Who hosts their own Moodle?

[gshaw]

Bit of an open question but discussions have started again about sorting out our rather empty Moodle site and part of it involves making a decision on hosting \ development of it. So basically I was wondering for those of you with Moodle...

 

- if you host internally what platform do you use, Linux or Windows?

- if external who is yuor host and how do you rate them?

- if Linux who manages the system, backups, upgrades etc?

- do you have a developer of some sort to design the themes etc?

- do you have an eLearning co-ordinator, VLE manager etc to oversee the project in general, arrange training etc etc?

 

Lots of qu's I know but any info much appreciated

[CyberNerd]

- if you host internally what platform do you use, Linux or Windows?

Redhat Linux 5.2

Moodle (AMP) is much better supported on linux.

- if Linux who manages the system, backups, upgrades etc?

me, I have a cron job that takes care of mysql dumps and rsync copies all the files to the backup server - exactly the same method we use to back up the windows servers. I have a 'stageing' site that is an exact mirror of the real moodle site, I perform a quick upgrade of moodles on that just to check the final site will upgrade ok. Redhat take care of all my system updates, subscription was £35 per year

- do you have a developer of some sort to design the themes etc?

all done in-house, our moodle theme matches the drupaled theme, we use drupal for social networking

- do you have an eLearning co-ordinator, VLE manager etc to oversee the project in general, arrange training etc etc?

sort of, my line manager, assistant head oversees it.

[gshaw]

Thanks for that CyberNerd, when you say developed in house is that you again or another guy?

 

Also were you Linux-savvy before you had Moodle?

[CyberNerd]

I didn't do any of the moodle themes, but I do do some course maintenance and I do all the server side. I've been using linux for a while now. I started using it professionally for webservers though. IIRC ubuntu has a moodle package in it's repository so it would be very simple to set up.

[strawberry]

in house, server 2003, steal themes from others then modify them.

 

there are many advantages of hosting onsite. these include

more control, better backups, easier to move large files, easier to make additions, easier access to fileserver, ldap and smtp.

 

we have a committee made up to a curriculum leader, it champions, technical support and the kids themselves.

[CyberNerd]

 

there are many advantages of hosting onsite. these include

more control, better backups, easier to move large files, easier to make additions, easier access to fileserver, ldap and smtp.

don't forget MIS (SIMS) integration, you don't get that with an external hosting

[teejay]

Host internally on Ubuntu 8.04 running as a VMWare ESXi virtual machine.

 

We often have 200+ simultaneous users and it handles it fine. Get the odd complaint about it being slow externally at busy times, but thats down to our LEA throttling the bandwidth at their end.

 

We have a tech who works full time on it, plus any other web stuff or fiddling with photo's/videos etc.

I have management responsibility for it so do a lot of liasing wth departments, training staff and generally championing its use.

[ezzauk]

if you host internally what platform do you use, Linux or Windows?

We host Moodle on Linux - CentOS 5

 

 

if Linux who manages the system, backups, upgrades etc?

We have a team of 2 webmasters just to look after the college website and moodle.

 

do you have a developer of some sort to design the themes etc?

The webmasters look after this.

http://moodle.ne-worcs.ac.uk

Edited October 31, 2008 by ezzauk

[Marci]

- if you host internally what platform do you use, Linux or Windows?

FreeBSD7, Apache 2.2, PHP5.2.5, WHM/cPanel11 (only £15 for lifetime license for educational establishments), LDAP Authentication against MS Active Directory with singlesignon across whole website / online facilities on an old Dual Xeon server with 4Gb Ram and Raid-5 array, with backups to second array and tape

- if external who is yuor host and how do you rate them?

If I was to host externally it'd be somewhere stateside - prices much more reasonable - can get a dedicated server at a US Datacentre (with 80Gb to yerself for storage and 1.5Tb monthly bandwidth on 100Mb uplink) for what a UK restrictive VHost package costs... but as it goes we host it all ourselves on a plusnet 4Mb/512Kb ADSL line with static IP that doubles up as an unfiltered net connection for ICT Support Staff instead of using LEA filtered line.

- if Linux who manages the system, backups, upgrades etc?

Me... freebsdupdate.sh looks after OS upgrades and patches via cron, portupgrade and cPanel's UPCP keeps all the ports and backend software uptodate and patched via cron.

- do you have a developer of some sort to design the themes etc?

Me again - working on it for Moodle... only just finished the rest of the web facilities - ePortal and Moodle still to do.

- do you have an eLearning co-ordinator, VLE manager etc to oversee the project in general, arrange training etc etc?

Yep - I just make sure it runs how it should...

[nadeem]

We trialled our moodle for a year in house running on CentOS (moodle 1.8.something)

 

We now use ULCC (University of London Computing Centre) - they're very good (moodle 1.9.something)

 

I'm the VLE person

[gshaw]

Hi nadeem I'm interested to hear about why you decided to go ULCC and how you convinced the powers that be to shell out for it

 

Have you got the MIS integration package from ULCC, if so how does it work?

 

One other qu for people on here...

 

- for MIS integration do you go MIS System > AD > Moodle or has anyone skipped the AD accounts and just go database to Moodle. At the moment because we're ACL we've got loads of short courses so don't have student logins at the moment, although I'm wondering if it could all link nicely together that could change...

[james_yale]

We're hosting internally awell, here's what we're doing at Wildern for comparison:

 

- if you host internally what platform do you use, Linux or Windows?

We've got a small (load balanced, high availability) web cluster of 2 real servers and one virtualised box running RHEL5 with a separate database server also on RHEL5 (all the main production stuff runs RedHat here).

- if external who is your host and how do you rate them?

We're internal but we also have some servers up in London on which we host VLEs for ~40 other primary and secondary schools.

- if Linux who manages the system, backups, upgrades etc?

I'm mainly in charge of the system, backups (like others) involve mysqldumps, rsyncing the configs, moodledata and files and a live replica of the database. Other people in the development department can also do course setup, upgrades, add themes though.

- do you have a developer of some sort to design the themes etc?

There are graphic designers attached to our department who have always taken care of the themes.

- do you have an eLearning co-ordinator, VLE manager etc to oversee the project in general, arrange training etc etc?

Yes. I'll poke Tim with this thread as he might be able to give a more useful answer on what we do about this point.

[danIT]

Has anyone total'd up the cost of hosting moodle internally? E.g the actual cost of running and maintaining the server?

[mighty.grey.eagle]

Bit of an open question but discussions have started again about sorting out our rather empty Moodle site and part of it involves making a decision on hosting \ development of it. So basically I was wondering for those of you with Moodle...

 

- if you host internally what platform do you use, Linux or Windows?

- if external who is yuor host and how do you rate them?

- if Linux who manages the system, backups, upgrades etc?

- do you have a developer of some sort to design the themes etc?

- do you have an eLearning co-ordinator, VLE manager etc to oversee the project in general, arrange training etc etc?

 

Lots of qu's I know but any info much appreciated

 

(Linux) Geoff will probably add something tomorrow but....

 

Linux

Geoff does all of the backups, upgrades. If I see an interesting block or module then that is tested on a local test installation.

One of our other technicians (Young Dave) plays around with the themes.

I'm afraid that I'm the eLearning person and arrange training to individuals/departments.

 

The advantage of local hosting is speed and flexibility but you do throw all of your eggs into one basket. CLEO does a very good job at supporting schools in Cumbria and Lancashire but I'm afraid that I'm very impatient. If I see a new idea I want it immediately.

[tim.dalton]

Yes. I'll poke Tim with this thread as he might be able to give a more useful answer on what we do about this point.

 

I guess my role kind of covers overseeing VLE as a whole, but the job tends to be split across various people.

 

What should appear on course pages is decided by SLT & our IT group, responsibility for making sure this is there is with the heads of department. We then have a few different teaching staff with responsibilities that are in someway linked to use of the VLE. Examples I can think of now- new technologies, student voice, AfL. All these make use of the site in different ways & these people often provide a lead to others.

 

Guess the most important part here is that responsibility for the day-to-day use is with the teaching staff, direction/future vision/etc is covered by the leadership team & our long-term planning.

 

Cheers,

 

Tim

[Geoff]

1. Yes we do. We're using Ubuntu LTS on a Fujitsu RX220 1u server.

2. N/A

3. Me.

4. Yes one of the junior techs does this.

5. Yes. My boss (who's an ex-teacher) does this role.

[kennysarmy]

don't forget MIS (SIMS) integration, you don't get that with an external hosting

 

why can't you have SIMS integration with Moolde hosted externally? this goes against what Synergy-Moodle told me yesterday at BETT...

 

comments?

[CyberNerd]

why can't you have SIMS integration with Moolde hosted externally? this goes against what Synergy-Moodle told me yesterday at BETT...

 

comments?

 

 

Thats fantastic news. I was previously led to believe that there were no moodle hosts who would provide SIMS integration.

I always assumed the problems were because you'd need to expose your MIS server to the rest of the world, and it would need extra complications like secure vpns etc.

[gshaw]

Define integration... it usually means a bulk upload of students from SIMS into Moodle and that's it.

 

We need live integration as we we have students enrolling throughout the year, makes it much more "interesting"

[CyberNerd]

Define integration... it usually means a bulk upload of students from SIMS into Moodle and that's it.

 

We need live integration as we we have students enrolling throughout the year, makes it much more "interesting"

 

Well we have SIMS-moodle live integration, if a student is added to SIMS then their AD account is automatically created and their courses are and SIMS timetable are automatically populated in moodle.

[gshaw]

That's what we're aiming for with our install but with a different MIS system - must make a huge difference with live updates

[kennysarmy]

Well we have SIMS-moodle live integration, if a student is added to SIMS then their AD account is automatically created and their courses are and SIMS timetable are automatically populated in moodle.

 

but you are hosting the MOODLE solution right?

 

is it correct then that if you get someone else to host it then although you can have SIMS integration it will not be live and any changes HAVE to be via manual csv upload - or is it automatic - but just live - ie nightly updates such as how Uniservity work....?

[Gatt]

Bit of an open question but discussions have started again about sorting out our rather empty Moodle site and part of it involves making a decision on hosting \ development of it. So basically I was wondering for those of you with Moodle...

 

- if you host internally what platform do you use, Linux or Windows?

- if external who is yuor host and how do you rate them?

- if Linux who manages the system, backups, upgrades etc?

- do you have a developer of some sort to design the themes etc?

- do you have an eLearning co-ordinator, VLE manager etc to oversee the project in general, arrange training etc etc?

 

Lots of qu's I know but any info much appreciated

 

1. Internal - Linux AMP (Fedora 10, Moodle 1.9.3)

2. N/A

3. I do - got a cron to do the mysql dump - not yet sorted out rsync - help!

4. Me again.. though the theme was downloaded from moodle.org (knowledge-library I think its called)

5. Me - general moodle/VLE Manager, Dep HT is also eLearning Co-ordinator

 

Define integration... it usually means a bulk upload of students from SIMS into Moodle and that's it.

 

We need live integration as we we have students enrolling throughout the year, makes it much more "interesting"

 

We have SIMS.net integrated with Moodle without needing to bulk upload the users - bit tricky to set up as I needed to:

1. export pupil UPNs from SIMS
   
2. export users (by year [OU]) from AD
   
3. Match AD users to correct UPN (excel for this - but didnt have any fancy formulae for it which is my next task!!)
   
4. Enable the employeeID field in AD
   
5. Import UPNs to AD - easy with the Dovestone software
   
6. configure Moodle to talk to AD - fairly easy
   
7. decipher SIMS instructions for creating course and installing the SIMS.net timetable and courses!
   

Worth it in the end - pupils, and staff, can now see their timetables within Moodle.. One handy feature is that it also pulls over their courses from SIMS and auto-enrols them (eg creates a course called 8x/It1 - and adds all the year 8 pupils in that class!)

[CyberNerd]

but you are hosting the MOODLE solution right?

 

is it correct then that if you get someone else to host it then although you can have SIMS integration it will not be live and any changes HAVE to be via manual csv upload - or is it automatic - but just live - ie nightly updates such as how Uniservity work....?

 

 

we do host our own moodle, but I do concede that it is possible to have a live update with an externally hosted solution. I doubt many companies would be willing to provide this because most schools networks are not identical, and it could end up being rather complex to implement. AFAIK I've not seen any webparts/moodle integration - because SIMS is ASP (which won't run in linux/apache). The overnight integration of uniservity is simply because their product is sh*t and they don't know what they are doing. Once they've fleeced a few million of our schools they'll probably be able to afford to introduce live integration.

[Gatt]

@CyberNerd - There is a Block/Mod available from Moodle.org: open-source community-based tools for learning for integrating SIMS Timetables which is what I used above - If using Linux, you need to have FreeTDS and php-mssql installed on it to allow PHP to connect to the SQL Server

The process involves creating about 3 Views on the SQL Server which are then referenced by Moodle..

 

You can also buy - at a hefty price IIRC - a webpart for Sharepoint from The SIMS Learning Gateway (SLG) (i think! - either that or they are 2 seperate products)