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{{Installing Moodle}}
{{Installing Moodle}}
'''Before you do anything else, read [[Upgrading to Moodle 2.2]]'''
''This page explains in detail how to upgrade Moodle. For a summary of the process, see [[Upgrade overview]].''


Moodle is designed to upgrade itself from one version to the next. The procedure is
==Check the requirements==
# [[Site backup|Back up everything]].
# Replace the old version of the code with the new one.
# Visit the [[Site_administration_block#Notifications|administrator notifications]] link, which triggers Moodle to self-update.
These steps are explained in more detail below.
 
Sometimes there are specific considerations when upgrading to a particular version.  See the [[dev:Releases|Releases page]] for more information on this.  You also have to be more careful if you have installed additional plug-ins or customised the code.
 
See this tutorial if you are [http://ic.eflclasses.org/tutorials/howtoupgrademoodlewithcpanel.swf upgrading Moodle on cpanel]. It is a bit rough around the edges and is a little dated, but you should get the idea.
 
There is also a separate page about [[Ubuntu_Debian_Upgrades|upgrading Moodle if you installed it using the Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Debian package manager]].


Before upgrading, check that your server meets all requirements for {{Version}} in ''Site administration > Server > [[Environment]]''.


__TOC__
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.


When upgrading a Moodle installation you should follow these steps:
Notes:


==Before you upgrade your site for real==
* 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.


You are strongly advised to make a copy of your entire Moodle site onto another computer (see [[Moodle migration]]) and run the upgrade there to verify it will work.
==Before upgrading==


==Check the requirements==
'''We advise that you test the upgrade first on a COPY of your production site, to make sure it works as you expect.'''
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 ''Settings > Site administration > Server > [[Environment]]''.


==Put your Site into Maintenance Mode==
Consider setting the [[Upgrade key|upgrade key]] for your site.
Before you begin upgrading your site, you should put it into [[Maintenance_mode | Maintenance Mode]] to stop any non-admin users from logging in.


== Backup important data ==
== Backup important data ==
See [[Site backup]] for more specific information.


There are three areas that should be backed up before any upgrade:
There are three areas that should be backed up before any upgrade:
#Moodle software (For example, everything in server/htdocs/moodle)
#Moodle software (For example, everything in server/htdocs/moodle)
#Moodle uploaded files (For example, server/moodledata)
#Moodle uploaded files (For example, server/moodledata)
#Moodle database (For example, the SQL or Postgres database)
#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 [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]]).
 
The upgrade of the plugin will then happen as part of the Moodle upgrade process.


Experienced site administrators know that it is a best practice (a very good idea) to make a backup of any production system before a major upgrade. In fact, it is a good idea to automate your server to backup your Moodle installation daily.  Most upgrades on sites that have used the standard Moodle packages (no contributed code and no little tweaks to the php files), will not have any major issues with the 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.


:''TIP:'' One more time, "do not risk what you can not afford to lose": do regular backups, make sure it is really backed up and know how to restore a backup!
==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.


== Install the new Moodle software ==
== Install the new Moodle software ==
Upgrading can be a simple process or a more complicated process.  Sites that have not used contributed code and are migrating from say Moodle 1.x.1 to 1.x.3 '''should''' not have a problem.  However, we still recommend that with any production server that you have made a successful backup of the MySQL database, the moodledata directory and the moodle program folders and files. 
You can fetch the current version of the software through


*Do not overwrite an old installation unless you know what you are doing ... sometimes old files can cause problems in new installations. Review the backup section above.
wget http://sourceforge.net/projects/moodle/files/Moodle/stable{{Version2}}/moodle-latest-{{Version2}}.tgz


=== Standard install package ===
=== Standard install package ===
Having read the cautions about backups, download a copy of the standard install package. Here is a set of simple instructions for an average site.
*It is probably a good idea to use the [[Site administration block]]>Server>Maintenance mode to prevent user activity as the site upgrades.
*Having moved your old Moodle software program files to another location, unzip or unpack the upgrade file so that all new the Moodle software program files are in the location the old files used to be in on the server.  Moodle will adjust SQL and [[Moodledata directory|moodledata]] if it needs to in the upgrade.
*Copy your old [[Configuration file|config.php file]] back to the new Moodle directory.
*If you had added any custom plugins or themes into your Moodle you can add them to the new code. It is important to check that you get the correct version for your new version of Moodle. You should check in the optional plugins database. Be particularly careful that you do not overwrite any code in the new version of Moodle. If you are upgrading to Moodle 2.0 or newer, note that all optional plugins and themes required a significant rewrite and most do not have 2.0 versions (yet).
*Use the notification link in the site administration to start the upgrade process. You will see a series of lines or screens indicating progress. 
*After a successful upgrade, turn off the maintenance mode, so your users can get into the site.


=== Using a downloaded archive ===
# Move your old Moodle software program files to another location. ''Do NOT copy new files over the old files.''
In some installs, the site administrator may overwrite the Moodle code with a backup copy. Or create a new clean install copy of Moodle, then restore an archive (via a compressed file or parts of a saved set of Moodle code files and folders).
# 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.
*Do not overwrite an old installation unless you know what you are doing ... sometimes old files can cause problems in new or "cleaned" installations. The best way is to rename the current Moodle code directory (for example rename "moodle" to "moodleold"), then unpack the new Moodle archive into the old location (for example, a new directory called "moodle").
# 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.


====Linux====
====Linux====
  mv moodle moodle.backup
  mv moodle moodle.backup
  tar xvzf moodle-1.1.tgz
  tar xvzf moodle-latest-{{Version}}.tgz


Next, copy across your config.php, any other plugins such as custom themes, and your .htaccess file if you created one ('''check that optional/custom plugins are the correct version for your new Moodle first'''):
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 moodle.backup/config.php moodle
Line 70: Line 63:
  cp -pr moodle.backup/mod/mymod moodle/mod/mymod
  cp -pr moodle.backup/mod/mymod moodle/mod/mymod


Don't forget to  
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.


  sudo chown www-data moodle/config.php
  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:  
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)
  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')
  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 ===


if necessary.
You can use Git for updating or upgrading your Moodle. See [[Git for Administrators]] for details.


where www-data is whatever user the Apache user is on your system. This is often 'apache' or 'www'.
===Command line upgrade===
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
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.


ls -l
== Finishing the upgrade ==
...lots of lines...
-rw-r--r--  1 apache system    784 Jun 28  2007 config.php
...lots more lines...


so the owner is apache and the group is system.  
The last step is to trigger the upgrade processes within Moodle.  


To replicate this on your new system you can do  'chown apache:system config.php'
If you put your site into Maintenance mode earlier; take it out now!


or to do a whole group do
To do this just go to ''Administration > Site administration > Notifications''.


chown apache:system ./*
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.


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


chown -R apache:system ./*
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.


=== Using CVS ===
===Fatal error: Maximum execution time of 30 seconds exceeded...===


New sites should now use Git rather than CVS (see next section). If your site already uses CVS, to update, just go into the Moodle root directory and update to the new files:
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.
<pre>
$ cd /path/to/your/moodle/
$ cvs update -dP
</pre>
To update from an older version type in the following:
<pre>
$ cd /path/to/your/moodle/
$ cvs -Q update -dP -r MOODLE_18_STABLE
</pre>


Make sure you use the "d" parameter to create new directories if necessary, and the "P" parameter to prune empty directories.
==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, [[Cron#Debugging_Scheduled_Tasks|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 {{Version}}==
 
===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.
 
==='Upcoming activities due' analytics model is enabled===
 
The 'Upcoming activities due' analytics model generates weekly notification emails for users in courses with upcoming activities due. These emails may be disabled as follows:
 
* Either disabling the 'Upcoming activities due' model in Site administration / Analytics / Analytics models
* Or un-set the capability moodle/analytics:listowninsights for the authenticated user role.


=== Using Git ===


You can use [[Git]] for updating or upgrading your Moodle. New sites are recommended to use this rather than CVS since all Moodle development has moved to Git.
''Please add more items here...''


See [[Git for Administrators]] for further details.


== Finishing the upgrade ==
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].


The last step is to trigger the upgrade processes within Moodle.
===New capabilities in Moodle {{Version}}===


To do this just visit the [[Site administration block]] admin page (or ''<nowiki>http://example.com/moodle/admin</nowiki>'') and the "Notifications" link.
'''Assignment'''
* [[Capabilities/mod/assign:showhiddengrader|mod/assign:showhiddengrader]]


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.
'''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]]


Assuming all goes well (no error messages) then you can start using your new version of Moodle and enjoy the new features!
'''Analytics'''
* [[Capabilities/moodle/analytics:listowninsights|moodle/analytics:listowninsights]]


'''Courses'''
* [[Capabilities/moodle/course:changelockedcustomfields|moodle/course:changelockedcustomfields]]
* [[Capabilities/moodle/course:configurecustomfields|moodle/course:configurecustomfields]]
* [[Capabilities/moodle/category:viewcourselist|moodle/category:viewcourselist]]


:''TIP:'' Use the site administration block>Server>Maintenance mode to prevent users from changing data during the upgrade.
'''Privacy'''
:''TIP:'' If you are running a large scale Moodle site (e.g. have more tha 10,000+ courses and 40,000+ users), make sure that you do your own performance profiling testing.  Post a thread or check the [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=28 Installation problems forum] and check [[Tracker]] for potential issues.
* [[Capabilities/tool/dataprivacy:makedatadeletionrequestsforchildren|tool/dataprivacy:makedatadeletionrequestsforchildren]]
* [[Capabilities/tool/dataprivacy:requestdelete|tool/dataprivacy:requestdelete]]
* [[Capabilities/tool/dataprivacy:requestdeleteforotheruser|tool/dataprivacy:requestdeleteforotheruser]]


== Verify the upgrade (optional) ==
=== Moodle 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6 improvements ===


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


==Upgrading more than one version==
* [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]


Normally you can upgrade directly form any Moodle version to any later version. So, for example you could upgrade from 2.0 to 2.1, or from 1.9 to 2.2.
==Any questions about the process?==


However, every so often, this general rule gets broken, because supporting really large jumps (for example Moodle 1.0 to 2.2 in one step) would be impossible. So far, the break points have been:
Please post in the [https://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=28 Installing and upgrading help forum] on moodle.org.
* You must have upgraded to version 1.9.x before you can upgrade to a later 2.x version.
* You must have upgraded to version 2.2.x before you can upgrade to 2.3 or later.


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


*[[Upgrading to Moodle 2.2]]
* [[Installation]]
*[[Environment]]
* Using Moodle [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=28 Installation help forum]  
*[[Git]] Version control and upgrading
* [[dev:Moodle {{Version}} release notes|Moodle {{Version}} release notes]]
*[[How to fix just one bug without upgrading]]
*Moodle.org [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/view.php?id=28 Installation problems forum]  
*[http://ic.eflclasses.org/tutorials/howtoupgrademoodlewithcpanel.swf How to upgrade Moodle with cpanel tutorial] - screencasts of older Moodle/Cpanel install but useful (also, a very large file that will take some time to load).
 
Using Moodle.org 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]
*[[Beginning_Moodle_2.0_Administration|Beginning Moodle 2.0 Administration]]


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

Latest revision as of 16:56, 29 July 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.

'Upcoming activities due' analytics model is enabled

The 'Upcoming activities due' analytics model generates weekly notification emails for users in courses with upcoming activities due. These emails may be disabled as follows:

  • Either disabling the 'Upcoming activities due' model in Site administration / Analytics / Analytics models
  • Or un-set the capability moodle/analytics:listowninsights for the authenticated user role.


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