Welcome to our comprehensive guide on installing Chamilo with LEMP Stack on AlmaLinux 8. In this article, we will walk you through the step-by-step process of setting up Chamilo, a free e-learning and content management system, on your AlmaLinux 8 server. By the end of this guide, you will have a fully functional Chamilo installation that can help you improve access to education and knowledge globally.

Step 1: Creating a Database

The first step is to create a database and a user for Chamilo. We will grant the necessary privileges to the user so that it can interact with the database. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your AlmaLinux 8 server with root access.
2. Open the terminal and enter the following command to access the MySQL command-line interface:

mysql -u root

3. Once you are in the MySQL command-line interface, create a new database by executing the following command:

CREATE DATABASE chamilo;

4. Next, create a user for the database and set a secure password. Replace YOUR-PASSWORD-HERE with your desired password:

CREATE USER 'shapehost'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'YOUR-PASSWORD-HERE';

5. Grant all privileges to the user for the Chamilo database:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON chamilo.* TO 'shapehost'@'localhost';

6. Flush the privileges to apply the changes:

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

7. Exit the MySQL command-line interface:

quit

Congratulations! You have successfully created a database and a user for Chamilo.

Step 2: Configuring Nginx Server Blocks

Next, we will configure the Nginx server blocks to host Chamilo. This will allow Nginx to correctly route incoming requests to the Chamilo installation. Follow the steps below to configure Nginx:

1. Log in to your AlmaLinux 8 server.
2. Open the terminal and enter the following command to open the Nginx configuration file:

nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

3. Replace the contents of the file with the following configuration:

# For more information on configuration, see:
# * Official English Documentation: http://nginx.org/en/docs/
# * Official Russian Documentation: http://nginx.org/ru/docs/

user nginx;
worker_processes auto;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
pid /run/nginx.pid;

# Load dynamic modules. See /usr/share/doc/nginx/README.dynamic.
include /usr/share/nginx/modules/*.conf;

events {
 worker_connections 1024;
}

http {
 log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
 '$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
 '"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';
 access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log main;
 sendfile on;
 tcp_nopush on;
 tcp_nodelay on;
 keepalive_timeout 65;
 types_hash_max_size 2048;
 include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
 default_type application/octet-stream;

 # Load modular configuration files from the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory.
 # See http://nginx.org/en/docs/ngx_core_module.html#include
 # for more information.
 include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
}

4. Save and exit the file by pressing Ctrl+O, then Ctrl+X.
5. Create a new Nginx configuration file for your Chamilo domain:

vi /etc/nginx/conf.d/chamilo.conf

6. Add the following configuration to the file, replacing dev.domainhere.info with your actual domain name:

server {
listen 80;
server_name dev.domainhere.info;
root /var/www/html/chamilo;
index index.php index.html index.htm;

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

location = /favicon.ico {
log_not_found off;
access_log off;
}

location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
expires max;
log_not_found off;
}

location = /robots.txt {
allow all;
log_not_found off;
access_log off;
}

location ~ \.php$ {
include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm/www.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
}

listen 443 http2 ssl; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/dev.domainhere.info/fullchain.pem; # managed by Certbot
ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/dev.domainhere.info/privkey.pem; # managed by Certbot
include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-nginx.conf; # managed by Certbot
ssl_dhparam /etc/letsencrypt/ssl-dhparams.pem; # managed by Certbot
}

7. Save and exit the file by pressing the Esc key, then typing :wq!, and pressing the Enter key.
8. If you have SELinux enabled, run the following command to allow Nginx to connect to the network:

setsebool -P httpd_can_network_connect1

9. Restart Nginx and check its status:

systemctl restart nginx
systemctl status nginx

Congratulations! You have now configured the Nginx server blocks for Chamilo.

Step 3: Enabling HTTP and HTTPS

To enable HTTP and HTTPS connections through the firewall, follow these commands:

firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=http
firewall-cmd --permanent --zone=public --add-service=https
firewall-cmd --reload

Step 4: Installing Chamilo

Now that everything is set up, we can proceed with the installation of Chamilo. Follow these steps to download and install Chamilo:

1. Log in to your AlmaLinux 8 server.
2. Open the terminal and navigate to the /var/www/html directory:

cd /var/www/html

3. Download the latest version of Chamilo from the official website using the following command:

wget https://github.com/chamilo/chamilo-lms/releases/download/v1.11.16/chamilo-1.11.16.zip

4. Unzip the downloaded file:

unzip chamilo-1.11.16.zip

5. Rename the extracted directory to a more user-friendly name:

mv chamilo-1.11.16 chamilo

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Chamilo on your AlmaLinux 8 server.

Step 5: Setting up File Permissions

To ensure that Chamilo functions properly, we need to set up the correct file permissions. Follow these steps to set the permissions correctly:

1. Log in to your AlmaLinux 8 server.
2. Open the terminal and navigate to the Chamilo installation directory:

cd /var/www/html/chamilo

3. Set the appropriate permissions for the necessary folders:

chmod -R 755 /var/www/html/chamilo
chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/chamilo/main/default_course_document/images
chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/chamilo/main/lang
chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/chamilo/web

4. Change the ownership of the files to the nginx user:

chown -R nginx:nginx /var/www/html/chamilo

5. Set the SELinux context for the Chamilo directory:

chcon -R -t httpd_sys_content_rw_t /var/www/html/chamilo

6. Restart Nginx and check its status:

systemctl restart nginx
systemctl status nginx

You have successfully set up the file permissions for Chamilo.

Step 6: Configuring Chamilo

Now that Chamilo is installed and the file permissions are set, it’s time to configure Chamilo. Follow these steps to complete the configuration:

1. Open your web browser and enter the IP address or domain name associated with your Chamilo installation. For example, https://dev.domainhere.info.
2. This will redirect you to the Chamilo installation page, where you need to provide the database details. Enter the following information:

• Database name: chamilo
• Database username: shapehost
• Database password: YOUR-PASSWORD-HERE

1. Click on the “Submit” button to proceed with the installation.
2. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup process.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Chamilo with LEMP Stack on AlmaLinux 8. You can now use Chamilo to improve access to education and knowledge globally.

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Christian Wells