I’m setting up a new Moodle 2.3 instance on our server. Our other instance uses third-party courseware, requiring more coordination. This new site doesn’t, making the upgrade straightforward.
Moodle 2.3 Installation Steps
- Opened phpMyAdmin.
- Created a new, empty database with UTF8 collation (it will be populated during installation).
- Granted database privileges to the user account that the Moodle installation will use.
- Downloaded the Moodle 2.3 stable release zip file from moodle.org.
- Unzipped the file (it’s about 99MB, roughly 25MB larger than version 2.2).
- Copied all files from within the extracted Moodle directory.
- Created a new folder on the server’s webroot to house the extracted Moodle code.
- Pasted the Moodle source code into the new folder (this includes index.php, which initiates the installation).
- (Note: There isn’t a config.php file yet. The installation process generates it after database configuration.)
- Browsed to the new folder in a web browser (e.g., serverip/newinstancename) to start the installation.
The Moodle installer will guide you through these steps:
Ensure the web address points to your server’s IP, the directory is the Moodle code folder, and the data directory is where uploaded files will reside.
Moodle supports these database types: MySQL, Postgres, Oracle, and MSSQL.
Input your database connection details. If your database server is separate, use its IP. The database name, username, and password should match those defined previously. Make sure the user has table creation and modification privileges.
Carefully review the server checks. You might need to install missing PHP extensions, restarting PHP after each one. Once those are cleared, the remaining steps involve creating an admin account and setting up the front page. Upon completion, you’ll have a fresh Moodle installation:
