Moodle is a free and open-source learning management system written in PHP and released under the GNU General Public License. You can create learning courses from Moodle and share them with your viewers/friends/students e.t.c.
Moodle Dependencies
Moodle has the following dependencies
- PHP
- Apache / Nginx Web server
- MySQL / MariaDB database server
In this tutorial, we will install and configure Moodle to use MariaDB database and Apache web server.
Step 1: Install PHP
PHP is available on both Debian and Ubuntu repositories. Install it by running the following commands
sudo apt -y install vim php-cli php-intl php-xmlrpc php-soap php-mysql php-zip php-gd php-mbstring php-curl php-xml php-pear php-bcmath
Step 2: Install MariaDB Database Server
After installing PHP, next is to setup MariaDB database server using our guides below:
How to Install MariaDB 10.3 on Debian 9 / Debian 8
Install MariaDB 10.3 on Ubuntu 18.04 and CentOS 7
Once the database server is installed, open the configuration file
sudo vim /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/50-server.cnf
Then add below lines under [mysqld] section
innodb_file_format = Barracuda default_storage_engine = innodb innodb_large_prefix = 1 innodb_file_per_table = 1
Save the changes and restart mysql service.
sudo systemctl restart mysql
Login to the mysql console as root user to create database and user.
$ mysql -u root -p
Create a database and user for Moodle
CREATE DATABASE moodle DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci; GRANT ALL ON moodle.* TO 'moodle'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY "StrongPassword"; FLUSH PRIVILEGES; QUIT
Step 3: Download and Configure Moodle
Download the latest release of Moodle from Github
sudo apt -y install wget wget https://download.moodle.org/download.php/direct/stable35/moodle-latest-35.tgz
Extract the downloaded file
tar xvf moodle-latest-35.tgz
Move the created directory to /srv directory
sudo mv moodle /srv/
Create an empty directory to hold Moodle files.
sudo mkdir /srv/moodledata
Set permissions for Moodle web directory
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /srv/moodle/ /srv/moodledata
Step 4: Install & Configure Apache Web Server
We also need Apache web server to host our Moodle application. Install it like below:
sudo apt -y install apache2 vim libapache2-mod-php
Create an Apache VirtualHost configuration file
sudo vim /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/moodle.conf
Put the contents below into the file
<VirtualHost *:80>
DocumentRoot /srv/moodle/
ServerName example.com
ServerAlias www.example.com
ServerAdmin [email protected]
<Directory /srv/moodle/>
Options +FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/moodle-error.log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/moodle-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Replace example.com with your domain name, save the file and exit.
Enable the Apache rewrite module
sudo a2enmod rewrite sudo systemctl restart apache2
Step 5: Access Moodle Setup Wizard
Now browse to your Moodle server IP or Hostname to finish the setup of Moodle on Ubuntu 18.04 / Debian 9.
1. Choose your installation language for Moodle and click “Next”
2. Setup Web address, Moodle directory, and Data directory
3. On the next page, choose a database driver – Mariadb (native/mariadb)
4. Provide Database host, Database name, Database user and Database password
5. Confirm that you have read the conditions and understood them
6. If your server environment meets all minimum requirements, click Continue to finish the installation.
7. Create an admin user account on the next page
8. Configure your Front page settings
10. You should now get to Moodle dashboard.
Congratulation!!. You just installed Moodle E-Learning platform on Ubuntu 18.04 / Debian 9. Enjoy and stay connected for more nice how-to guides.
