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Moodle is designed to upgrade cleanly from one version to the next.  Please refer to [[Upgrading to Moodle 1.6]], [[Upgrading to Moodle 1.8]] or [[Upgrading to Moodle 1.9]] for particular considerations related to the upgraded version.
{{Installing Moodle}}
''This page explains in detail how to upgrade Moodle. For a summary of the process, see [[Upgrade overview]].''


Changes that have been made to the original code, such as installing a contributed module (non-standard module) or a site edit of a php file, may not upgrade. This includes modifications to standard themes, that will be overwritten during an upgrade.
==Check the requirements==


For those using cpanel, you can use [http://ic.eflclasses.org/tutorials/howtoupgrademoodlewithcpanel.swf this tutorial]. It is a bit rough around the edges and is a little dated, but you should get the idea.
Before upgrading, check that your server meets all requirements for {{Version}} in ''Site administration > Server > [[Environment]]''.  


See the [{{Release notes}} release notes] in the dev docs for both [{{Release notes}}#Server_requirements server] and [{{Release notes}}#Client_requirements client] software requirements.


__TOC__
Notes:


When upgrading a Moodle installation you should follow these steps:
* You can only upgrade to Moodle {{Version}} from Moodle 3.2 or later. If upgrading from earlier versions, you must [https://docs.moodle.org/32/en/Upgrading_to_Moodle_3.2 upgrade to 3.2] as a first step.


==Check the requirements==
==Before upgrading==
Spend some time re-reading the [[Installing Moodle | installation documentation]] and documentation for the new version. Check the system requirements for the target version you want to upgrade-to in ''Administration > Server > [[Environment]]''.
 
'''We advise that you test the upgrade first on a COPY of your production site, to make sure it works as you expect.'''
 
Consider setting the [[Upgrade key|upgrade key]] for your site.


== Backup important data ==
== Backup important data ==


Although it is not strictly necessary, it is always a good idea to make a backup of any production system before a major upgrade, just in case you need to revert back to the older version for some reason. In fact, it's a good idea to automate your server to backup your Moodle installation daily, so that you can skip this step.
There are three areas that should be backed up before any upgrade:
#Moodle software (For example, everything in server/htdocs/moodle)
#Moodle uploaded files (For example, server/moodledata)
#Moodle database (For example, your Postgres or MySQL database dump)
 
See [[Site backup]] for more specific information.


There are three areas that need backing up:
== Check for plugin updates ==


=== 1. The Moodle software directory itself ===
If you have [[Automatic updates deployment]] enabled, you will be able to update installed plugins automatically during the upgrade. Just make sure you check for available updates (via the button for it) at the Plugins check screen.


Make a separate copy of these files before the upgrade, so that you can retrieve your config.php and any modules you have added like themes, languages etc
If you are updating plugins manually, it is a good moment now to check in the [http://moodle.org/plugins Moodle Plugins directory] whether there is a {{Version}} version available for any plugins (including themes) that you have previously installed on your site. If so, download the plugin package. In the next step, you will copy it to the appropriate location in your Moodle code (see [[Installing plugins]]).


=== 2. Your data directory ===
The upgrade of the plugin will then happen as part of the Moodle upgrade process.


This is where uploaded content resides (such as course resources and student assignments) so it is very important to have a backup of these files anyway. Sometimes upgrades may move or rename directories within your data directory.
If an out-of-date plugin causes your upgrade to fail, you can usually delete the plugin code rather than uninstalling it from within Moodle so that the data associated with it is not deleted.


=== 3. Your database ===
==Put your site into maintenance mode==
Before you begin upgrading your site, you should put it into [[Maintenance_mode | maintenance mode]] to stop any non-admin users from logging in. Then you should wait for any currently running cron processes to complete before proceeding.


Most Moodle upgrades will alter the database tables, adding or changing fields. Each database has different ways to backup. One way of backing up a MySQL database is to 'dump' it to a single SQL file. The following example shows Unix commands to dump the database called "moodle":
== Install the new Moodle software ==
You can fetch the current version of the software through


mysqldump -u username -p -C -Q -e -a moodle > moodle-backup-2007-04-01.sql
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/moodle/files/Moodle/stable{{Version2}}/moodle-latest-{{Version2}}.tgz
(The "-a" switch is deprecated and should be replaced by "--create-options")


Substitute your database user account for username. The -p flag will prompt you for the password for the username specified by -u.
=== Standard install package ===


If your database host is different from the host you want to execute the backup command (usually the web server), you have to specify it with the -h option to mysqldump:
# Move your old Moodle software program files to another location. ''Do NOT copy new files over the old files.''
# Unzip or unpack the upgrade file so that all the new Moodle software program files are in the location the old files used to be in on the server. Moodle will adjust SQL and moodledata if it needs to in the upgrade.
# Copy your old [[Configuration file|config.php file]] back to the new Moodle directory.
# As mentioned above, if you had installed any plugins on your site you should add them to the new code tree (Moodle directory structure) now. It is important to check that you get the correct version for your new version of Moodle. Be particularly careful that you do not overwrite any code in the new version of Moodle and that you place the plugin folders in the correct directory (the same directory that they are in in the current installation.)
# Your moodledata folder should be located separately to your Moodle code folder and, as such, should not need anything done to it.  Moodle 3.0 will throw a warning if it is located in a web accessible folder and the moodledata should never be located in the Moodle code folder.  If you are moving your installation to a new server or new location on your server, then you will need to follow the [[Migration]] documents.


  mysqldump -u username -p -h databasehost -C -Q -e -a moodle > moodle-backup-2007-04-01.sql
====Linux====
  mv moodle moodle.backup
tar xvzf moodle-latest-{{Version}}.tgz


You can also use the "Export" feature in Moodle's optional "MySQL Admin" web interface to do the same thing on all platforms. In Moodle v1.9 and greater, this is located in '''Site Administration''' -> '''Server''' -> '''Database'''. This interface can also be downloaded from http://download.moodle.org/modules/integrations.php. It is an integration of PHPMyAdmin for the Moodle administration interface.
Next, copy across your config.php, any custom plugins, and your .htaccess file if you created one ('''check that custom plugins are the correct version for your new Moodle first'''):


==== SQL dump caveats ====
cp moodle.backup/config.php moodle
cp -pr moodle.backup/theme/mytheme moodle/theme/mytheme
cp -pr moodle.backup/mod/mymod moodle/mod/mymod


* Please note that there are a '''LOT''' of options possible for mysqldump. Please talk with your Systems Administrator (if you have one) or similar to see if there are site-specific flags you should use for your SQL dump.
Don't forget to make moodle/config.php (and the rest of the source code) readable by your www server. For maximum security the files should not be writeable by your server. This is especially important on a 'production' server open to the public internet.  
** For example, if your local installation is running MySQL 5.2 and you are moving to a system running MySQL 5.0 or 4.1, you really ought to use the "--compat=mysql40" flag. (This is not too uncommon of a situation given the nature of ISP hosting as compared to local user Moodle setups)
* This seems obvious, but should be said outright: These instructions only work for dumping from MySQL! Postgresql, Oracle, and other database servers have different tools to dump databases.
* Given the example mysql import lines, above, you really should use the --no-create-db flag. If your database locally is named something differently from the migration site, not including this flag could cause problems.


== Install the new Moodle software ==
chown -R root:root moodle (Linux debian - or even create a user especially for moodle. '''Don't''' use the web server user, e.g. www-data)
chmod -R 755 moodle


=== Using a downloaded archive ===
If you use cron, take care that cron.php is executeable and uses the correct php command:
chmod 740 admin/cli/cron.php (some configurations need chmod 750 or chmod 755)
copy the first line from cron.php (if it looks like '#!/usr/local/bin/php' or '#!/usr/local/bin/php5.3', no need to copy '<?php')
if necessary.  However, for a simple upgrade, there should be no need to change anything with cron.


@Do not overwrite an old installation unless you know what you are doing ... sometimes old files can cause problems in new installations. The best way is to rename the current Moodle directory to something else, then unpack the new Moodle archive into the old location.
=== Using Git ===


Linux
You can use Git for updating or upgrading your Moodle. See [[Git for Administrators]] for details.
mv moodle moodle.backup
tar xvzf moodle-1.1.tgz


Next, copy across your config.php, any other plugins such as custom themes, and your .htaccess file if you created one:
===Command line upgrade===


cp moodle.backup/config.php moodle
On Linux servers, Moodle {{Version}} supports running the [[CLI|upgrade from the command line]], rather than through a web browser. This is likely to be more reliable, particularly for large sites.
cp -pr moodle.backup/theme/mytheme moodle/theme/mytheme


Don't forget to
== Finishing the upgrade ==


sudo chown www-data moodle/config.php
The last step is to trigger the upgrade processes within Moodle.  


if necessary.
If you put your site into Maintenance mode earlier; take it out now!


where www-data is whatever user the Apache user is on your system. This is often 'apache' or 'www'.
To do this just go to ''Administration > Site administration > Notifications''.
You can find out by doing 'ls -l' in your /var/www/moodle folder (or wherever your moodle site is)
and then looking at the owner and group.


so you may see something like
Moodle will automatically detect the new version and perform all the SQL database or file system upgrades that are necessary. If there is anything it can't do itself (very rare) then you will see messages telling you what you need to do.


ls -l
Assuming all goes well (no error messages) then you can start using your new version of Moodle and enjoy the new features!


...lots of lines...
Note: If you are running multiple servers then you should purge all caches manually (via ''Administration > Site administration > Development > Purge all caches'') after completing the upgrade on all servers.


-rw-r--r--  1 apache system    784 Jun 28  2007 config.php
===Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded...===


...lots more lines...
If your server uses a main language other than English, you may encounter a 'Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded' when you try to upgrade it. You can increase max_execution_time = 160 on php.ini to allow the scripts enough time to process the language update. Otherwise, you can switch to English as the default language before doing the upgrade and back to your original language after a succcessful upgrade. See the forum discussion at https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=119598.


so the owner is apache and the group is system.
==After upgrading==


To replicate this on your new system you can do  'chown apache:system config.php'
The config.php file from your installation should work fine but if you take a look at config-dist.php that came with Moodle 3.0 there are more/different options available (e.g. database drivers and settings). It's a good idea to map your old config.php settings to a new one based on the 3.0 config-dist.php.


or to do a whole group do
===Cron===


chown apache:system ./*
Cron has received a major update (MDL-25499) and now has support for both scheduled and ad hoc tasks.


and recursively
The benefits of these changes are:
* The schedule for every task can be configured by the admin
* Tasks can run in parallel
* Cron processes use locking to prevent the same task running at the same time by different processes
* Clusters with multiple identical application nodes are supported, you can run cron on all of them


chown -R apache:system ./*
A result of this is that cron can be run much more often, which means (for example) forum posts can be sent out sooner.  To take advantage of the new cron system it is now strongly recommended that administrators increase the frequency that cron is run to at least ''once per minute''.


=== Using CVS ===
You also may need to modify any automated scripts you have that are parsing the output from cron. It is no longer possible to simply monitor the output of cron for the string "Cron script completed correctly" (if that is what you were doing). An alternative is to monitor the output for the string "task failed:". If you detect that a task is failing, [[Cron#Debugging_Scheduled_Tasks|here]] are some tips for debugging the failure.


You can use CVS for updating or upgrading your Moodle.
Before the upgrade, there may have been a cron task that was failing, which was preventing the rest of cron from being executed. A failure in any single task will no longer prevent the rest of the Moodle cron tasks from executing, so you may uncover previously masked bugs. It is a good idea to closely monitor the output from cron after the upgrade.
First you need to do a CVS checkout in your (empty) Moodle root directory.


You can use any of our [[CVS_for_Administrators#CVS_Servers|CVS Mirror servers]]. Just replace '''SERVER.cvs.moodle.org''' in the instructions below with the name of the mirror server you chose!.
===Assignments===


'''For Linux servers'''
The old assignment (2.2) module has been removed from core and has been replaced by a stub to support transparently remapping URLs and restoring course backups from the old module to the new one.


To do a CVS checkout of Moodle, you first have to logon to the Moodle CVS server.
If you are still using the old assignment (2.2) module, after upgrading to Moodle 3.0 all assignment (2.2) activities will be hidden. You need to run the [[Assignment upgrade tool]] to un-hide the activities.


  <nowiki>cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@SERVER.cvs.moodle.org:/cvsroot/moodle login</nowiki>
If you really, really need to keep using the old assignment (2.2) module, you should update the code to Moodle 3.0, and then replace the "mod/assignment" folder with the one from https://github.com/moodlehq/moodle-mod_assignment/releases before completing the upgrade.
  No password for anonymous, so just hit the Enter button.


Go to the directory where you want the Moodle root to come and type
==Possible issues that may affect you in Moodle {{Version}}==


  <nowiki>cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@SERVER.cvs.moodle.org:/cvsroot/moodle co -r MOODLE_18_STABLE moodle</nowiki>
===Themes using Bootstrap 2 have been removed===
  (where MOODLE_18_STABLE is the desired version)


To update, just go into the Moodle root directory and update to the new files:
Themes using Bootstrap 2 (Clean, More and Bootstrapbase) have been removed with this release. A new Classic theme, which is based on Bootstrap 4, has been introduced in their place, with a three column layout and navigation structure similar to Clean. The documentation [[Themes]] contains guides for creating or updating custom themes to be based on the currently supported core themes (Boost and Classic).


  cvs update -dP
===Course sharing on Moodle.net disabled===
To update to a new version type in the following and change 18 to whatever newest version upgrade number is
  cvs -Q update -dP -r MOODLE_18_STABLE


Make sure you use the "d" parameter to create new directories if necessary, and the "P" parameter to prune empty directories.
A new setting in Site administration / Advanced features 'Course sharing on Moodle.net' is disabled by default, so that new admins don't get confused by the Share option in the course administration.


'''For Windows servers'''


You can use Tortoise CVS to do the initial checkout and the updates.
''Please add more items here...''


If you have been editing Moodle files, watch the messages very closely for possible conflicts. All your customised themes and non-standard plugins will be untouched.


Don't forget to visit the admin page after the CVS update process has completed.
See also the list of [https://tracker.moodle.org/issues/?jql=project%20%3D%20mdl%20AND%20resolution%20%3D%20fixed%20AND%20fixVersion%20in%20(%223.7%22)%20AND%20labels%20%3D%20upgrade_notes upgrade_notes-labelled issues] and [https://tracker.moodle.org/issues/?jql=project%20%3D%20mdl%20AND%20resolution%20%3D%20fixed%20AND%20fixVersion%20in%20(%223.7%22)%20AND%20labels%20%3D%20ui_change%20 ui_change-labelled issues].  


== Finishing the upgrade ==
===New capabilities in Moodle {{Version}}===


The last step is to trigger the upgrade processes within Moodle.
'''Assignment'''
* [[Capabilities/mod/assign:showhiddengrader|mod/assign:showhiddengrader]]


To do this just visit the admin page of your installation e.g. ''<nowiki>http://example.com/moodle/admin</nowiki>''
'''Forum'''
* [[Capabilities/mod/forum:canoverridecutoff|mod/forum:canoverridecutoff]]
* [[Capabilities/mod/forum:cantogglefavourite|mod/forum:cantogglefavourite]]
* [[Capabilities/mod/forum:postprivatereply|mod/forum:postprivatereply]]
* [[Capabilities/mod/forum:readprivatereplies|mod/forum:readprivatereplies]]


It doesn't matter if you are logged in as admin or not. If you are upgrading from some older versions you would not be able to login before the upgrade anyway.
'''Analytics'''
* [[Capabilities/moodle/analytics:listowninsights|moodle/analytics:listowninsights]]


Moodle will automatically detect the new version and perform all the database or filesystem upgrades that are necessary. If there is anything it can't do itself (very rare) then you will see messages telling you what you need to do.
'''Courses'''
* [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changelockedcustomfields|moodle/course:changelockedcustomfields]]
* [[Capabilities/moodle/course:configurecustomfields|moodle/course:configurecustomfields]]
* [[Capabilities/moodle/category:viewcourselist|moodle/category:viewcourselist]]


Assuming all goes well (no error messages) then you can start using your new version of Moodle and enjoy the new features!
'''Privacy'''
* [[Capabilities/tool/dataprivacy:makedatadeletionrequestsforchildren|tool/dataprivacy:makedatadeletionrequestsforchildren]]
* [[Capabilities/tool/dataprivacy:requestdelete|tool/dataprivacy:requestdelete]]
* [[Capabilities/tool/dataprivacy:requestdeleteforotheruser|tool/dataprivacy:requestdeleteforotheruser]]


Please note that if you are running a large scale of moodle site (e.g. have more tha 10,000+ courses and 40,000+ users), make sure that you do your own performance profiling testing before you upgrade to Moodle 1.8.x, as there are still quite a few outstanding (unresolved) performance issues in 1.8.x for large user base installations.
=== Moodle 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6 improvements ===


== Verify the upgrade (optional) ==
Depending on which version you are upgrading from, please see the section 'Possible issues that may affect you' in the documentation


If you wish to confirm that the database definitions in the upgraded database match the definitions of a new, clean install (which they should) you might like to look at [[Verify Database Schema]].
* [https://docs.moodle.org/32/en/Upgrading Upgrading to Moodle 3.2]
* [https://docs.moodle.org/33/en/Upgrading Upgrading to Moodle 3.3]
* [https://docs.moodle.org/34/en/Upgrading Upgrading to Moodle 3.4]
* [https://docs.moodle.org/35/en/Upgrading Upgrading to Moodle 3.5]
* [https://docs.moodle.org/36/en/Upgrading Upgrading to Moodle 3.6]


==Upgrading more than one version==
==Any questions about the process?==


In general, it is recommended to upgrade via each version of Moodle, for example 1.7 -> 1.8 -> 1.9. An exception to this is when upgrading from 1.5 or 1.6, when it is recommended that 1.7 is skipped, in other words upgrade 1.5 -> 1.6 -> 1.8 -> 1.9. (The main reason for this recommendation is that the default roles settings obtained when upgrading to 1.7 are not ideal for 1.8 onwards.)
Please post in the [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=28 Installing and upgrading help forum] on moodle.org.


==See also==
==See also==


*[[Installing Moodle]]
* [[Installation]]
*[[Installation FAQ]]
* Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=28 Installation help forum]  
*[[Upgrading to Moodle 1.6]]
* [[dev:Moodle {{Version}} release notes|Moodle {{Version}} release notes]]
*[[Upgrading to Moodle 1.8]]
*[[Upgrading to Moodle 1.9]]
*[[Upgrading to Moodle 2.0]]
*[[Environment]]
*Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=28 Installation problems] forum
*[http://otaru-jc.ac.jp/hagley/howtoupgrademoodlewithcpanel.swf How to upgrade Moodle with cpanel tutorial]
 
Using Moodle forum discussions:
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=26731&parent=125858 Using cvs]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=56915 Upgrading from 1.5.2 to 1.7]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=56991 Upgrade nightmares.... any help appreciated]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=62463 After upgrading i get "Your site may not be secure." msg]
*[http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=104887 Best practices for QA]
 
[[Category:Installation]]
[[Category:Upgrading]]


[[es:Actualización de moodle]]
[[es:Actualización de moodle]]
[[fr:Mise à jour]]
[[fr:Mise à jour]]
[[ja:アップグレード]]
[[ja:Moodleをアップグレードする]]
[[nl:Upgraden]]
[[de:Aktualisierung von Moodle]]
[[zh:升级]]
[[pl:Aktualizacja]]

Revision as of 16:53, 4 June 2019

This page explains in detail how to upgrade Moodle. For a summary of the process, see Upgrade overview.

Check the requirements

Before upgrading, check that your server meets all requirements for 3.7 in Site administration > Server > Environment.

See the release notes in the dev docs for both server and client software requirements.

Notes:

  • You can only upgrade to Moodle 3.7 from Moodle 3.2 or later. If upgrading from earlier versions, you must upgrade to 3.2 as a first step.

Before upgrading

We advise that you test the upgrade first on a COPY of your production site, to make sure it works as you expect.

Consider setting the upgrade key for your site.

Backup important data

There are three areas that should be backed up before any upgrade:

  1. Moodle software (For example, everything in server/htdocs/moodle)
  2. Moodle uploaded files (For example, server/moodledata)
  3. Moodle database (For example, your Postgres or MySQL database dump)

See Site backup for more specific information.

Check for plugin updates

If you have Automatic updates deployment enabled, you will be able to update installed plugins automatically during the upgrade. Just make sure you check for available updates (via the button for it) at the Plugins check screen.

If you are updating plugins manually, it is a good moment now to check in the Moodle Plugins directory whether there is a 3.7 version available for any plugins (including themes) that you have previously installed on your site. If so, download the plugin package. In the next step, you will copy it to the appropriate location in your Moodle code (see Installing plugins).

The upgrade of the plugin will then happen as part of the Moodle upgrade process.

If an out-of-date plugin causes your upgrade to fail, you can usually delete the plugin code rather than uninstalling it from within Moodle so that the data associated with it is not deleted.

Put your site into maintenance mode

Before you begin upgrading your site, you should put it into maintenance mode to stop any non-admin users from logging in. Then you should wait for any currently running cron processes to complete before proceeding.

Install the new Moodle software

You can fetch the current version of the software through

wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/moodle/files/Moodle/stable37/moodle-latest-37.tgz

Standard install package

  1. Move your old Moodle software program files to another location. Do NOT copy new files over the old files.
  2. Unzip or unpack the upgrade file so that all the new Moodle software program files are in the location the old files used to be in on the server. Moodle will adjust SQL and moodledata if it needs to in the upgrade.
  3. Copy your old config.php file back to the new Moodle directory.
  4. As mentioned above, if you had installed any plugins on your site you should add them to the new code tree (Moodle directory structure) now. It is important to check that you get the correct version for your new version of Moodle. Be particularly careful that you do not overwrite any code in the new version of Moodle and that you place the plugin folders in the correct directory (the same directory that they are in in the current installation.)
  5. Your moodledata folder should be located separately to your Moodle code folder and, as such, should not need anything done to it. Moodle 3.0 will throw a warning if it is located in a web accessible folder and the moodledata should never be located in the Moodle code folder. If you are moving your installation to a new server or new location on your server, then you will need to follow the Migration documents.

Linux

mv moodle moodle.backup
tar xvzf moodle-latest-3.7.tgz

Next, copy across your config.php, any custom plugins, and your .htaccess file if you created one (check that custom plugins are the correct version for your new Moodle first):

cp moodle.backup/config.php moodle
cp -pr moodle.backup/theme/mytheme moodle/theme/mytheme
cp -pr moodle.backup/mod/mymod moodle/mod/mymod

Don't forget to make moodle/config.php (and the rest of the source code) readable by your www server. For maximum security the files should not be writeable by your server. This is especially important on a 'production' server open to the public internet.

chown -R root:root moodle (Linux debian - or even create a user especially for moodle. Don't use the web server user, e.g. www-data)
chmod -R 755 moodle

If you use cron, take care that cron.php is executeable and uses the correct php command:

chmod 740 admin/cli/cron.php (some configurations need chmod 750 or chmod 755)
copy the first line from cron.php (if it looks like '#!/usr/local/bin/php' or '#!/usr/local/bin/php5.3', no need to copy '<?php') 

if necessary. However, for a simple upgrade, there should be no need to change anything with cron.

Using Git

You can use Git for updating or upgrading your Moodle. See Git for Administrators for details.

Command line upgrade

On Linux servers, Moodle 3.7 supports running the upgrade from the command line, rather than through a web browser. This is likely to be more reliable, particularly for large sites.

Finishing the upgrade

The last step is to trigger the upgrade processes within Moodle.

If you put your site into Maintenance mode earlier; take it out now!

To do this just go to Administration > Site administration > Notifications.

Moodle will automatically detect the new version and perform all the SQL database or file system upgrades that are necessary. If there is anything it can't do itself (very rare) then you will see messages telling you what you need to do.

Assuming all goes well (no error messages) then you can start using your new version of Moodle and enjoy the new features!

Note: If you are running multiple servers then you should purge all caches manually (via Administration > Site administration > Development > Purge all caches) after completing the upgrade on all servers.

Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded...

If your server uses a main language other than English, you may encounter a 'Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded' when you try to upgrade it. You can increase max_execution_time = 160 on php.ini to allow the scripts enough time to process the language update. Otherwise, you can switch to English as the default language before doing the upgrade and back to your original language after a succcessful upgrade. See the forum discussion at https://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=119598.

After upgrading

The config.php file from your installation should work fine but if you take a look at config-dist.php that came with Moodle 3.0 there are more/different options available (e.g. database drivers and settings). It's a good idea to map your old config.php settings to a new one based on the 3.0 config-dist.php.

Cron

Cron has received a major update (MDL-25499) and now has support for both scheduled and ad hoc tasks.

The benefits of these changes are:

  • The schedule for every task can be configured by the admin
  • Tasks can run in parallel
  • Cron processes use locking to prevent the same task running at the same time by different processes
  • Clusters with multiple identical application nodes are supported, you can run cron on all of them

A result of this is that cron can be run much more often, which means (for example) forum posts can be sent out sooner. To take advantage of the new cron system it is now strongly recommended that administrators increase the frequency that cron is run to at least once per minute.

You also may need to modify any automated scripts you have that are parsing the output from cron. It is no longer possible to simply monitor the output of cron for the string "Cron script completed correctly" (if that is what you were doing). An alternative is to monitor the output for the string "task failed:". If you detect that a task is failing, here are some tips for debugging the failure.

Before the upgrade, there may have been a cron task that was failing, which was preventing the rest of cron from being executed. A failure in any single task will no longer prevent the rest of the Moodle cron tasks from executing, so you may uncover previously masked bugs. It is a good idea to closely monitor the output from cron after the upgrade.

Assignments

The old assignment (2.2) module has been removed from core and has been replaced by a stub to support transparently remapping URLs and restoring course backups from the old module to the new one.

If you are still using the old assignment (2.2) module, after upgrading to Moodle 3.0 all assignment (2.2) activities will be hidden. You need to run the Assignment upgrade tool to un-hide the activities.

If you really, really need to keep using the old assignment (2.2) module, you should update the code to Moodle 3.0, and then replace the "mod/assignment" folder with the one from https://github.com/moodlehq/moodle-mod_assignment/releases before completing the upgrade.

Possible issues that may affect you in Moodle 3.7

Themes using Bootstrap 2 have been removed

Themes using Bootstrap 2 (Clean, More and Bootstrapbase) have been removed with this release. A new Classic theme, which is based on Bootstrap 4, has been introduced in their place, with a three column layout and navigation structure similar to Clean. The documentation Themes contains guides for creating or updating custom themes to be based on the currently supported core themes (Boost and Classic).

Course sharing on Moodle.net disabled

A new setting in Site administration / Advanced features 'Course sharing on Moodle.net' is disabled by default, so that new admins don't get confused by the Share option in the course administration.


Please add more items here...


See also the list of upgrade_notes-labelled issues and ui_change-labelled issues.

New capabilities in Moodle 3.7

Assignment

Forum

Analytics

Courses

Privacy

Moodle 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6 improvements

Depending on which version you are upgrading from, please see the section 'Possible issues that may affect you' in the documentation

Any questions about the process?

Please post in the Installing and upgrading help forum on moodle.org.

See also