Windows installation

Installation Packages

If you are running a small (less than 30 users) Moodle server or just want to test Moodle on your Windows XP PC, pre-built packages are available for you to use. Here are links to pages containing step-by-step instructions for installing Moodle using install packages:

• Complete install packages for most Windows versions

• This section has a quick way to install a complete package on a Windows XP machine

• Installation guide for Windows using XAMPP in case you want to retrofit

• Installation guide for Windows using EasyPHP

• Installation guide - Moodle for Windows on a USB Memory Stick

• Bitnami Moodle Stack - Fully automated Moodle instalation

Manual Installation

For medium to large installations (e.g. a college, university or business), it is best practice to install Moodle on your server manually.

• Plan your system capacity. This involves estimating the appropriate hardware to support the number of users in your organisation. See Installing Moodle in the How Many Users section for a method of doing this.
• Install your database server. You have a choice of MySQL (recommended), PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (only for Moodle 1.7 or later) or Oracle.
• Install PHP. See How to install PHP 5.x on Windows Server 2003 with IIS 6 for instructions.
• Install your web server. You have several choices - the decision as to which one to use will depend on your in-house expertise and your required level of sustainability:
  • Apache 2 is recommended as the most tested and popular for Moodle installations. See these instructions for manually installing Apache 2 on Windows.
  • IIS 6 can also be used. See the Windows forum for guidance on installation and, in particular, permission settings for using Moodle with IIS.
  • Other webservers are known to install on Windows, e.g. Lighttpd, so you may wish to experiment with these if available memory is low on your server.
• Install Moodle by getting the standard installation for Moodle from http://download.moodle.org/ and read Installing Moodle which has detailed generic information.
• Setup backups. Once Moodle is setup and configured, you should setup backups of the system in case of failure or loss of data.
  • To perform full site backups you need to backup the moodledata and moodle directories, Apache webserver configuration (httpd.conf) if you're using Apache, PHP configuration (php.ini) and any php extensions which are non-standard, and the mysql database. To do this use the integrated backup program (Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> Backup) or your own proprietary backup software (e.g. BackupExec). To backup your mysql database see the Backup FAQ.
  • To perform course backups see the Course backup page.
  • You should also perform a state backup of the server or PC. This is especially important if you're using IIS as this will backup the IIS metabase.
• Check your server security and performance. It is also good practice to read the Performance and Security documentation. Although much of the content is targetted at Linux/Unix users, there is a growing amount for Windows systems.
• Set-up your Active Directory authentication. You can use the standard LDAP authentication which prompts users with a username/password, or integrated NTLM authentication which does not require campus users to enter their credentials.

See also

• Windows-based server forum is the main forum for asking questions about your Moodle Windows installation.
• Installation for Windows Server 2003 with IIS and MSSQL.
• Installing APC in Windows contains instructions for using a PHP accelerator to reduce processor load.
• Installing Cron on Windows for setting up the Moodle scheduled task.
• Configuring aspell on Windows Server 2003 for setting up the Moodle spell checker.
• Running Apache and IIS on the same server forum discussion.
• A Windows installation log.