Automatic updates deployment: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 19:57, 27 October 2015

Enabling updates deployment

This functionality requires Available update notifications to be enabled. The feature is enabled by default as long as the web server has write access to the folders with plugins being updated.

Disabling updates deployment

In a few circumstances (such as completely managed servers, which may have a lot of local modifications, or sites that have their own solution for updates deployment - for example via Git checkouts) it is desirable to not to allow automatic updates deployment. The feature may be disabled completely by adding the following code to the config.php file:

// Use the following flag to completely disable the installation of plugins // (new plugins, available updates and missing dependencies) and related // features (such as cancelling the plugin installation or upgrade) via the // server administration web interface. $CFG->disableupdateautodeploy = true;

Possible problems

Missing install button

If the updates deployment feature is not enabled (or if it is disabled in the config.php file), no button to install the update is displayed. When the feature is enabled, the page displaying the list of available updates performs some pre-checks to make sure the deployment will work. If a pre-check fails, information with a help pop-up is displayed.

Plugin files not writable

During the deployment, Moodle will replace the whole folder with the plugin code with a new version of the code. The web server process has to have write access to the folder and all its contents. There are several ways how to achieve this, depending on your web server setup and personal preferences. The exact location of the plugin folder depends on the type of the plugin. For a full list of locations see the Moodle path in the Plugins developer docs.

Example: Let us assume your web server is an Apache running at a Linux server as the user www-data. Your Moodle is installed at /var/www/vhosts/moodle/htdocs. You want to give it write access to the folder with your activity modules to update them:

   # cd /var/www/vhosts/moodle/htdocs
   # chown -R www-data mod
   # chmod -R u+w mod

Can not download the package

Make sure that http://moodle.org/plugins is up. If the site is down, your Moodle site will not be able to fetch the ZIP packages from it. Wait for http://moodle.org/plugins to be up again and then try to repeat the deployment procedure.

There can also be a problem with the validation of the SSL certificate. See SSL certificate for moodle.org for more info.

Errors and exceptions

The following section describes some errors that you may encounter and how to deal with them.

Unable to download the package (download_file_exception)

Check the bottom of the mdeploy.log file. It will probably contain a line starting with "cURL error" followed by the error number and the cURL error description.

cURL error 7 couldn't connect to host: Make sure that the site http://download.moodle.org is up and running at the moment. If it is down, your site can't call the web service to fetch the available updates info. Wait for http://download.moodle.org to be up again then re-check.

cURL error 60 (SSL certificate problem): This suggests problems with the validation of the SSL certificate of the remote (moodle.org) site. See SSL certificate for moodle.org for more info.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{New features}}[[File:plugins overview.png|thumb|left|Plugins overview highlighting available update with install button]]In Moodle 2.4 onwards, an administrator can enable updates deployment in  ''Settings > Site Administration > Server > Update notifications''. Then when updates are available, 'Install this update' buttons are shown on Plugins overview and Plugins check pages.
+{{Installing Moodle}}
+==Enabling updates deployment==
-This functionality requires that [[Notifications|Update notifications]] is enabled at the site.<br clear="all" />
+This functionality requires [[Available update notifications]] to be enabled. The feature is enabled by default as long as the web server has write access to the folders with plugins being updated.
-== How it works ==
+== Disabling updates deployment ==
-As a part of the information about available updates for the site, URL of the ZIP package with the new version of an installed plugin is returned. When ''Install this update'' button is pressed and the the deployment is confirmed at the next page, a standalone utility called ''mdeploy.php'' is executed.
+In a few circumstances (such as completely managed servers, which may have a lot of local modifications, or sites that have their own solution for updates deployment - for example via [[Git for Administrators|Git checkouts]]) it is desirable to not to allow automatic updates deployment. The feature may be disabled completely by adding the following code to the [[Configuration file|config.php file]]:
-# The mdeploy utility authorizes the request to make sure you are coming ''exactly'' from the confirmation page displayed in the previous step.
+<code php>
-# The ZIP package with the new version is fetched from the [https://moodle.org/plugins Moodle plugins directory].
+// Use the following flag to completely disable the installation of plugins
-# A simple integrity check is performed to make sure the ZIP was downloaded correctly.
+// (new plugins, available updates and missing dependencies) and related
-# The current version of the plugin code is archived into a directory at ''moodledata/mdeploy/archive/'' so you have a backup (just in case you had some local tweaks in the code, for example).
+// features (such as cancelling the plugin installation or upgrade) via the
-# The current directory with the plugin is removed and replaced with the content of the downloaded ZIP.
+// server administration web interface.
-# Your browser is redirected to the page where the normal upgrade procedure happens.
+$CFG->disableupdateautodeploy = true;
+</code>
-At this moment, you can deploy another available update (if there is such) or perform the upgrade procedure as if you uploaded the ZIP contents to your site manually.
+==Possible problems==
-== Disabling updates deployment ==
+=== Missing install button ===
-In a few circumstances (such as completely managed servers, which may have a lot of local modifications, or sites that have their own solution for updates deployment - for example via [[Git for Administrators|Git checkouts]]) it is desirable to not to allow automatic updates deployment. The feature may be disabled completely by adding the following code to the [[Configuration file|config.php file]]:
+If the updates deployment feature is not enabled (or if it is disabled in the config.php file), no button to install the update is displayed. When the feature is enabled, the page displaying the list of available updates performs some pre-checks to make sure the deployment will work. If a pre-check fails, information with a help pop-up is displayed.
- $CFG->disableupdateautodeploy = true;
+=== Plugin files not writable ===
-== Errors and exceptions ==
+During the deployment, Moodle will replace the whole folder with the plugin code with a new version of the code. The web server process has to have write access to the folder and all its contents. There are several ways how to achieve this, depending on your web server setup and personal preferences. The exact location of the plugin folder depends on the type of the plugin. For a full list of locations see the Moodle path in the [[:dev:Plugins|Plugins developer docs]].
-[[File:mdeploy-exception.png|thumb|left|Error screen during the plugin deployment]]If anything goes wrong during the deployment, please read the error page carefully and copy the error message together with the debugging information for later reference. Also, check the mdeploy.log file. The mdeploy utility logs all the steps into this file located at ''moodledata/mdeploy/mdeploy.log''. The log file usually contains additional details and debugging information describing the reason of the failure.
+Example: Let us assume your web server is an Apache running at a Linux server as the user ''www-data''. Your Moodle is installed at ''/var/www/vhosts/moodle/htdocs''. You want to give it write access to the folder with your activity modules to update them:
-When you navigate back from the error screen, always remember to go back up to the screen with the list of available plugins (where you clicked the ''Install this update'' button originally). Just going back to the previous confirmation screen or even reloading the current page will not work as the request would not be authorized any more. Doing so leads to the ''unauthorized_access_exception'' with the message ''Unable to read the passphrase file.''
+    # cd /var/www/vhosts/moodle/htdocs
+    # chown -R www-data mod
+    # chmod -R u+w mod
-The following section describes some errors that may raise and how to deal with them.<br clear="all" />
+See also more about [[Installing plugins]].
-=== Unable to download the package (download_file_exception) ===
+=== Can not download the package ===
-Check the bottom of the mdeploy.log file. It will probably contain a line starting with "cURL error" followed by the error number and the cURL error description.
+Make sure that http://moodle.org/plugins is up. If the site is down, your Moodle site will not be able to fetch the ZIP packages from it. Wait for http://moodle.org/plugins to be up again and then try to repeat the deployment procedure.
-==== cURL error 7 couldn't connect to host ====
+There can also be a problem with the validation of the SSL certificate. See [[SSL certificate for moodle.org]] for more info.
-Make sure that the site http://moodle.org/plugins is up and running at the moment. If it is down, your site can't fetch the ZIP packages from it. Wait for the moodle.org site is up again and try to repeat the deployment procedure.
+== Errors and exceptions ==
-==== cURL error 60 SSL certificate problem ====
+The following section describes some errors that you may encounter and how to deal with them.
-This suggests problems with the validation of the SSL certificate of the remote (moodle.org) site when fetching the ZIP package.
+=== Unable to download the package (download_file_exception) ===
-ZIP packages are downloaded via the secure HTTPS protocol. The mdeploy utility validates the SSL certificate of the remote site (which is the Moodle plugins directory in this case) and verifies its identity. To make this work, there must be a certificate (in the PEM format) of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_authority certificate authority (CA)] that issued the certificate for moodle.org installed at your server.
+Check the bottom of the mdeploy.log file. It will probably contain a line starting with "cURL error" followed by the error number and the cURL error description.
-The SSL certificate of the Moodle plugins directory has been issued by the [https://www.digicert.com/digicert-root-certificates.htm DigiCert CA] and signed by their ''DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA'' certificate. If this CA certificate is missing, the remote site can not be verified and the mdeploy utility refuses to download the ZIP (to protect you from so called man-in-the-middle attack). The exact location of that certificate at your server depends on the OS type and other settings. At Linux servers it may be typically found at /usr/share/ca-certificates/mozilla/DigiCert_High_Assurance_EV_Root_CA.crt for example.
+; cURL error 7 couldn't connect to host : Make sure that the site http://download.moodle.org is up and running at the moment. If it is down, your site can't call the web service to fetch the available updates info. Wait for http://download.moodle.org to be up again then re-check.
-The recommended way to fix this problem is to update your server's operating system so that it contains recent SSL certificates of common certificate authorities. At Debian based distributions, these certificates are distributed in the ''ca-certificates'' package. Gentoo servers provide them via the ''app-misc/ca-certificates'' ebuild. It's also a good idea to make sure that the OpenSSL libraries (libssl) and cURL libraries (libcurl) are up-to-date at your server.
+; cURL error 60 (SSL certificate problem) : This suggests problems with the validation of the SSL certificate of the remote (moodle.org) site. See [[SSL certificate for moodle.org]] for more info.
-If updating the operating system is not an option for you and the administrator of the server refuses to update the CA certificates at the server (there's not a good argument for that though), here is a workaround for you. You can download the [https://www.digicert.com/testroot/DigiCertHighAssuranceEVRootCA.crt DigiCert High Assurance EV Root CA] certificate from [https://www.digicert.com/digicert-root-certificates.htm digicert.com] and put it into your ''moodledata/moodleorgca.crt'' file. If the certificate is found there, Moodle will use it instead of relying on the one provided by the operating system.
+[[de:Automatische Aktualisierungen]]
+[[es:Implementar actualizaciones automáticas]]

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