Managing Moodle/Apache/MySQL on Linux

1
Managing Moodle/Apache/MySQL on Linux

• Steve Rippl
• Technology Director
• Woodland School District
• rippls_at_woodlandschools.org
• http//www.woodlandschools.org (main District
  site - Drupal)
• http//courses.woodlandschools.org (District
  Moodle site)
• Download this presentation at http//www.woodland
  schools.org/index.php?qnode/6216

2
Outline of Workshop

• Online Documentation
• Hardware Requirements
• Software Requirements
• Quick Linux Introduction
• Installing Software
• Managing Remotely
• Install Dependencies
• Moodle Installation
• Moodle Configuration

• File and Database Layout Backups
• Restores/Create a Test Site
• Add-ons - Filters, Modules Blocks
• User Management
• Structuring Site Layout/Permissions
• Customizing Your Website
• Upgrading Moodle

3
Online Documentation

• Linux
• The man pages (not strictly online, although they
  are available there too!)
• http//linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/html/lnag.html -
  Linux Newbie Administrator Guide, dated but
  useful general intro.
• http//www.debian-administration.org/ - great
  articles on various topics around managing Debian
• http//www.howtoforge.com/ - articles around
  server on many different distros (including
  Ubuntu/Debian)

4
Online Documentation

• Moodle
• http//moodle.org/ - Set up an account for access
  to forums
• http//docs.moodle.org/en/Main_Page -
  Documentation front page
• http//docs.moodle.org/en/Administrator_documentat
  ion - Documentation for site administrators

5
Online Documentation

• Apache
• http//httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/
• PHP
• http//www.php.net/manual/en/
• MySQL
• http//dev.mysql.com/doc/

6
Hardware Requirements

• Minimum
• 160 MB Disk Space
• 256MB (min), 1GB per 50 concurrent users
• In Practice
• Be as generous as you can so your end users get
  a responsive experience, you're not paying for
  the software so put it in hardware!
• http//docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_MoodleHardwa
  re
• http//docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_MoodleHow_ma
  ny_users.3F

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Software Requirements

• An Operating System Linux
• A Web Server Apache2
• PHP5
• A Database MySQL (others possible)
• and...
• Moodle Source
• http//docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_MoodleSoftwa
  re

8
Quick Linux Introduction

• What is where?
• http//linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/html/lnag.html4.1.
  Basicsoutline
• /etc configuration files
• /var/log log files
• How do we do anything?
• The bash shell (Bourne Again SHell) ls, cd,
  mkdir,touch,locate,ps,top,chown,chmod,rm,vi,pico,
  nano,cp,scp,mv,shutdown,reboot,more,less,cat,sed,
  grep... etc...etc...(man command is your friend!)

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Quick Linux Introduction

• How can we see what's running?
• ps (ps -e less, specific process test ps -e
  grep test, more detail ps -aux)
• top
• How do we control processes (on Debian/Ubuntu)?
• /etc/init.d/process_name (startstoprestartstatu
  s)

10
Installing Software

• Installing pre-packaged software (all online
  http//www.debian.org/distrib/packages)
• GUI based tools, Synaptic (Gnome tool, but can
  install in KDE too)
• Command line, apt-cache search/policy/showpkg...,
  apt-get install/remove/purge...
• Compiling from source (not needed often)
• Configure make make install

11
Managing/Accessing Server Remotely

• From another Linux machine
• ssh (Secure Shell)
• Fish (Konqueror) (or sftp in Firefox?)
• Can share the root file system through Samba or
  nfs (not as secure)
• VNC if the server has a GUI

12
Managing/Accessing Server Remotely

• From Windows machine
• Putty - http//www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/sgtatha
  m/putty/
• WinSCP - http//winscp.net/eng/index.php
• Again, if server filesystem is shared through
  Samba you can access it that way.

13
Install Dependencies

• On Debian (or Ubuntu)
• As root...
• apt-get install apache2 php5 mysql-server
  php5-gd phpmyadmin
• cd /var/www
• wget http//download.moodle.org/stable19/moodle-
  weekly-19.tgz
• tar -xzvf moodle-weekly-19.tgz
• rm moodle-weekly-19.tgz
• chown -R www-datawww-data moodle
• Other useful software...
• apt-get install ssh ntp vim
• http//docs.moodle.org/en/Debian_GNU/Linux_install
  ation

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Moodle Installation

• http//docs.moodle.org/en/Installing_Moodle
• Check web server settings (/etc/apache2/sites-avai
  lable/default)
• DirectoryIndex index.php index.html
  index.htmAcceptPathInfo on

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Moodle Installation

• Check PHP settings (/etc/php5/apache2/php.ini) (
  not already default in Debian)
• register_globals 0safe_mode 0 memory_limit
  128Msession.save_handler files
  magic_quotes_gpc 1 magic_quotes_runtime 0
  file_uploads 1session.auto_start 0
  session.bug_compat_warn 0 ()post_max_size
  16M ( minimum)upload_max_filesize 16M (
  minimum)

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Moodle Installation

• Restart web server after any Apache or PHP config
  changes (/etc/init.d/apache2 restart)
• Set up database (easiest through phpMyAdmin)
• Set a root password if not already done.
• Create moodle database and user 'moodleuser' with
  rights to that db.
• Important performance configuration
• Increase the size of the query_cache_size in
  /etc/mysql/my.cnf

17
Moodle Installation

• Create data directory
• Need a large (many gigs) data directory outside
  of DocumentRoot
• mkdir /srv/moodledata chown nobodywww-data
  /srv/moodledata chmod 770 /srv/moodledata
• Run Moodle installer script
• http//yourserver/moodle/install.php
• Enter db and data directory details
• Install any missed dependencies apt-cache
  search php5 extension_name, apt-get install
  package, restart apache.

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Moodle Installation

• Run Moodle installer script
• Run through through table setup watching for
  errors
• Setup admin account
• Enter basic site information
• Hopefully now you see your Moodle site!

Er
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Moodle Configuration

• Checklist of basic Moodle options to
  enable/disable (not conclusive or necessarily
  necessary!)
• Reduce time to keep logs (Server ? Cleanup)
• Turn off messaging (Security ? Site Policies)
• Disable Blogs (Security ? Site Policies)
• Setup cron
• Set password in Security ? Site Policies
• Add /5 wget -q -O /dev/null
  http//yourserver/moodle/cron.php?passwordPASSWOR
  D (all one line) to crontab (crontab -e as root)

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Moodle Configuration

• Adjust file upload limits
• Security ? Site policies ? Maximum uploaded file
  size Server Limit
• In /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini upload_max_filesize
  32M
• Set up connection to an SMTP server
• Server ? EmailMake sure your SMTP server will
  relay for your Moodle server.

21
File and Database Layout Backups

• So now we have...
• /var/www/moodle see http//docs.moodle.org/en/In
  stalling_MoodleStructure_of_moodle_directory for
  explanation
• /srv/moodledata
• 'moodle' database in MySQL

22
File and Database Layout Backups

• Set up those backups!
• Use a script to dump the database on a daily
  basis (cron)
• On Linux mysqldump moodle gt moodle_bkup.sql
  --userroot --passwordPASSWORD
• On Windows C\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Server
  5.1\bin\mysqldump.exe" wsd gt moodle_bkup.sql
  --userroot passwordPASSWORD
• Use whatever backup system you have to scoop up
  both the main directories and the database dump
  file (maybe your apache conf?).
• Restore just involves putting directories and db
  back

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Restore/Create a Test Site

• Restore is easy (as long as you have backups!)
• Put directories back in place (check permissions
  if your backup process doesn't preserve them)
• Restore db mysql --usernameroot
  --passwordPASSWORD moodle lt moodle_bkup.sql
• There is a built in course backup function
  mostly for archiving/moving courses from one site
  to another.

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Restore/Create a Test Site

• Can use the same method to create copy/clone of
  site for test purposes
• cp -Rp /var/www/moodle /var/www/moodle_test
• cp -Rp /srv/moodledata /srv/moodledata_test
• In phpMyAdmin make a copy of db called
  moodle_test
• Edit /var/www/moodle_test/config.phpCFG-gtwwwroot
  'http//.../moodle_test'CFG-gtdirroot
  '/var/www/moodle_test'CFG-gtdataroot
  '/srv/moodledata_test'

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Filters, Modules Blocks

• Turn on or install additional filters, modules
  and blocks.
• Lots of community created add-ons are available
  to increase functionality none come with a
  guarantee so test if not sure!
• http//moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?id6009

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Filters, Modules Blocks

• Filters
• Multimedia plugins (already installed, just turn
  on)
• Freemind
• Geogebra
• Wiki Page Auto-linking (already installed, just
  turn on)
• Tex Notation (already installed, just turn on)

• Modules
• Hot Potatoes Quiz (installed, just turn on)
• Book
• Feedback
• Questionnaire
• Podcase
• Slideshow

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Filters, Modules Blocks

• Blocks - Quickmail
• Installation of third-party add-ons
• Download the source, how do we get it onto our
  command line server?cd /tmp wgetwget
  http//download.moodle.org/packages19/feedback_pac
  kages.zip mount windows/samba shareapt-get
  install smbfsmkdir /mnt/sharemount -t cifs
  //remote-server/share_name /mnt/sharecp
  /mnt/share/file.zip . spcscp
  root_at_remote-server/path/to/share/file.zip .

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Filters, Modules Blocks

• Installation of third-party add-ons
• Unpackapt-get upzipunzip feedback_package.zipch
  own -R www-datawww-data blocks modmv
  blocks/feedback /var/www/moodle/blocks/feedbackmv
  mod/feedback /var/www/moodle/mod/feedback
• Visit your admin page to complete the
  installation
• http//your-server/moodle/admin/index.php

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User Management

• The easiest approach is to let your users setup
  their own account and use your network user
  directory for authentication.
• Users ? Authentication ? Manage Authentication
• Turn off Email-based self-registration
• Turn on LDAP server
• Configure (for Active Directory authentication?)
• Make sure PHP LDAP module is present apt-get
  install php5-ldap/etc/init.d/apache2 restart

30
User Management

• Configure LDAP authentication
• Host URL ldap//AD-server.domain.eduVersion
  3LDAP encoding utf-8Hide
  passwords yesDistinguished Name
  cnldap_query_user,ouusers,dcdomain,dceduPassw
  ord xxxxxxxxUser type MS
  ActiveDirectoryContexts ouusers,dcdomain,dc
  eduSearch subcontexts YesUser
  attribute sAMAccountNamePassword
  format Plain text

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User Management

• Can import all users yourself if you wish
• Users ? Accounts ? Add a new user or Upload users
• Exactly how this is managed is very dependent on
  your Network setup, but try to minimize your
  involvement here, you've got other things to do!

32
Structuring Site Layout/Permissions

• Think about clarity for end users and consider
  the fact that permissions are inherited down from
  where you set them.
• Can set permissions globally
• Users ? Permissions ? Assign system roles
• and at each level.
• 'Assign roles' within a course or category

33
Customizing Your Website

• Most Moodle sites are distinctively Moodle-esq,
  but you can choose amongst various themes and
  customize them as you please.
• Appearance ? Themes ? Theme Selector
• Can find many more to download herehttp//moodle
  .org/mod/data/view.php?id6552
• Installation instructionshttp//docs.moodle.org/
  en/Themes_FAQ

34
Customizing Your Website

• Digging deeper into themes either use chameleon
  theme
• In moodle/themes/chameleon/config.php set
  THEME-gtchameleonenabled true
• In the Theme Selector choose the Chameleon theme
• 'Shift click' on an element to get css
  properties (Firefox firebug also useful)

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Customizing Your Website

• Or edit the html/css of one you like...
• Can start with header.html and footer.html and go
  on from there... again the Firebug plugin for
  Firefox will greatly help to identify page node
  id and classes which you can then hunt out in the
  theme files.https//addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir
  efox/addon/1843

36
Upgrading Moodle

• Don't get left behind! You've got backups of
  everything so there's nothing to be afraid of!
• Make sure all updates are current
• Move (rename) your old moodle folder and unpack
  the new one in it's place.
• Copy across config.php and any custom themes,
  check permissions (chown www-data ) and then
  visit your admin page.
• http//docs.moodle.org/en/UpgradingInstall_the_ne
  w_Moodle_software

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The End?

• Train a few keen teachers who can then in turn
  train others (Moodle Bootcamp?)
• Sit back and take the credit for bringing this
  powerful tool into your School/District!