How to Set Up Moodle eLearning Platform on Rocky Linux 8

In today’s digital era, eLearning platforms have become essential tools for educators and organizations worldwide. One such platform is Moodle, a free and open-source Learning Management System (LMS) that enables the creation of interactive online courses. If you’re using Rocky Linux 8 as your server, this guide will walk you through the step-by-step process of installing Moodle and configuring it for optimal performance.

Prerequisites

Before we dive into the installation process, let’s ensure that we have everything we need:

A server running Rocky Linux 8
A domain name pointing to the server (e.g., moodle.example.com)
A non-root user with sudo privileges

To begin, update your system by running the following command:

$ sudo dnf update

Next, install essential utility packages that we’ll need throughout the installation process:

$ sudo dnf install wget curl nano unzip yum-utils -y

With the prerequisites in place, we can now proceed with the installation of Moodle on Rocky Linux 8.

Step 1 – Configure Firewall

First and foremost, let’s configure the firewall to allow HTTP and HTTPS traffic. Rocky Linux uses Firewalld Firewall, which we’ll work with in this step.

Check the status of the firewall by running the following command:

$ sudo firewall-cmd --state

If the firewall is running, proceed to list all active services and ports by executing:

$ sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --list-services

To enable Moodle’s functionality, we need to open the HTTP and HTTPS ports:

$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=http --permanent
$ sudo firewall-cmd --add-service=https --permanent

Finally, reload the firewall to apply the changes:

$ sudo firewall-cmd --reload

Step 2 – Install Git

Moodle requires Git to fetch its application files. Install Git by running the following command:

$ sudo dnf install git

Step 3 – Install and Configure PHP

Now, let’s install PHP 8.0, the version recommended for Moodle. We’ll begin by adding the Epel and Remi repositories:

$ sudo dnf install epel-release
$ sudo dnf install https://rpms.remirepo.net/enterprise/remi-release-8.rpm

Check the available PHP streams:

$ dnf module list php -y

Enable Remi’s PHP 8.0 repository:

$ sudo dnf module reset php -y
$ sudo dnf module enable php:remi-8.0

After enabling the repository, install PHP and the required extensions:

$ sudo dnf install graphviz aspell ghostscript clamav php-fpm php-iconv php-curl php-mysqlnd php-cli php-mbstring php-xmlrpc php-soap php-zip php-gd php-xml php-intl php-json php-sodium php-opcache

Verify the installation by running:

$ php --version

Open the php.ini file for editing:

$ sudo nano/etc/php.ini

Within the file, modify the following variables to set the mail attachment size to 25MB:

upload_max_filesize = 25M
post_max_size = 25M

Uncomment the max_input_vars variable by removing the semicolon and set its value to 5000:

max_input_vars = 5000

Save the changes and exit the editor.

Next, open the /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf file:

$ sudo nano /etc/php-fpm.d/www.conf

Find the lines user=apache and group=apache and change them to:

user = nginx
group = nginx

Uncomment the socket file owner, group, and default permission lines, and modify them as follows:

listen.owner = nginx
listen.group = nginx
listen.mode = 0660

Comment out the listen.acl_users line by adding a semicolon in front of it:

;listen.acl_users = apache,nginx

Save the changes and exit the editor.

To ensure proper permissions, run the following command:

$ sudo chown -R nginx:nginx /var/lib/php/session/

Finally, enable and start the PHP-FPM service:

$ sudo systemctl enable php-fpm --now

Step 4 – Install and Configure MySQL

Moodle requires a database to store its data. Let’s install and configure MySQL as the database server.

Install MySQL server:

$ sudo dnf install mysql-server

Confirm the installation by checking the version:

$ mysql --version

Enable and start the MySQL service:

$ sudo systemctl enable mysqld --now

Run the secure installation script to configure MySQL:

$ sudo mysql_secure_installation

Follow the prompts to set up the Validate Password Plugin, create a strong root password, and enhance the database security.

Once the secure installation is complete, log in to the MariaDB shell:

$ sudo mysql

Create a database for Moodle:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE moodledb DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;

Create an SQL user and grant access to the database:

mysql> CREATE USER 'moodleuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YourPassword23!';
mysql> GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES,DROP,INDEX,ALTER ON moodledb.* TO 'moodleuser'@'localhost';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Exit the MariaDB shell:

mysql> exit

Step 5 – Install Nginx

Rocky Linux 8 ships with an older version of Nginx. To install the latest version, we’ll need to add the official Nginx repository.

Create and open the /etc/yum.repos.d/nginx.repo file:

$ sudo nano /etc/yum.repos.d/nginx.repo

Copy and paste the following code into the file:

[nginx-stable]
name=nginx stable repo
baseurl=http://nginx.org/packages/centos/$releasever/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=1
gpgkey=https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key
module_hotfixes=true

[nginx-mainline]
name=nginx mainline repo
baseurl=http://nginx.org/packages/mainline/centos/$releasever/$basearch/
gpgcheck=1
enabled=0
gpgkey=https://nginx.org/keys/nginx_signing.key
module_hotfixes=true

Save the changes and exit the editor.

Install Nginx:

$ sudo dnf install nginx

Verify the installation:

$ nginx -v

Step 6 – Install Moodle

Now, let’s create the necessary directories and clone the Moodle repository.

Create the public directory for Moodle:

$ sudo mkdir /var/www/html/moodle

Grant permission to the logged-in user to access the directory:

$ sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /var/www/html/moodle

Switch to the public directory:

$ cd /var/www/html/moodle

Clone the Moodle GitHub repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/moodle/moodle.git.

Check the available branches:

$ git branch -a

Create and track the MOODLE400STABLE branch:

$ git branch --trackMOODLE_400_STABLE origin/MOODLE_400_STABLE

Switch to the newly created local branch:

$ git checkoutMOODLE_400_STABLE

Create a data directory for Moodle:

$ sudo mkdir /var/moodledata

Configure the necessary permissions for the Moodle data directory:

$ sudo chown -R nginx /var/moodledata
$ sudo chmod -R 775 /var/moodledata

Give write permissions to the Moodle directory:

$ sudo chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/moodle

Step 7 – Configure Moodle

Now, let’s configure Moodle by copying the sample configuration file and editing it.

Switch to the Moodle directory:

$ cd /var/www/html/moodle

Copy the sample configuration file:

$ cp config-dist.php config.php

Open the configuration file for editing:

$ nano config.php

In the file, locate the database configuration section and provide the necessary details:

$CFG->dbtype = 'mysqli';
$CFG->dblibrary = 'native';
$CFG->dbhost = 'localhost';
$CFG->dbname = 'moodledb';
$CFG->dbuser = 'moodleuser';
$CFG->dbpass = 'YourPassword23!';
$CFG->prefix = 'mdl_';

Also, configure the Moodle domain name and data directory:

$CFG->wwwroot = 'https://moodle.example.com';
$CFG->dataroot = '/var/moodledata';

Save the changes and exit the editor.

Step 8 – Install SSL

To secure your Moodle site, we’ll generate an SSL certificate using Certbot and Let’s Encrypt.

Install Certbot:

$ sudo dnf install certbot

Generate the SSL certificate:

$ sudo certbot certonly --standalone --agree-tos --no-eff-email --staple-ocsp --preferred-challenges http -m test@example.com -d moodle.example.com

This command will download the certificate to the /etc/letsencrypt/live/moodle.example.com directory on your server.

Generate a Diffie-Hellman group certificate:

$ sudo openssl dhparam -out /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem4096

Create a challenge web root directory for Let’s Encrypt auto-renewal:

$ sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/letsencrypt

Create a cron job to renew the SSL certificate automatically:

$ sudo nano /etc/cron.daily/certbot-renew

Paste the following code into the file:

#!/bin/sh
certbot renew --cert-name moodle.example.com --webroot -w /var/lib/letsencrypt/ --post-hook "systemctl reload nginx"

Save the changes and exit the editor.

Make the task file executable:

$ sudo chmod +x /etc/cron.daily/certbot-renew

Step 9 – Configure Nginx

Let’s configure Nginx to serve Moodle.

Create and open the /etc/nginx/conf.d/moodle.conf file:

$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/conf.d/moodle.conf

Paste the following Nginx configuration into the file:

# Redirect all non-encrypted to encrypted
server {
listen 80;
listen [::]:80;
server_name moodle.example.com;
return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
}

server {
listen 443 ssl http2;
listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
server_name moodle.example.com;
root /var/www/html/moodle;
index index.php;

ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/moodle.example.com/fullchain.pem;
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/moodle.example.com/privkey.pem;
ssl_trusted_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/moodle.example.com/chain.pem;

ssl_session_timeout 1d;
ssl_session_cache shared:MozSSL:10m;
ssl_session_tickets off;

ssl_stapling on;
ssl_stapling_verify on;
ssl_dhparam /etc/ssl/certs/dhparam.pem;

ssl_protocols TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
ssl_ciphers ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384;

access_log /var/log/nginx/moodle.access.log main;
error_log /var/log/nginx/moodle.error.log;

client_max_body_size 25M;

location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
}

location ~ ^(.+\.php)(.*)$ {
fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(.*)$;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/www.sock;
include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
include fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}

# Hide all dot files but allow "Well-Known URIs" as per RFC 5785
location ~ /\.well-known {
allow all;
}

# Don't allow direct access to various internal files. See MDL-69333
location ~ (/vendor/|/node_modules/|composer\.json|/readme|/README|readme\.txt|/upgrade\.txt|db/install\.xml|/fixtures/|/behat/|phpunit\.xml|\.lock|environment\.xml) {
deny all;
return 404;
}
}

Save the changes and exit the editor.

Open the /etc/nginx/nginx.conf file for editing:

$ sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

Add the following line before the include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; line:

server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;

Save the changes and exit the editor.

Verify the Nginx configuration file syntax:

$ sudo nginx -t

If the syntax is correct, enable and start the Nginx service:

$ sudo systemctl enable nginx --now

If you encounter an error regarding permissions for /var/run/nginx.pid, run the following commands to fix it:

$ sudo ausearch -c 'nginx' --raw | audit2allow -M my-nginx
$ sudo semodule -X 300 -i my-nginx.pp

Start the Nginx service again:

$ sudo systemctl start nginx

Step 10 – Configure SELinux

To ensure SELinux compatibility with Moodle, we need to make some adjustments.

Change the file security context for the Moodle web and data directories:

$ sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t '/var/www/html/moodle'
$ sudo semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_rw_content_t '/var/moodledata'
$ sudo restorecon -Rv '/var/www/html/moodle'
$ sudo restorecon -Rv '/var/moodledata'

Allow network connections from Moodle by configuring SELinux:

$ sudo setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect on

Step 11 – Completing Moodle Installation

With all the configurations in place, it’s time to complete the Moodle installation through the web interface.

Open your browser and navigate to https://moodle.example.com. You’ll see a welcome screen prompting you to continue the installation process.

Click the “Continue” button to proceed. Moodle will then perform a system requirements check to ensure everything is set up correctly.

If all requirements are met, scroll down and click “Continue” to proceed with the installation of files and database setup.

Once the installation is complete, click “Continue” to create an administrator account by providing the necessary details.

After creating the administrator account, scroll down and click “Update profile” to proceed.

Next, you’ll be prompted to configure Moodle’s front page settings. Customize them according to your requirements and click “Save changes” to proceed.

Finally, you’ll be redirected to the Moodle dashboard, where you can start building and managing your online courses.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Moodle on Rocky Linux 8. You’re now ready to create engaging and interactive eLearning experiences for your learners.

If you have any questions or need further assistance, feel free to leave a comment below.

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