MoodleDocs - User contributions [en]

error/group/erroraddremoveuser

2008-09-06T17:00:48Z

T100ss:

This error is produced by the code in /group/members.php which calls code in /group/lib.php which in turn calls code in /lib/dmllib.php.

The various functions involved result in a line of SQL which is sent to the database engine.

You can trap this SQL in /lib/dmllib.php with a line like

print("SQL to be run is $insertSQL");

if you insert the line at line 1555 in /lib/dmllib.php.

The text "SQL to be run is INSERT INTO ....." will then appear at the top of the page that is causing the problem. You may then be able to debug the problem.

error/group/erroraddremoveuser

2008-09-06T16:59:42Z

T100ss: Some experinece with the error add/remove user.

This error is produced by the code in /group/members.php which calls code in /group/lib.php which in turn calls code in /lib/dmllib.php.

The various functions involved result in a line of SQL which is sent to the database engine.

You can trap this SQL in /lib/dmllib.php with a line like

print("SQL to be run is $insertSQL");

if you insert the line at line 1555 in /lib/dmllib.php.

The text SQL to be run is INSERT INTO ..... will then appear at the top of the page that is cuasing the problem.

Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu using apt-get

2008-08-29T10:04:07Z

T100ss:

This install option will be useful for someone who is doing a new install on an ubuntu server install.

==Assumptions==

We are assuming that

# You have done your ubuntu install.
# You have used apt-get update and apt-get upgrade to get the latest version.
# You have a typical ubuntu server edition which just gives you the command line.
# You have not enabled the root account and do not want to do that.
# When you installed you opted to have a LAMP install and a mailserver.
# You do not mind that your moodle will be at the package maintainers current state which may not be in line with the latest build from the moodle site. This is very unlikely to be a problem if you are installing a new moodle.

If you do not like that last assumption [[Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu]] describes how to do a manual installation of Moodle on Ubuntu.

==Doing the installation==

First, from the terminal type

sudo apt-get install moodle

During the process that follows you will be asked for some names and passwords for the mysql and moodle accounts. This information is used to populate the config.php file.

===Notes===

You can do this from a remote terminal but bear in mind that if you are using a remote terminal then it needs to be an reasonably capable one. Otherwise the installation dialog may not be able to talk to you and you will get an error which mentions the limitations of your terminal.

One terminal that does work is the X terminal on a mac. (Not the terminal program that comes with a mac in the utilities folder but the Xterm that you will have if you installed open office).

==Configuration changes==

===Allow access to your Moodle from other computers===

This moodle install will only work from the localhost. To make it accessible from other hosts you must edit the file /etc/apache2/conf.d/moodle. Type

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf.d/moodle

(This is actually a soft link from /etc/moodle/apache.conf). This fires up the 'nano' text editor which is command line text editor and the sudo gives you the write access you need.

About 10 lines down you see the following line

#allow from all

The # indicates it is commented out, so remove the # and use CTRL+O to save the file.

Now restart apache by typing

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

in the terminal. You should now be able to access the moodle from other hosts by doing http://<address of your moodle host>/moodle

==Upgrading your installation==

One big advantage of installing Moodle this way is that you can upgrade it just be typing

sudo apt-get upgrade.

in a terminal.

==Notes and comments==

The installation is actually rather better thought out than many installs. For example the apache2 conf file is nicely done.

These are the file locations for a default install from apt-get
* moodle site is at /usr/share/moodle
* moodle data folder is at /var/lib/data
* config.php is a soft link in the /usr/share/moodle folder and actually sits in /etc/moodle

The file permissions for the site and data folder are user = www-data and group = www-data.

These instructions were written and tested on 27th August 2008 using an up to date install of ubuntu server 64 bit (hardy) on a HP Blade (Dual quad Xeon with 32G ram).

==See also==

* [[Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu]] - doing a manual installation on Ubuntu.
* [[Administrator documentation]]

[[Category:Administrator]]
[[Category:Installation|Ubuntu]]

Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu using apt-get

2008-08-29T09:57:12Z

T100ss: /* Notes and comments */

This install option will be useful for someone who is doing a new install on an ubuntu server install.

==Assumptions==

We are assuming that

# You have done your ubuntu install.
# You have used apt-get update and apt-get upgrade to get the latest version.
# You have a typical ubuntu server edition which just gives you the command line.
# You have not enabled the root account and do not want to do that.
# When you installed you opted to have a LAMP install and a mailserver.
# You do not mind that your moodle will be at the package maintainers current state which may not be in line with the latest build from the moodle site. This is very unlikely to be a problem if you are installing a new moodle.

If you do not like that last assumption [[Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu]] describes how to do a manual installation of Moodle on Ubuntu.

==Doing the installation==

First, from the terminal type

sudo apt-get install moodle

During the process that follows you will be asked for some names and passwords for the mysql and moodle accounts. This information is used to populate the config.php file.

===Notes===

You can do this from a remote terminal but bear in mind that if you are using a remote terminal then it needs to be an reasonably capable one. Otherwise the installation dialog may not be able to talk to you and you will get an error which mentions the limitations of your terminal.

One terminal that does work is the X terminal on a mac. (Not the terminal program that comes with a mac in the utilities folder but the Xterm that you will have if you installed open office).

==Configuration changes==

===Allow access to your Moodle from other computers===

This moodle install will only work from the localhost. To make it accessible from other hosts you must edit the file /etc/apache2/conf.d/moodle. Type

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf.d/moodle

(This is actually a soft link from /etc/moodle/apache.conf). This fires up the 'nano' text editor which is command line text editor and the sudo gives you the write access you need.

About 10 lines down you see the following line

#allow from all

The # indicates it is commented out, so remove the # and use CTRL+O to save the file.

Now restart apache by typing

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

in the terminal. You should now be able to access the moodle from other hosts.

==Upgrading your installation==

One big advantage of installing Moodle this way is that you can upgrade it just be typing

sudo apt-get upgrade.

in a terminal.

==Notes and comments==

The installation is actually rather better thought out than many installs. For example the apache2 conf file is nicely done.

These are the file locations for a default install from apt-get
* moodle site is at /usr/share/moodle
* moodle data folder is at /var/lib/data
* config.php is a soft link in the /usr/share/moodle folder and actually sits in /etc/moodle

These instructions were written and tested on 27th August 2008 using an up to date install of ubuntu server 64 bit (hardy) on a HP Blade (Dual quad Xeon with 32G ram).

==See also==

* [[Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu]] - doing a manual installation on Ubuntu.
* [[Administrator documentation]]

[[Category:Administrator]]
[[Category:Installation|Ubuntu]]

Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu using apt-get

2008-08-29T09:53:58Z

T100ss: /* Notes and comments */

This install option will be useful for someone who is doing a new install on an ubuntu server install.

==Assumptions==

We are assuming that

# You have done your ubuntu install.
# You have used apt-get update and apt-get upgrade to get the latest version.
# You have a typical ubuntu server edition which just gives you the command line.
# You have not enabled the root account and do not want to do that.
# When you installed you opted to have a LAMP install and a mailserver.
# You do not mind that your moodle will be at the package maintainers current state which may not be in line with the latest build from the moodle site. This is very unlikely to be a problem if you are installing a new moodle.

If you do not like that last assumption [[Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu]] describes how to do a manual installation of Moodle on Ubuntu.

==Doing the installation==

First, from the terminal type

sudo apt-get install moodle

During the process that follows you will be asked for some names and passwords for the mysql and moodle accounts. This information is used to populate the config.php file.

===Notes===

You can do this from a remote terminal but bear in mind that if you are using a remote terminal then it needs to be an reasonably capable one. Otherwise the installation dialog may not be able to talk to you and you will get an error which mentions the limitations of your terminal.

One terminal that does work is the X terminal on a mac. (Not the terminal program that comes with a mac in the utilities folder but the Xterm that you will have if you installed open office).

==Configuration changes==

===Allow access to your Moodle from other computers===

This moodle install will only work from the localhost. To make it accessible from other hosts you must edit the file /etc/apache2/conf.d/moodle. Type

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf.d/moodle

(This is actually a soft link from /etc/moodle/apache.conf). This fires up the 'nano' text editor which is command line text editor and the sudo gives you the write access you need.

About 10 lines down you see the following line

#allow from all

The # indicates it is commented out, so remove the # and use CTRL+O to save the file.

Now restart apache by typing

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

in the terminal. You should now be able to access the moodle from other hosts.

==Upgrading your installation==

One big advantage of installing Moodle this way is that you can upgrade it just be typing

sudo apt-get upgrade.

in a terminal.

==Notes and comments==

The installation is actually rather better thought out than many installs. For example the apache2 conf file is nicely done.
One big advantage of doing this install is that the moodle will be maintained by apt-get upgrade.

These are the file locations for a default install from apt-get
* moodle site is at /usr/share/moodle
* moodle data folder is at /var/lib/data
* config.php is a soft link in the /usr/share/moodle folder and actually sits in /etc/moodle

These instructions were written and tested on 27th August 2008 using an up to date install of ubuntu server 64 bit (hardy) on a HP Blade (Dual quad Xeon with 32G ram).

==See also==

* [[Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu]] - doing a manual installation on Ubuntu.
* [[Administrator documentation]]

[[Category:Administrator]]
[[Category:Installation|Ubuntu]]

Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu using apt-get

2008-08-28T14:54:44Z

T100ss:

This install option will be useful for someone who is doing a new install on an ubuntu server install. We are assuming that

1) You have done your ubuntu install.
2) You have used apt-get update and apt-get upgrade to get the latest version.
3) You have a typical ubuntu server edition which just gives you the command line.
4) You have not enabled the root account and do not want to do that.
5) When you installed you opted to have a LAMP install and a mailserver.
6) You do not mind that your moodle will be at the package maintainers current state which may not be in line with the latest build from the moodle site. This is very unlikely to be a problem if you are installing a new moodle.

First, from the terminal type

sudo apt-get install moodle

During the process that follows you will be asked for some names and passwords for the mysql and moodle accounts. This information is used to populate the config.php file.

You can do this from a remote terminal but bear in mind that if you are using a remote terminal then it needs to be an reasonably capable one. Otherwise the installation dialog may not be able to talk to you and you will get an error which mentions the limitations of your terminal.

One terminal that does work is the X terminal on a mac. (Not the terminal program that comes with a mac in the utilities folder but the Xterm that you will have if you installed open office).

This moodle install will only work from the localhost.

To make it accessible from other hosts you must edit the file /etc/apache2/conf.d/moodle

sudo nano /etc/apache2/conf.d/moodle

This is actually a soft link from /etc/moodle/apache.conf

This fires up the 'nano' text editor which is command line text editor and the sudo gives you the write access you need.

About 10 lines down you see the following line

"#allow from all"

The # indicates it is commented out, so remove the # and use ctrl O to save the file.

Now restart apache

/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

and you should be able to access the moodle from other hosts.

You are now done.

One big advantage of doing this install is that the moodle will be maintained by

sudo apt-get upgrade.
The installation is actually rather better thought out than many installs. For example the apache2 conf file is nicely done.

These are the file locations for a default install from apt-get

moodle site is at /usr/share/moodle
moodle data folder is at /var/lib/data
config.php is a soft link in the /usr/share/moodle folder and actually sits in /etc/moodle

This moodle install was done on 27th August 2008 using an up to date install of ubuntu server 64 bit (hardy) on a HP Blade (Dual quad Xeon with 32G ram).

Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu using apt-get

2008-08-28T14:23:00Z

T100ss: New page: This install option will be useful for someone who is doing a new install on an ubuntu server install. We are assuming that 1) You have done your ubuntu install. 2) You have used apt-get ...

Administrator documentation

2008-08-28T14:13:24Z

T100ss: /* System-specific Instructions & Packages */

The purpose of this page is to list useful links by general topics for administrators.

== Installation & Upgrading ==

*[[Installation Quickstart]] for an overview of the installation steps
*[[Installing Moodle]] for detailed installation instructions
*[[Installation FAQ]]
*[[Installing AMP|Options for installing Apache, MySQL and PHP]]
*[[Upgrading|Upgrading Moodle]]

== System-specific Instructions & Packages ==

* [[SUSE Linux Server 10|Automated Installation Guide for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10]] operating system
* [[RedHat Linux installation|Step by Step Installation Guide for RedHat]] operating system
* [[Debian GNU/Linux installation|Step by Step Installation Guide for Debian GNU/Linux]] operating system
* [[Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu]]
* [[Step-by-step Install Guide for Ubuntu using apt-get]]
* [[Step-by-step Install Guide for Zenwalk-5.0]]
* [[Step-by-step Install Guide for Solaris 10 with Oracle 10]]
* [[Windows installation|Windows installations with instructions for Windows NT/2000/2003 servers]]
**[[Windows installation using XAMPP|Windows installation using XAMPP: Apache, MySQL and PHP]]
* [[Installing Moodle on Windows Vista]]
* [[Complete Install Packages for Mac OS X | Complete Install Packages for Mac OS X 10.3/10.4/10.5]]
* [[Step-by-step Guide for Installing Moodle on Mac OS X 10.4 Client|Step by Step Installation on a Mac OS X 10.4 Client using the internal web server]]
* [[Step by Step Installation on a Mac OS X 10.5 Server]]
* [[1and1_MySQL_installation | Installation on 1and1 web hosting]]
* [[OLPC XS installation|Step by Step Installation Guide for the One Laptop per Child XS Server (Beta)]]
* [[Installing Oracle for PHP]]

==Security, Performance and Roles==

*[[Security]] contains important security procedures for a production site
*[[Performance | Performance and optimization]] for ideas on improving the speed of your installation
*[[Manage roles | Managing roles]] For Moodle 1.7 and later.
*[[suhosin]] is an advanced protection system for PHP installation. It was designed to protect servers and users from known and unknown flaws in PHP applications and the PHP core.

== FAQs ==

*[[Installation FAQ]]
*[[Administration FAQ]]
*[[Backup FAQ]]

== Configuration Settings ==
*[[Site administration block]] contains configuration setting links
*[[Notification page]] used to update versions
*[[Variables]]
*[[Site settings]]
*[[Themes]]
*[[Language]]
*[[Activity modules administration]]
*[[Blocks administration]]
*[[Filters]]
*[[Backup settings]]
*[[HTML editor settings]]
*[[Calendar settings]]
*[[Maintenance mode]]

* See also:
**[[Location of admin settings in 1.7|Comparison between configuration settings in Moodle 1.6 & 1.7]]

==User Management==

*[[Authentication]]
*[[Add new user|Add a new user]] - on a site
*[[Upload users]] - from a file to a site, and into existing course and group, some existing user global updates
*[[Enrolment plugins]]
**[[Flat file]] - enrol existing users in a course
*[[Roles and capabilities|Assigning user a role]] - typical assignments include:
**[[Students|Enrol students in a course]]
**[[Courses (administrator)|Assign teachers]] - to a course
**[[Assign creators|Assign course creators]] - in a site
**[[Assign administrators]] - in a site

==Other==

*[[Courses (administrator)|Courses]] and [[Course formats|course formats]]
*[[Reports (administrator)]] and [[Logs]]
*[[Site files]]
*[[Moodle database|Database]]
*[[Environment]]
*[[Moodle Network]] and Moodle [[Community hub]]
*[[Streaming Media]]
*[[Case studies (administrator)]]
*[[Anti-virus]]
*[[System Monitoring and Server Statistic Software]]

==See also==

*[[:Category:Administrator | Index of all Administrator-related pages]]
*[[Integrations]]
*[[CVS for Administrators]]
*[[Email processing]]
*[[Search engine optimization]]
*[[Messaging]]
*[[Migration]]
*[[Metacourses]]
*[[Block layout]]
*[[Customizing Moodle]]
*[[Administrator do's and don'ts]]
*[[Using Moodle book]] Chapter 16: Moodle Administration
*[[Administration hacks]]

[[Category: Administrator]]
[[cs:Rukověť správce]]
[[es:Documentación para Administradores]]
[[eu:Kudeatzaileentzako dokumentazioa]]
[[fr:Documentation administrateur]]
[[ja:管理者ドキュメント]]
[[ko:관리자 문서]]
[[nl:Documentatie voor beheerders]]
[[pt:Documentação para administradores]]
[[ru:Администраторам]]
[[sk:Dokumentácia pre správcov]]
[[zh:管理员文档]]
[[pl:Administrator documentation]]

Upgrading

2008-08-27T16:54:46Z

T100ss: /* Using a downloaded archive */

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.

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.

__TOC__

When upgrading a Moodle installation you should follow these steps:

==Check the requirements==
Spend some time re-reading the [[Installing Moodle | installation documentation]] and documentation for the new version. Check the system requirements for the version you are upgrading to in ''Administration > Server > [[Environment]]''.

== 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 need backing up:

=== 1. The Moodle software directory itself ===

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

=== 2. Your data directory ===

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.

=== 3. Your database ===

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":

mysqldump -u username -p -C -Q -e -a moodle > moodle-backup-2007-04-01.sql
(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.

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:

mysqldump -u username -p -h databasehost -C -Q -e -a moodle > moodle-backup-2007-04-01.sql

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.

==== SQL dump caveats ====

* 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.
** 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 ==

=== Using a downloaded archive ===

@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.

Linux
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:

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

Don't forget to

sudo chown www-data moodle/config.php

if necessary.

where www-data is whatever user the Apache user is on your system. This is often 'apache' or 'www'.
You can find out by doing 'ls -l' in your /var/www/moodle folder (or wherever our moodle site is) and then looking at the owner and group.

so you may see something like

ls -l

...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.

To replicate this on your new system you can do 'chown apache:system config.php'

or to do a whole group do

chown apache:system ./*

and recursively

chown -R apache:system ./*

=== Using CVS ===

You can use CVS for updating or upgrading your Moodle.
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!.

'''For Linux servers'''

To do a CVS checkout of Moodle, you first have to logon to the Moodle CVS server.

<nowiki>cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@SERVER.cvs.moodle.org:/cvsroot/moodle login</nowiki>
No password for anonymous, so just hit the Enter button.

Go to the directory where you want the Moodle root to come and type

<nowiki>cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@SERVER.cvs.moodle.org:/cvsroot/moodle co -r MOODLE_18_STABLE moodle</nowiki>
(where MOODLE_18_STABLE is the desired version)

To update, just go into the Moodle root directory and update to the new files:

cvs update -dP
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.

'''For Windows servers'''

You can use Tortoise CVS to do the initial checkout and the updates.

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.

== Finishing the upgrade ==

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

To do this just visit the admin page of your installation e.g. ''<nowiki>http://example.com/moodle/admin</nowiki>''

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.

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.

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

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.

== Verify the upgrade (optional) ==

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]].

==Upgrading more than one version==

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.)

==See also==

*[[Installing Moodle]]
*[[Installation FAQ]]
*[[Upgrading to Moodle 1.6]]
*[[Upgrading to Moodle 1.8]]
*[[Upgrading to Moodle 1.9]]
*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]
*[http://youtube.com/watch?v=ufAmf_jm_p8 How to backup a whole Moodle site video]
*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]

[[Category:Installation]]

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

Upgrading

2008-08-27T16:53:22Z

T100ss: /* Using a downloaded archive */

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.

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.

__TOC__

When upgrading a Moodle installation you should follow these steps:

==Check the requirements==
Spend some time re-reading the [[Installing Moodle | installation documentation]] and documentation for the new version. Check the system requirements for the version you are upgrading to in ''Administration > Server > [[Environment]]''.

== 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 need backing up:

=== 1. The Moodle software directory itself ===

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

=== 2. Your data directory ===

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.

=== 3. Your database ===

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":

mysqldump -u username -p -C -Q -e -a moodle > moodle-backup-2007-04-01.sql
(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.

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:

mysqldump -u username -p -h databasehost -C -Q -e -a moodle > moodle-backup-2007-04-01.sql

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.

==== SQL dump caveats ====

* 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.
** 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 ==

=== Using a downloaded archive ===

@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.

Linux
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:

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

Don't forget to

sudo chown www-data moodle/config.php

if necessary.

where www-data is whatever user the Apache user is on your system. This is often 'apache' or 'www'. You can find out by doing 'ls -l' in your /var/www/moodle folder (or wherever our moodle site is) and then looking at the owner and group.

so you may see something like

ls -l

...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.

To replicate this on your new system you can do 'chown apache:system config/php'

or to do a whole group do

chown apache:system ./*

and recursively

chown -R apache:system ./*

=== Using CVS ===

You can use CVS for updating or upgrading your Moodle.
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!.

'''For Linux servers'''

To do a CVS checkout of Moodle, you first have to logon to the Moodle CVS server.

<nowiki>cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@SERVER.cvs.moodle.org:/cvsroot/moodle login</nowiki>
No password for anonymous, so just hit the Enter button.

Go to the directory where you want the Moodle root to come and type

<nowiki>cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@SERVER.cvs.moodle.org:/cvsroot/moodle co -r MOODLE_18_STABLE moodle</nowiki>
(where MOODLE_18_STABLE is the desired version)

To update, just go into the Moodle root directory and update to the new files:

cvs update -dP
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.

'''For Windows servers'''

You can use Tortoise CVS to do the initial checkout and the updates.

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.

== Finishing the upgrade ==

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

To do this just visit the admin page of your installation e.g. ''<nowiki>http://example.com/moodle/admin</nowiki>''

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.

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.

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

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.

== Verify the upgrade (optional) ==

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]].

==Upgrading more than one version==

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.)

==See also==

*[[Installing Moodle]]
*[[Installation FAQ]]
*[[Upgrading to Moodle 1.6]]
*[[Upgrading to Moodle 1.8]]
*[[Upgrading to Moodle 1.9]]
*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]
*[http://youtube.com/watch?v=ufAmf_jm_p8 How to backup a whole Moodle site video]
*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]

[[Category:Installation]]

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Top 10 Moodle Myths

2008-03-05T17:39:01Z

T100ss: /* The total Cost of Ownership is actually higher for Moodle than it would be with a wholly commercial platform */

The top 10 list started life in [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=33044 a post by Josie Fraser], as part of the 2005-6 [http://helpusgettobett.com HUGToB campaign].

{{About Moodle}}

==Once Moodle is stable, it will be put under licence. If it were any good, they’d already be charging for it==
Martin Dougiamas is [http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=41253 on record] that Moodle will always be free and under the GPL. Even if it weren't, the community could take the latest GPL code and continue development from there. One of the reasons why Moodle's so good is that it's open source code, and so the world wide educational community can contribute to making it better still.

In other cases where such things have happened, the community quickly "forked" the tool and continued it, with ongoing improvements, as an open-source project. What is out there up to this point will stay out there - legally - even if something in the future did not. Nobody can "buy" Moodle, and any coopting without the consent of the global community wouldn't get very far.

==Moodle needs a full time, php developer on your staff- or at least a lot of technical support to run it in house==
There are ''plenty'' of institutions running Moodle as is, without any php developers in sight. You don't need to know any programming if you just want to run an out of the box, feature rich Moodle site.

That said, PHP is actually a fairly easy language to pick up, and the Moodle code is well documented, so if you did want to help with development, it's a fairly gentle learning curve.

It is also fair to say you need a certain amount of technical know-how to run any program on the web securely. But this has more to do with getting a web-server, SQL database and scripting language up and integrated than a Moodle instance itself. If you can run your own webserver, you should be OK to run Moodle on it.

You don't actually have to run Moodle in house though - there are well respected [http://moodle.com Moodle Partners] who'll run Moodle for you, some of the more enlightened Local Authorities and Regional Broadband Consortia (in the UK) will provide Moodle hosting, and Moodle will work on plenty of commercially hosted webspaces too.

==Moodle won’t be compatible with our other systems/software==
Moodle will run on FreeBSD, Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows. It's compatible with a huge range of databases through ADODB integration. There's a whole host of authentication and enrollment mechanisms, including LDAP. Moodle will allow teachers to integrate content in a range of different formats, including SCORM, Flash, MP3s and RSS feeds. On the [[Roadmap]] for future releases is a Web API which will allow easy integration with other web-based applications.

Finally, remember that this is open source software, with a well documented data and file structure. If Moodle's not compatible with a particular application at the moment, then you can pay a developer to code up that integration, or develop it in-house.

==Moodle just doesn’t have the commercial experience we’re looking for==
Check out the [http://moodle.com partners]. Moodle is also in use throughout the world by corporate clients for in-house training, including flight schools, pilot and mechanic certification, and all other varieties of professional development. Moodle as a tool is an application, not an organization. The PEOPLE that make up the Moodle world-wide community have experience across the board in every industry and every sort of education. In fact, you'll be hard-pressed to find a more committed group of educators and [[Trainer|trainers]] in one place than on moodle.org. Further evidence of the commercial applications of moodle are supported by the fact that Microsoft Corporation funded the modification of moodle to work on their SQL Server platform (if you choose to use that instead of mySQL) and that the support for features ranging from clustering to built-in payment mechanisms is growing with each version.

==You can’t just use Moodle out of the box – the basic Moodle install just isn’t that sophisticated==
Have a look at the [[Features|feature list]], all of which comes as standard. Additional themes, blocks and activities are easy to integrate and the vast majority are free, open source code too. It is true that is basically easy to [https://docs.moodle.org/en/Complete_install_packages#Install_complete_package install] all those features out of the box as a standalone desktop or on a web server.

You can do a full install on a Windows-based pc in the time it takes to download a 50MB file, unzip it, change a folder name, double-click a file, and open a webpage. This install includes a webserver, the database, and the moodle installation. While this basic install is not appropriate for an enterprise installation, the simplicity with which it offers the full power of moodle is remarkable, and a testament to the robustness of the platform.

==There’s no documentation, training or technical support available – you’re on your own==
There's excellent (and expanding) documentation [https://docs.moodle.org/en/Main_Page online], provided by the user and developer community. Being online and digital, this resource is updated daily and keeps abreast of moodle developments as they happen - with far more details than any book could provide, and certainly more than any commercial vendor offers for their product.

The Open University's [http://moodle.org/user/view.php?id=9318&course=5 Jason Cole] has written an excellent introduction to Moodle for teachers, available as a [http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596008635/ proper book] from O'Reilly. In addition William Rice has written a Moodle book [http://www.packtpub.com/moodle/book Moodle E-Learning Course Development] available from [http://www.packtpub.com/ Packt Publishing].

Most users find the Moodle interface intuitive and this helps reduce the training requirements. It's possible for institutions to run in-house training and many have successfully adopted this approach. Some Moodle Partners [http://moodle.com/training/ moodle.com] also specialize in training.

High quality, timely technical support is available from the user and developer community in the Using Moodle course on [http://moodle.org moodle.org]. Some LAs and RBCs (Local Authorities and Regional Broadband Consortia in the UK) support Moodle in their areas. Commercial support contracts are available from authorized Moodle Partners [http://moodle.com/support/ moodle.com].

==The total Cost of Ownership is actually higher for Moodle than it would be with a wholly commercial platform==
Stop and think for a moment. With both Moodle and commercial platforms, you'll still need to pay for hosting, support, training and content, one way or another: with Moodle, more of these costs ''can'' be brought in-house, because the code's open source and Moodle's great at providing the tools teachers need to write online activities themselves, but that doesn't mean you have to.

The difference is that with Moodle, there are '''no''' licence fees to pay. None. The money you do spend can go back into making the software better, or remain within the educational community for the common good. None of it needs to go to meet shareholder dividends or pay back the venture capitalists. Furthermore, you're not exposed to the risks of commercial suppliers unilaterally increasing their licence fees, or going out of business.

It's therefore not that surprising that when the UK government agency [http://www.becta.org.uk Becta] examined the [http://www.becta.org.uk/corporate/publications/documents/BEC5606_Full_report18.pdf Total Cost of Ownership of open-source software] on desktops in UK schools, they found significant savings compared to commercial alternatives. The savings on support costs were particularly impressive. It's likely that these savings would have been greater still had they examined web-based applications like Moodle.
Above link is dead but I think this is the same document [http://simpleict.com/becta.pdf Using Open Source Software in Schools]

==Moodle is just no good for an institution as large as mine==
So, that would be one larger than the UK's Open University, with 180,000 students, yes? The OU has [http://www3.open.ac.uk/events/7/2005118_40887_nr.doc announced] that they're moving to Moodle as their institutional VLE, and there are plenty of other [[Large_installations|large institutions]] officially using Moodle, and a good number of others where sections are.

==Moodle is just not designed to cope with my specific group of learners or customers==
Moodle's being used successfully from elementary education, including early years provision, up to higher education, in all subject areas including art, languages, the humanities and mathematics. It's also established itself in the world of life-long learning, teachers' CPD, corporate and government training environments.

==We have all our stuff on *******, it’s just not worth the hassle of switching to Moodle==
The switch may not be that much of a hassle, as Moodle will happily import content in a wide range of standard formats, including SCORM, Blackboard and WebCT questions. There are an increasing number of Further and Higher Education institutions that are making the move.

Pedagogically, there's much to be gained from moving to a VLE which puts social, collaborative learning at the centre, and acknowledges the vital role that learners have to play, as well as providing teachers with the tools that they need to build effective on-line learning communities, rather than just presenting resources and activities.

From a financial perspective, the costs involved in switching to Moodle should be quickly recouped through savings in licence fees.

==Moodle is free and therefore can't really be as good as something produced by a large company which earns millions in Licence fees every year==
The fact that Moodle is Free (not free as in no money, but Free as in Free Speech) means that the efforts of the core team are entirely public. You can watch progress in the tracker, download the code they have just written and take part in their conversations in the forums. This means that anyone who wants to (and there are literally hundreds that do) can assist in developing either the core code, custom plugins and modules, integrations and themes, or by reporting bugs that appear. There are over 150 such third party extensions in the modules and plugins database and a quick look at the tracker will show you how effectively the community keep bug reports coming in.

On top of that, many institutions that use Moodle decide to devote some of their own in-house expertise to maintaining parts of the Moodle code, or developing new features. Because Moodle is free, this makes sense. If they were using a commercial product, they would not only be unable to do this due to licencing, but also would have to continue to pay every year to keep using what they have made, so this doesn't really happen with commercial software.

This means that, as is generally the case with Open Source, Moodle develops much faster for a given amount of cash input than commercial software does, where everything must be done by the company developers in house.

Additionally, a commercial company selling a VLE is in a poor position in marketing terms because their product is big, complex and hard to sell to people who know little or nothing about it and don't have the time to invest in learning it and several others so they can make an informed choice. This means a big marketing budget with lots of sales reps, which takes up a large chunk of the licence fee income. Moodle has no such overhead, leaving more money for development in the first place.

The above factors also tend to make Moodle more innovative than other platforms, because when someone wants a feature, they are free to either write it themselves, or pay for a developer to do it. With a commercial VLE you would only get an extension made if you could convince the company it would be profitable for them.

Put together, the stable core and dozens of custom plugins means that Moodle can be tailored to fit your institution much better than a monolithic one-size-fits-all offering.

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