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Installing Moodle
This page explains how to install Moodle. If you are an expert and/or in a hurry try INSTALLATION
Installation Quickstart.
Installing Moodle
If you just want to try Moodle on a standalone machine there are 'one-click' installers for
Installation quick guide
Windows (see Complete install packages for Windows) and for OSX (see Complete Install
Cron
Packages for Mac OS X) or install on OS X. These are unsuitable for production servers.
Installing plugins
CONTENTS
Installation FAQ
1 Requirements Upgrading

1.1 Hardware Upgrade overview

1.2 Software Automatic updates

deployment
2 Set up your server
Git guide
3 Download and copy files into place
Administration via
4 Create an empty database command line
5 Create the (moodledata) data directory Upgrading FAQ

5.1 Securing moodledata in a web directory Moodle migration

6 Start Moodle install

6.1 Command line installer

6.2 Web based installer

7 Final configuration

7.1 Settings within Moodle

7.2 Remaining tasks

7.3 Installation is complete :)

7.4 If something goes wrong...

8 Platform specific instructions

9 See also

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Requirements
Moodle is primarily developed in Linux using Apache, PostgreSQL/MySQL/MariaDB and
PHP (sometimes known as the LAMP platform). Typically this is also how Moodle is run,
although there are other options as long as the software requirements of the release
are met.

If you are installing Moodle in a Windows server, note that from php5.5 onwards, you will
also need to have the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 installed from:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679 Visual C++] ( x86 or
x64)

The basic requirements for Moodle are as follows:

Hardware
Disk space: 200MB for the Moodle code, plus as much as you need to store content.
5GB is probably a realistic minimum.
Processor: 1GHz (min), 2GHz dual core or more recommended.
Memory: 512MB (min), 1GB or more is recommended. 8GB plus is likely on a large
production server
Consider separate servers for the web "front ends" and the database. It is much easier
to "tune"

All the above requirements will vary depending on specific hardware and software
combinations as well as the type of use and load; busy sites may well require additional
resources. Further guidance can be found under performance recommendations. Moodle
scales easily by increasing hardware.

For very large sites, you are much better starting with a small pilot and gaining some
experience and insight. A "what hardware do I need for 50,000 user?" style post in the
forums is highly unlikely to get a useful answer.

Software
See the release notes in the dev docs for software requirements.

Set up your server

Depending the use case a Moodle server may be anything from a Desktop PC (e.g. for
testing and evaluating) to a rackmounted or clustered solution. As mentioned above there
are lots of possibilities for installing the basic server software, some links and pointers are

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at Installing AMP, IIS, Nginx.

It will help hugely, regardless of your deployment choices, if time is taken to understand
how to configure the different parts of your software stack (HTTP daemon, database, PHP
etc). Do not expect the standard server configuration to be optimal for Moodle. For
example, the web server and database servers will almost certainly require tuning to get
the best out of Moodle.

If a hosting provider is being used ensure that all Moodle requirements (such as PHP
version) are met by the hosting platform before attempting the installation. It will help to
become familiar with changing settings within the hosting provider's platform (e.g. PHP file
upload maximums) as the options and tools provided vary.

Download and copy fles into place

IMPORTANT: While there are now a number of places you can get the Moodle code
(including host provided Moodle installers), you are strongly advised to only obtain
Moodle from moodle.org. If you run into problems it will be a great deal easier to
support you.

You have two options:

Download your required version from http://moodle.org/downloads and

unzip/unpack...
OR Pull the code from the Git repository (recommended for developers and also
makes upgrading very simple):

$ git clone -b MOODLE_{{Version3}}_STABLE git://git.moodle.org/moodle.git

Other options you might consider:

--depth=1 for shallow cloning (only) latest revision (be advised! If you are a developer,
you will not be able to easily make git updates and modification later on when this
feature is used)

--single-branch to limit cloning to a single branch, this fetches the Moodle 3.8 Stable
branch (latest weekly build). For a fuller discussion see Git for Administrators.

Either of the above should result in a directory called moodle, containing a number of files
and folders.

You can typically place the whole folder in your web server documents directory, in which
case the site will be located at http://yourwebserver.com/moodle, or you can copy all
the contents straight into the main web server documents directory, in which case the site
will be simply http://yourwebserver.com. See the documentation for your system and/or

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web server if you are unsure.

Tip: If you are downloading Moodle to your local computer and then uploading it to
your hosted web site, if possible upload the compressed file and decompress at the
remote end (check your 'file manager'). Failing that, watch FTP progress carefully for
errors or missed files.

Secure the Moodle files: It is vital that the files are not writeable by the web server
user. For example, on Unix/Linux (as root):

# chown -R root /path/to/moodle

# chmod -R 0755 /path/to/moodle
# find /path/to/moodle -type f -exec chmod 0644 {} \;

(files are owned by the administrator/superuser and are only writeable by them - readable
by everyone else)

The third command finds all the regular files and executes the chmod command 0644 on
them.

If you want to use the built-in plugin installer you need to make the directory writable by
web server user. It is strongly recommended to use ACL when your server supports it, for
example if your Apache server uses account www-data:

# chmod -R +a "www-data allow read,delete,write,append,file_inherit,direc

tory_inherit" /path/to/moodle

The effect of the previous command is to allow the Apache user account (www-data in this
case) to access and change files within the moodle site. Many people would consider this
a brave move for a new site admin to implement. In a new moodle you can safely leave
this out. A default Ubuntu install does not have the +a option for the chmod command
anyway. The +a attribute is an ACL (Access Control List) facility which allows you to set
per user access for individual files. For example, OSX has this by default.

Create an empty database

Next create a new, empty database for your installation. You need to find and make a
note of following information for use during the final installation stage:

dbhost - the database server hostname. Probably localhost if the database and web
server are the same machine, otherwise the name of the database server
dbname - the database name. Whatever you called it, e.g. moodle
dbuser - the username for the database. Whatever you assigned, e.g. moodleuser -

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do not use the root/superuser account. Create a proper account with the minimum
permissions needed.
dbpass - the password for the above user

If your site is hosted you should find a web-based administration page for databases as
part of the control panel (or ask your administrator). For everyone else or for detailed
instructions, see the page for your chosen database server:

PostgreSQL (recommended)
MariaDB (recommended)
MySQL
MSSQL
Oracle (not recommended)

Create the (moodledata) data directory

Moodle requires a directory to store all of its files (all your site's uploaded files, temporary
data, cache, session data etc.). The web server needs to be able to write to this directory.
On larger systems consider how much free space you are going to use when allocating
this directory.

Due to the default way Moodle caches data you may have serious performance issues if
you use relatively slow storage (e.g. NFS) for this directory. Read the
Performance_recommendations carefully and consider using (e.g.) redis or memcached
for Caching.

IMPORTANT: This directory must NOT be accessible directly via the web. This would be
a serious security hole. Do not try to place it inside your web root or inside your Moodle
program files directory. Moodle will not install. It can go anywhere else convenient.

Here is an example (Unix/Linux) of creating the directory and setting the permissions for
anyone on the server to write here. This is only appropriate for Moodle servers that are
not shared. Discuss this with your server administrator for better permissions that just
allow the web server user to access these files.

# mkdir /path/to/moodledata
# chmod 0777 /path/to/moodledata

If your server supports ACL it is recommended to set following permissions, for example if
your Apache server uses account www-data:

# chmod -R +a "www-data allow read,delete,write,append,file_inherit,direc

tory_inherit" /path/to/moodledata

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If you are planning to execute PHP scripts from the command line you should set the
same permissions for the current user:

$ sudo chmod -R +a "`whoami` allow read,delete,write,append,file_inherit,

directory_inherit" /path/to/moodledata

Securing moodledata in a web directory

If you are using a hosted site and you have no option but to place 'moodledata' in a web
accessible directory. You may be able to secure it by creating an .htaccess file in the
'moodledata' directory. This does not work on all systems - see your host/administrator.
Create a file called .htaccess containing only the following lines:

order deny,allow
deny from all

Start Moodle install

It's now time to run the installer to create the database tables and configure your new site.
The recommended method is to use the command line installer. If you cannot do this for
any reason (e.g. on a Windows server) the web-based installer is still available.

Command line installer

It's best to run the command line as your system's web user. You need to know what that
is - see your system's documentation (e.g. Ubuntu/Debian is 'www-data', Centos is
'apache')

Example of using the command-line (as root - substitute 'www-data' for your web
user):

# chown www-data /path/to/moodle

# cd /path/to/moodle/admin/cli
# sudo -u www-data /usr/bin/php install.php
# chown -R root /path/to/moodle

The chowns allow the script to write a new config.php file. More information about the
options can be found using

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# php install.php --help

You will be asked for other settings that have not been discussed on this page - if unsure
just accept the defaults. For a full discussion see Administration via command line

Web based installer

For ease of use you can install Moodle via the web. We recommend configuring your web
server so that the page is not publicly accessible until the installation is complete.

To run the web installer script, just go to your Moodle's main URL using a web browser.

The installation process will take you through a number of pages. You should be asked to
confirm the copyright, see the database tables being created, supply administrator
account details and supply the site details. The database creation can take some time -
please be patient. You should eventually end up at the Moodle front page with an
invitation to create a new course.

It is very likely that you will be asked to download the new config.php file and upload it to
your Moodle installation - just follow the on-screen instructions.

Final confguration

Settings within Moodle

There are a number of options within the Moodle Site Administration screens (accessible
from the 'Site administration' tab in the 'Administration' block (Classic theme) or the Site
administration button in the navigation bar (Boost). Here are a few of the more important
ones that you will probably want to check:

Administration > Site administration > Server > Email > Outgoing mail configuration:
Set your smtp server and authentication if required (so your Moodle site can send
emails). You can also set a norepy email on this page.
Administration > Site administration > Server > Server > Support contact. Set your
support contact email.
Administration > Site administration > Server > System paths: Set the paths to du, dot
and aspell binaries.
Administration > Site administration > Server > HTTP: If you are behind a firewall you
may need to set your proxy credentials in the 'Web proxy' section.
Administration > Site administration > Location > Update timezones: Run this to make
sure your timezone information is up to date. (more info Location)

Set server's local timezone inside php.ini (should probably be inside

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/etc/php.ini or /etc/php.d/date.ini, depending on the underlying OS):

[Date]
; Defines the default timezone used by the date functions
date.timezone = "YOUR LOCAL TIMEZONE"

Remaining tasks
Configure Cron: Moodle's background tasks (e.g. sending out forum emails and
performing course backups) are performed by a script which you can set to execute at
specific times of the day. This is known as a cron script. Please refer to the Cron
instructions.
Set up backups: See Site backup and Automated course backup.
Secure your Moodle site: Read the Security recommendations.
Increasing the maximum upload size See Installation FAQ Maximum upload file
size - how to change it?
Check mail works : From Site administration > Server > Test outgoing mail
configuration, use the link to send yourself a test email. Don't be tempted to skip this
step.

Installation is complete :)
Create a new course: You can now access Moodle through your web browser (using
the same URL as you set during the install process), log in as your admin user and
creatse a new course. See create a new course.

If something goes wrong...

Here are some things you should try...

Check the Installation FAQ

Check your file permissions carefully. Can your web server read (but not write) the
Moodle program files? Can your web server read and write your Moodle data
directory? If you don't fully understand how file ownership and permissions work on
your operating system it would be time very well spent to find out.
Check your database permissions. Have you set up your database user with the
correct rights and permissions for your configuration (especially if the web server and
database server are different machines)?
Create your Configuration file (config.php) by hand. Copy config-dist.php (in the root of
the Moodle program directory) to config.php, edit it and set your database/site options
there. Installation will continue from the right place.

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Once you have a config.php (see previous tip) you can edit it to turn on debugging (in
section 8). This may give you extra information to help track down a problem. If you
have access, check your web server error log(s).
Re-check your php.ini / .htaccess settings. Are they appropriate (e.g. memory_limit),
did you edit the correct php.ini / .htaccess file and (if required) did you re-start the web
server after making changes?
Did you include any non-core (optional) plugins, themes or other code before starting
the installation script? If so, remove it and try again (it may be broken or incompatible).
Explain your problem in the Installation problems forum . PLEASE list your software
versions; explain what you did, what happened and what error messages you saw (if
any); explain what you tried. There is no such thing as 'nothing', even a blank page is
something!

Platform specifc instructions

Note: Much of this information is provided by the community. It may not have been
checked and may be out of date. Please read in conjunction with the above installation
instructions.

Windows installation

Installing Moodle on SmarterASP.NET

Unix or Linux Installation
Mac Installation
Amazon EC2 Cloud Services Installation

See also
Slideshare presentation by Gareth Barnard on installing a local installation of Moodle
and accompanying help guides
New Video Tutorial- How to Install Moodle on Shared Hosting via cPanel (Not
Fantastico)
Video Tutorial - Install Moodle on a Virtual Box from scratch

Category: Installation

NAVIGATION TOOLS IN OTHER LANGUAGES

Main page What links here Español

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