curl=/usr/local/apache2/curl-7.18.1

# make

# make install

 

4.4          Change PHP settings

By default there is no php.ini file. However, there is a php.ini-recommended which we will use to make the required adaptations listed in the table below. Afterwards we will make a copy of this file and make it the active Php configuration file.

# vi /usr/local/apache2/conf/php.ini-recommended --> Open text editor and make adaptations

# cp /usr/local/apache2/php-5.2.5/php.ini-recommended /usr/local/apache2/conf/php.ini

In the file edit the following settings:

<thead> </thead>

Setting	Value we used in php.ini
Safe mode must be off	; Safe mode safe_mode = Off
memory_limit is at least 128MB	; Resource Limits memory_limit = 128M      ; Maximum amount of memory a script may consume
session.save_handler needs to be set to FILES.	[Session] ; Handler used to store/retrieve data. session.save_handler = files
magic_quotes_gpc needs to be ON magic_quotes_runtime needs to be OFF	; Magic quotes for incoming GET/POST/Cookie data. magic_quotes_gpc = On ; Magic quotes for runtime-generated data, e.g. data from SQL, from exec(), etc. magic_quotes_runtime = Off
file_uploads needs to be ON	; Whether to allow HTTP file uploads. file_uploads = On
session.auto_start needs to be OFF	; Initialize session on request startup. session.auto_start = 0
session.bug_compat_warn needs to be OFF	session.bug_compat_warn = 0
post_max_size is too small by default and needs to be increased e.g. when you run into problems while creating online content	; Maximum size of POST data that PHP will accept. post_max_size = 300M
upload_max_filesize needs to be increased e.g. to allow uploading larger course packages	; Maximum allowed size for uploaded files. upload_max_filesize = 300M
magic_quotes_sybase should be on for Oracle installations.	magic_quotes_sybase = On

 

4.5          Add GNU Coreutils

Also install the GNU Coreutils for Solaris in order to avoid Apache error described in case MDL-6850 . The Coreutils will include the du command which is required by Moodle to collect and calculate data on file sizes.

Download coreutils-6.4-sol10-sparc-local.gz from <a href="http://www.sunfreeware.com/solaris_2.5_list.html#coreutils">http://www.sunfreeware.com/solaris_2.5_list.html#coreutils</a> to your global zone as root .

gunzip coreutils-6.4-sol10-sparc-local.gz

pkgadd -d coreutils-6.4-sol10-sparc-local.gz

Go to Administration > Configuration > Variables > Operating System and enter the path to entry pathtodu to the GNU du in /usr/local/bin/du (was /usr/bin/du) .

Set the correct path in the Moodle administration interface. Go to Administration > Server > System Paths and fill out the correct path in the Path to du entry.

5                Install Moodle

5.1          Prepare the Moodle installation files

Now that we have completed the set-up for Apache, PHP, Oracle and the connection between PHP and Oracle we prepare for the Moodle installation.

Log in as root and create a moodle user assigned to a group and set a password.

# mkdir /export/home/moodle

# useradd -u 1005 -g 101 -d /export/home/moodle -s /bin/bash -c "Moodle" -m moodle

# chown moodle:users /export/home/moodle

# passwd moodle

Log in as root to create a directory for the Moodle installation:

# mkdir /usr/local/moodle_1.9+

# chown moodle:users /usr/local/moodle_1.9+

Download moodle-weekly-19.tgz from <a href="http://download.moodle.org/">http://download.moodle.org/</a>. Log in as the user moodle and copy the file to /usr/local/moodle_1.9+ and uncompress the file:

$ gunzip moodle-weekly-19.tgz

$ tar -vxf moodle-weekly-19.tar --> creates subdirectory 'moodle'

Now log onto the system where you will install Moodle e.g. testzone3 on server testitis03 as the user moodle.

Set the environment variables, preferable in the .profile of the  de user moodle:

$ export ORACLE_HOME=/oracle/product/instantclient_10_2

$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME

$ export TNS_ADMIN=/var/opt/oracle

$ export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin:/local/bin:.

Start Apache with the configuration file adapted to moodle:

$ /usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl -k start -f /usr/local/moodle_1.9+/moodle/httpd.conf

If desired you can install other languages during the installation wizard by downloading the appropriate language files e.g. Dutch (<a href="http://download.moodle.org/lang16/nl_utf8.zip">http://download.moodle.org/lang16/nl_utf8.zip</a>) to /usr/local/moodle_1.9+/moodledata/lang and uncompress the file.

# unzip nl_utf8.zip

A list of additional languages is available from the administration interface. Moodle then automatically downloads and installs the selected languages.

5.2          Choose installation language

Choose the installation language from the drop-down list. This choice only applies to the installation wizard.

Click the next button to continue.

<img width=391 height=238 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image001.jpg">

5.3          Check PHP settings

If you followed the above mentioned instructions for php, you should get the following screen.

In case of a Fail, recheck the PHP settings in php.ini.

<img width=381 height=335 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image002.jpg">

5.4          Set installation and data directories

In this step you define the basic locations of all Moodle-related files. Unless you chose a different location for the moodledata folder you do not need to change anything.

It is adviseable to keep the Moodle software and the data (courses, uploaded assignments etc.) separately;

In case of VDAB the web address is e.g. testzone2 or testzone3 and the data directory is /usr/local/moodle_1.9+/moodle

<img border=0 width=398 height=334 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image003.jpg">

 

5.5          Set Database connection

In this step we will set up the connection to the database:

l  Select Oracle from the drop-down list

l  For an Oracle installation, leave the Host entry empty

l  Provide the name of the Oracle database you created e.g. moodle

l  The database admin username and password

l  Add a table prefix e.g. m_

<img width=416 height=475 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image004.jpg">

5.6          Server checks for installed components

The installation wizard will now perform an availability check on the required System Components.

If you checked all the required PHP settings and modules during the pre-installation phase, you should get the following screen.

<img width=395 height=556 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image005.jpg">

5.7          Install language packs

Since we chose a Dutch installation, we now get an option to download the Dutch language files for the user interface. Provided you have direct write access to the Moodle server, the set-up of the language pack is automatic.

<img width=419 height=270 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image006.jpg">
If the download is unsuccessful, you will get the error message below. To resolve this problem, you can either:

l  Select other languages by using the Administrator interface when the installation is complete (Administration > Language > Language packs).

l  Unzip the language file on the server in the lang files directory e.g. <path to Moodle directory>/moodledata/lang

<img width=420 height=385 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image007.jpg">

5.8          Confirmation for written configuration file.

All the settings we made in prior steps are now collected and written to the Moodle configuration file (config.php).

<img width=393 height=190 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image008.jpg">
In this step, the basic Moodle configuration is complete. In the next steps, the setup will add the database tables and prepare Moodle for use.

5.9          Licence agreement

Carefully read and accept the licence agreement before proceeding to the final installation steps.

<img width=665 height=259 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image009.jpg">

5.10      Release information

This page provides the release information and the possibility to perform the following steps automatically (unattended). We will simply click next in order to capture potential setup errors.

<img width=665 height=139 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image010.jpg">

<a name="DDE_LINK">Following steps can be performed automatically (unattended) or with manual confirmation.</a>

5.11      Automatic database setup

What follows is a series of screens for the setup of the database tables for all of the standard Moodle components. Apart from clicking next, no user interaction is required.

<img width=469 height=439 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image011.jpg">
After each sequence a confirmation of success appears.

<img width=599 height=402 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image012.jpg">
This is the final step in the database set-up sequence.

<img width=534 height=250 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image013.jpg">

5.12      Setting up the administrator account

Now that the system is ready, we only need to provide details for an initial administrator account.

These data can be changed and/or complemented later. This is the account that will initially be used after installation to allow further configuration of the system.

<img width=665 height=452 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image014.jpg">

5.13      Set up Frontpage

During this final step of the installation wizard, we will put:

l  The Full site name e.g. the name of the institution. This will be visible in the title bar in all of the standard templates.

l  As Short name for the site.

l  A Front page description of the site. This will be displayed as a welcome message on the start page.

 

<img width=665 height=375 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image015.jpg">

5.14      Start with empty Moodle

We are then automatically redirected to the Moodle start page. Our Moodle is up and running and we can now continue with the configuration of the system.

<img width=665 height=295 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image016.jpg">

When we click Turn editing on we can start the configuration. We will need to verify the system location of some additional components. The installation procedure does not check for the availability of a zip program. Moodle especially needs zip and unzip when handling SCORM packages. Using the built-in unzip feature may impact server performance.

<img width=665 height=431 src="VDAB_Moodle_Installation_DOC_1.0_bestanden/image017.jpg">

6                Document control

<thead> </thead>

Role	Names	Date	Comment
Create	Toby De Loght	20080414	Document set-up
Edit	Toby De Loght	20080507	Added installation specifics from Stefaan Houthuys
Edit	Toby De Loght	20080514	Update after final discussion with Stefaan on 20080509
Add	Toby De Loght	20080722	Added topic “Add GNU Coreutils” from Stefaan (Moodle tuning changes-20080714.pdf)