What i need to host moodle ourselves

[Little-Miss]

Basically, Link2ICT are wanting a hefty sum every year to host Moodle. So i'm wondering what i would need to just do it myself?

 

Thanks

[Tricky_Dicky]

Basically, a Linux Box running Apache and then have it being pointed to by a domain name on the internet, something like moodle.yourschool.bham.sch.uk for example.

 

Depending on how many users you have depends on how big the box needs to be.

 

I'm going to do this as well I think, if nothing else, it allows me to have the addons that I want and also things like the smb client etc.

[SimpleSi]

Well there's people out there offering to host for £5-£10 a month but check out what CSNM can do for you as a edugeeker

 

I'm imagining you'll need one of those server-computer thingys and a T'internet connection to do it all yourself

 

Si

[Edu-IT]

Also considor that Link2ICT are not the only people that can host this for you. You could considor hosting your Moodle with a company such as CS New Media. That way you save the headache of having to manage a Linux but but at the same time you aren't paying over the odds.

[TechMonkey]

If you are more happier with Windows I know it is sacrilege but I run Apache on Windows server and have had no ill effects (except a slight twitch but that was inevitable). I installed an XAMPP package and went from there.

[dhicks]

So i'm wondering what i would need to just do it myself?

 

A computer, pretty much - something server-like with a (hardware or software) RAID setup and backed up, etc, would be best, or a VM running on something like that, but ultimatly a spare PC would do. If you can give us an idea of how many users (simultanious and total) are likly to be using the machine I'm sure we can come up with some hardware specifications.

 

I shouldn't worry too much about which OS you use to run Moodle - once you're past the inital install, which is very well documented, all the management is via the web browser anyway. There's a couple of Moodle admin books available, you could get one of those if you need step-by-step guidance.

[glennda]

It's pretty simple to setup i'm currently testing transfering the files from my LEA's hosted server using there sso to my own using LDAP, all you need is a copy of the moodle data and also a mysql dump there is a howto here. You might be lucky and get a copy of the webroot folder but my lea hosted system just told me to download the version of the internet that we where running as theres contained lots of custom coding for various parts. Once you have the files in place its a case of just running the installer on the server and it does every thing you need it to. One advantage of hosting yourself is you can use LDAP authentication (to link to Active directory) so the users only have to remember one username and password.

[witch]

Mine is on my one and only server - 2008R2 with everything else and it seems to work. I'm not sure quite how as I didnt install it, the guys who transferred our server over from 2003 did so but it obviously works. If you want to have a look round our install or ask any questions, pm me

[cpjitservices]

I've built and hosted a moodle site - if you need help message me it's very very easy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[cpjitservices]

all you need is a Linux Server, download the free iso bang it on a machine and install LAMP, this will do it just fine then have it pointed to a domain name then just install and configure moodle.

[gshaw]

Depends whether you prefer to spend your time backing up data, testing Moodle patches, keeping the OS up to date etc or actually doing work on the Moodle site itself to encourage staff takeup. We could support it in-house here but I sent it outside so I could work on the theme, Live@Edu, course creation etc.

 

Also bear in mind if hosting internally whether your Internet connection is up to it if expecting a lot of people to sign in from home. Is it reliable? If you host externally stick with a company with Moodle experience rather than a generic web host, that way you have support for the VLE if something goes wonky...

[TechMonkey]

Or the side is do you want staff to be able to carry on using the VLE in lessons if your internet connection goes down. It is the eternal internal VS external service question. We have been extremely glad it was internally hosted the few times our connection has gone down during the day allowing staff to carry on with a few things unavailable rather than have to wing it on a backup plan.

 

I wouldn't say any of the "issues" there with hosting internally are that time consuming.

[dhicks]

Depends whether you prefer to spend your time backing up data, testing Moodle patches, keeping the OS up to date etc or actually doing work on the Moodle site itself to encourage staff takeup.

 

No doubt there's a company out there somewhere that will manage your on-site Moodle server via remote access, much like Frog does with their servers. A school system shouldn't really have a problem with having an additional server, though - I'd assume most schools already have servers that are backed up and patched.

 

Also bear in mind if hosting internally whether your Internet connection is up to it

 

You could have the server mirrored in some way to an external host, giving you fast internal access and (hopefully) fast external access. How, exactly, you do that mirroring I'm not sure, but I think this facility is now built in to Moodle 2.0 in some way with the community hub feature - someone with more recent experience of Moodle might want to explain.

Edited March 15, 2011 by dhicks

[powdarrmonkey]

If you're going to host your own box of some flavour of Linux and Moodle, please for the love of the monkey fish use a packaged version of Moodle. You will be glad of the security support and upgrade handling in a year's time.

[dhicks]

use a packaged version of Moodle

 

So I can just install Debian and type "apt-get install moodle"? Will that give me a suitibly up-to-date version? if I run "apt-get update" as a cron job is that likely to cause issues?

[TechMonkey]

If you're going to host your own box of some flavour of Linux and Moodle, please for the love of the monkey fish use a packaged version of Moodle. You will be glad of the security support and upgrade handling in a year's time.

 

Could you expand please? I may have been silly in that I just downloaded the package off the Moodle site. I have updated a few times, making sure I have full backups and then copied the updated files over the top. Have I made a faux pas or just making more work for myself?

[powdarrmonkey]

(disclaimer: I have my Debian hat on; other distributions have their own way of doing things)

 

So I can just install Debian and type "apt-get install moodle"?

 

Yes.

 

Will that give me a suitibly up-to-date version?

 

It depends how you define "up-to-date". It will give you a version that has been specially packaged for your system and tested by a wide audience, and which is considered stable enough for production use. It may not be the latest and greatest release available. The team looking after Moodle in Debian recently had an injection of fresh blood and they've very active now, especially in security support.

 

The PTS has details of available versions (generally, you want to look at stable, stable-sec(urity) and our release process.)

 

if I run "apt-get update" as a cron job is that likely to cause issues?

 

Better than that: install the apticron package, which will email you a report when packages are available (taking careful note of #587597 and #613628 along the way).

 

 

Could you expand please? I may have been silly in that I just downloaded the package off the Moodle site. I have updated a few times, making sure I have full backups and then copied the updated files over the top. Have I made a faux pas or just making more work for myself?

 

You're making work for yourself in a couple of ways:

- you have to keep an eye out for available packages yourself

- you get to do all the testing yourself

- you have to backport patches for security releases by hand, if you don't want to upgrade completely

 

whereas with a package from your favourite distribution, you get:

- a much wider testing audience than you could emulate yourself

- security support from the distribution, even after Moodle stop supporting an old release

- automatic installation, upgrade and maintenance by a team who know Moodle and the distribution very well indeed

- a chance to contribute to all these things

 

For example, we track all vulnerabilities issued with IDs from the Common Vulnerabilities and Exploits project. That page demonstrates just why you should be keeping up with security releases - remember, all that information is available to the world, including students with itchy fingers.

 

One final thought: if you run a Debian box anywhere, you really should be subscribed to debian-security-announce, where Debian Security Advisories are published.