Installing Moodle2 Windows Server 2008 R2

InstallingMoodle2WindowsServer 2008R2Installing Moodle 2.0 on aWindows Server 2008 x64with MySQL, IIS7 andPHP.Written by:Alex .bfcnetworks.com

ContentsConfiguring Windows, Roles and Features . 2Installing PHP and Configuration with IIS . 5Testing IIS and PHP . 7Configuring the PHP.ini file . 8Folders and Permissions . 9Installing MySQL x64 . 11Configuring MySQL Server . 13Download Moodle . 14Configuring Moodle . 14Links and Resources . 161 Page Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

Configuring Windows, Roles and FeaturesInstall Windows Server 2008 Server R2, give the server an IP address and change the name of themachine to Moodle then add the machine to your Windows Domain.Note:This document will not cover the ports that need to be opened on the Windows Firewall.1. Open Server Manager and navigate down to Security Information. On the panel of the lefthand side you will find Go to Windows Firewall.2. Navigate down to Firewall Information and on each tab (Domain, Private and Public) turnFirewall State to Off.2 Page Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

3. Back in the Security Information click on Configure IE ESC and turn this off for bothAdministrators and Users4. We will be using Microsoft Internet Information Service to publish our Moodle website. Wewill now install this role and add the requirements needed. In Server Manager, Click on AddRoles and check Application Server and Web Server (IIS).5. In Web Server (IIS), Role Services ensure the following extras are checkeda. Application Developmenti. ASP.NETii. .NET Extensibilityiii. CGIiv. ISAPI Extensionsv. ISAPI Filtersb. Securityi. Basic Authentication3 Page Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

6. Click Next and then Install. This will finish off the roles required; you will not require areboot following the install.4 Page Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

Installing PHP and Configuration with IIS1. Download the latest Non Thread Safe Installer x86 VC9 version of PHP fromhttp://windows.php.net/download and save it to your Desktop.2. Run the downloaded MSI from your desktop.3. Install PHP to c:\php.4. As we are running PHP with FastCGI we need to install the IIS FastCGI. Select IISFastCGI fromthe list and click Next.5. The default install will install all the extensions we require for Moodle 2.0. Click Next.6. On the next screen of the wizard click Install which will complete the process of installingPHP.5 Page Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

We are now going to configure PHP with IIS.1. Open Server Manager and expand Roles down into Internet Information and Services.Once IIS Manager has opened on the right of the screen click on the name of your server.2. Scroll down the page and you will find Handler Mappings under the IIS Group.3. Open Handler Mappings and click on Add Module Map which is located down the righthand side.4. Fill in the small form with the following informationa. Request path: *.phpb. Module: FastCGIModulec. Executable: C:\php\php-cgi.exed. Name: PHPviaFastCGI5. Click OK to add this extension to IIS. You will then be prompted if you want to allow thisISAPI and click Yes.6 Page Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

Testing IIS and PHPWe are now going to Test PHP is working on your server through IIS1. Navigate to c:\inetpub\wwwroot which is the root of your default website.2. Create a new text file and rename it to testphp.phpNote:If you cannot see file extension to change the file from txt to php in Explorer click on Toolsand then Folder Options. Click on the view tab and find Hide Extensions for known filetypes. Uncheck this option.3. Open testphp.php in notepad and add the follow code html head title PHP test /title /head body ?phpphpinfo();? /body /html 4. Save the file and open Internet Explorer on the Moodle server. Navigate tohttp://127.0.0.1/testphp.php. If you have configured PHP correctly with InternetInformation Servers your page will load and at the top you will have the title of PHP Version5.2.5 (x64) and look similar to the screenshot below.7 Page Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

Configuring the PHP.ini fileThere are a few setting that need to be configured for PHP and Moodle to work correctly. Thesechanges are made in the php.ini file which is located in the c:\php folder.1. Open the file C:\php\php.ini in notepad and start a search in the file.2. Search for doc root and after the add the root of your website, c:\inetpub\wwwroot\3. In a later step we will be create a folder that Moodle will as a temporary location to uploadfiles. Even though we haven’t created this folder yet we can still tell PHP to use this folder.Search for upload tmp dir. Change both upload tmp dir and session.save path on thenext line to c:\php\sessions.4. As we are using FastCGI for our Moodle website we need to make some changes to thephp.ini file that tunes the performance of FastCGI with IIS.Navigate to the top of the page and search for ;cgi.fix pathinfo and remove the ; commentfrom the start of the line.5. Save the php.ini file.6. We need IIS to recognise the changes we have just made. We can do this by restarting theIIS services by opening a command prompt and typing IISreset and pressing Enter.7. To ensure that PHP is still working navigate to http://127.0.0.1/phpinfo.php and ensure thepage loads.8. Search for session.save path within the page and check that this has changed to the newlocation we set in set 3.8 Page Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

Folders and PermissionsThere are a few folders that are required by both PHP and Moodle. We need to ensure that theright user has permission to write to these pages otherwise we will have upload issues while tryingto add learning resource to a Moolde course.1. Navigate to c:\php and create a new folder called sessions.2. Right click on the new sessions folder and select properties.3. Select the Security Tab and click on Edit.4. Click Add and you will be given a new window. By default all users will be searched from ourdomain. To change this click on Locations and select your local server and click OK.5. Now enter IUSR which is the default user that runs the website in IIS.9 Page Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

6. The user will now appear in the permissions tab. By default the IUSR will only have viewaccess. We now need to give the user write access. Check Modify which will also checkWrite.7. Click on OK to confirm these changes and then click on OK to confirm the Propertieschanged.8. We now need to do the same with the Moodle data folder. Navigate to c:\inetpub andcreate the folder c:\inetpub\moodledata.9. Complete steps 2 to 7 for this folder ensure the IUSR has write permission to the folder.10 P a g e Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

Installing MySQL x64In the current release of Moodle 2 (Release Candidate 1) Microsoft SQL Server is not yet supportedso we are going to use MySQL for the Windows Server.1. Download the latest version x64 bit version from http://www.mysql.com/ and save the MSIfile to the desktop.2. Run the downloaded MSI from your desktop. This will start the install process for MySQL.3. For this install we are only using the basic setup of MySQL. Select Typical from the SetupType list and click Next followed by Install.4. At the end of the Install it will ask you if you want to ‘Configure the MySQL Server Now’.Ensure this is checked and click Finish.5. We are now going to configure the default setting to the MySQL application. SelectStandard Configuration and click Next.11 P a g e Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

6. The SQL Instance needs to be kept default. Click Next.7. The next part of the wizard allows us to set the password for the root administrator accountin MySQL. Set the password to a complex password.Do not check Create An Anonymous Account.8. Click Execute to configure MySQL. When this has run click Finish.12 P a g e Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

Configuring MySQL ServerWe now need to create a database for the Moodle website to use. We also need to create user thathas permission to write to the database.1. Go to Start, All Programs and Open MySQL Command Line Client.2. Enter the Root Administrator password we inserted during the install process.3. First we need to create a new database. We will call it MoodleDB. Enter the command beinto the command line tool and press Enter.create database moodledb;If entered correctly you will be given the results that the query ran OK and 1 row wasaffected.4. We now need to create a user that we will use to tell Moodle to connect to this database.Run this command, creating the user Moodle User with the password of Password1.grant usage on *.* to moodle user@localhost identified by 'Password1';5. Now we need to give the moodle user permission to the database. Run the followingcommand, and press Enter.grant useage on *.* to moodle user@localhost identified by 'Password1';13 P a g e Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

Download Moodle1. Download Moodle 2.0 from www.moodle.org.2. Extract the content of the downloaded zip file in c:\inetpub\wwwroot.Configuring Moodle1. Navigate to http://127.0.0.1/ and you will be brought to the Moodle Installation page2. Select the language you want to use and click Next.3. The Moodle install will automatically enter the Data Directory which is ac:\inetpub\modledata folder we created earlier.If you receive an error message from this screen you have not set the permissions correctlyon the server.4. From the database type select Improved MySQL (native/mysqli) and click Next.5. Fill the online form in as below from everything we have configured in previous steps.a. Database hosti. 127.0.0.1b. Database namei. Moodledbc. Database useri. Moodle user14 P a g e Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

d. Database passwordi. Password16. The next page will try and create a file called config.php in the c:\inetpub\wwwroot folder.By default the IUSR user does not have permission to write to this folder. Select the contentof the page and copy it to your click board. Create the file config.php in thec:\inetpub\wwwroot folder. Open the file and paste the content into the file.If you have followed these steps correctly you will be able to click next in the Moodle installweb page which will then ask you to confirm the term and conditions.7. Moodle will now complete a check on the state of your environment. Ensure everything isset to OK. You do not need to worry about the internationalisation extension. When youare happy click on Continue.8. Moodle will now create all the tables it requires in the MySQL database. Once it has loadedthe page click on Continue at the bottom.9. You now need to give your admin account for Moodle a complex password. Also completethe other fields required. At the bottom click Update Profile.15 P a g e Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

10. We now complete the final install process by completing information about the educationestablishment. Fill in the online form and click on Save Changes at the bottom of the page.You will now have Moodle 2.0 implemented on your Windows Server.Links and ResourcesMicrosoft Windows Server 2008 .comMoodlehttp://moodle.org/16 P a g e Copyright: BFC Networks Limited 2010www.bfcnetworks.com

Configuring the PHP.ini file There are a few setting that need to be configured for PHP and Moodle to work correctly. These changes are made in the php.ini file which is located in the c:\php folder. 1. Open the file C:\php\php.ini in notepad and start a search in the file. 2.