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Best practices in Moodle administration Monatana Moot 2014

M
moorejon

Best Practices in Moodle Administration provides tips for optimizing Moodle performance and uptime. The presentation recommends establishing change management processes, using monitoring tools, automating user management, and following security best practices. It also demonstrates hands-on techniques for backups, debugging issues, and customizing themes.

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Best Practices in Moodle Administration Jonathan Moore Founder
Background and Context Managed thousands of Moodle sites Managed millions of Moodle user accounts Over 10 years experience with Moodle Tuning, scalability, and performance expert Author of Moodle Module Development
Format Variety of tips / tricks Learn the possibilities Some hands on Ask questions! Share your tips
Getting to Know You How many new admins? How many running Moodle 2.5? Moodle 2.6? Moodle 2.7? Anyone running Moodle older than 2.5? Any Moodle 1.9 sites? Are you a 'geeky admin' or instructional admin?
Getting to Know You How many host your own Moodle site? What OS are you running? What web server are you running? What database are you running? What are you hoping to learn today?
Outages 80% of failures are bad changes 80% of downtime finding the bad change
Moodle Mission Critical? Use Change Management! Have a stakeholder change advisory board Who are our stakeholders? What should we control? What causes downtime? What causes user issues?
Hands-on Forming a Change Advisory Board Who? How often? What are we controlling?
Change Management Tips Control settings management Control module approval Control stack changes Document the how's and why's Be responsive Read the Visible Ops book
Hands-on Local Moodle install
Admin Know Thy Server Monitoring: Cacti SNMP monitoring Round robin log storage Alerts and Notifications: Nagios SNMP alert system Have your servers page or text you!
Linux most used for scalability Windows lower performance for PHP apps, but improving Mac OSX forking performance issue Apache and MySQL concurrency issue Platform Selection
Performance Tips PHP Accelerator APC / OPCache MySQL Buffers and Query Caching Use InnoDB Use MariaDB build Sessions Moodle source code location
Performance Tweaking Memory Budget Concurrency 5 Things Making Your Site Slow Testing
Hands-on Visit phpinfo Site Administration Server phpInfo Confirm PHP version Confirm if PHP Accelerator
More Tips Batch cron.php runs for multiple Moodles Check state of indexes and bigints Perform database maintenance
Performance Testing Tools Admins jMeter Apache ab utility Devs Behat / Sellenium XProf
JMeter Benchmarking Simulates simultaneous user activity Gathers response and throughput results Not a browser can't test javascript Can use to measure +/- of changes Can use to estimate expected concurrency, but harder Moodle 2.6 and onward has builtin integration
User Management Plan ahead Moodle sites grow fast! Measure twice cut once Automate
Great combination: LDAP authentication with external database enrolment Automate account creation Enrollment Plug-ins Automate course creation Automate teacher assignment Automate student enrollments Synchronization scripts A Better Way Automate!
Automate user creation, course creation and enrolments Use LDAP auth + external DB enrolment Get higher adoption rates from instructors Instructor can focus more time on teaching less on the technology Just-in-Case Model
Hands-on Bulk upload users with a flat file External DB enrollmet setup
Roles Avoid changing built in roles Remember reset defaults option Know what level to apply roles at Admin: global Course Creator: global, or category Student, Teacher: course Know what level capabilities work at Make new roles by copying most similar existing role
Hands-on Duplicate a role and edit
Course backups not a full backup! Disable automated course backups? Yesterday instance Backup Elements Moodle code Moodledata Database Backups Management
Hands-on Make a Moodle backup Copy Moodle source dir Copy Moodle data dir 'dump' database to sql file
Use an issue tracker / ticket system Get a detailed user report Use Moodle debugger Reproduce issue Use search Google Moodle tracker Moodle forums and docs Finding and Fixing
Hands-on Enable debugging Site Admin Development Debugging Increase debugging level Enable display Enable performance info
Moodle Issue Tracker Use notification screen to confirm version Moodle Issue Tracker 損Vote for bugs 損Set a watch your important bugs 損Store issue ID in your support system for later reference 損http://tracker.moodle.org
Hands-on Visit issue tracker Http://tracker.moodle.org
Custom Development and Modules Don't load modules just because they are available Use modules over hacks Use the forums to evaluate modules Use the author's profile to research the creator Consider long term availability Consider security
Common Plug-in Types Blocks Activity modules Filters Auth Enrollment Local Themes
PhpMyAdmin / Adminer Useful and powerful, but dangerous Useful to pull reports not built into Moodle Change settings not in GUI Fix Moodle when broken by user error Reset administrator password if locked out
Hands-on Install the certificate module Install Adminer
MyODBC Windows client software Connect MySQL to desktop applications Make ad hoc reports in MS Access, Excel, Open Office, etc.
Various Admin Helpers Moodle debug General debugging Performance debugging phpinfo confirm your php build iperf test your network Iostat / sar linux disk usage stats strace see what a process is doing
Security Security report Use password salts User passwords less secure then ever! Know about password managers like lastpass and keepass Don't give web server user write permissions to Moodle source
General Security Select Enterprise class OS with long term update support. Automate updates / have set release schedule Moodledata outside of web root Try mod_sec Consider using weekly stable git for Moodle auto updates Consider forced logins HTTPS logins
General Security Select Enterprise class OS with long term update support. Automate updates / have set release schedule Moodledata outside of web root Try mod_sec Consider using weekly stable git for Moodle auto updates Consider forced logins HTTPS logins
Hands-on Run security report Enable force logins Show secure logins setting Show kpass/last pass password manager Go to Moodle Docs security FAQ
Email delivery Make sure you have valid reverse DNS Make sure you have permission to send email for primary administrator's email account Use email debug to help diagnose problems.
Custom themes Start with a basic theme Copy existing theme to a new folder name Prevents upgrades from wiping out Test on a non-production site Test with many browsers / screen sizes
Hands-on Change theme Open theme settings Add image Change colors
Questions? http://elearningconsultancy.com jonathan@elearningconsultancy.com Twitter: @moorejon Skype: moorejon07
What we do Expert advice and eLearning program review Evangelism and training Instructional design Custom development System tuning Performance assessment

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Best practices in Moodle administration Monatana Moot 2014

  • 1. Best Practices in Moodle Administration Jonathan Moore Founder
  • 2. Background and Context Managed thousands of Moodle sites Managed millions of Moodle user accounts Over 10 years experience with Moodle Tuning, scalability, and performance expert Author of Moodle Module Development
  • 3. Format Variety of tips / tricks Learn the possibilities Some hands on Ask questions! Share your tips
  • 4. Getting to Know You How many new admins? How many running Moodle 2.5? Moodle 2.6? Moodle 2.7? Anyone running Moodle older than 2.5? Any Moodle 1.9 sites? Are you a 'geeky admin' or instructional admin?
  • 5. Getting to Know You How many host your own Moodle site? What OS are you running? What web server are you running? What database are you running? What are you hoping to learn today?
  • 6. Outages 80% of failures are bad changes 80% of downtime finding the bad change
  • 7. Moodle Mission Critical? Use Change Management! Have a stakeholder change advisory board Who are our stakeholders? What should we control? What causes downtime? What causes user issues?
  • 8. Hands-on Forming a Change Advisory Board Who? How often? What are we controlling?
  • 9. Change Management Tips Control settings management Control module approval Control stack changes Document the how's and why's Be responsive Read the Visible Ops book
  • 11. Admin Know Thy Server Monitoring: Cacti SNMP monitoring Round robin log storage Alerts and Notifications: Nagios SNMP alert system Have your servers page or text you!
  • 12. Linux most used for scalability Windows lower performance for PHP apps, but improving Mac OSX forking performance issue Apache and MySQL concurrency issue Platform Selection
  • 13. Performance Tips PHP Accelerator APC / OPCache MySQL Buffers and Query Caching Use InnoDB Use MariaDB build Sessions Moodle source code location
  • 14. Performance Tweaking Memory Budget Concurrency 5 Things Making Your Site Slow Testing
  • 15. Hands-on Visit phpinfo Site Administration Server phpInfo Confirm PHP version Confirm if PHP Accelerator
  • 16. More Tips Batch cron.php runs for multiple Moodles Check state of indexes and bigints Perform database maintenance
  • 17. Performance Testing Tools Admins jMeter Apache ab utility Devs Behat / Sellenium XProf
  • 18. JMeter Benchmarking Simulates simultaneous user activity Gathers response and throughput results Not a browser can't test javascript Can use to measure +/- of changes Can use to estimate expected concurrency, but harder Moodle 2.6 and onward has builtin integration
  • 19. User Management Plan ahead Moodle sites grow fast! Measure twice cut once Automate
  • 20. Great combination: LDAP authentication with external database enrolment Automate account creation Enrollment Plug-ins Automate course creation Automate teacher assignment Automate student enrollments Synchronization scripts A Better Way Automate!
  • 21. Automate user creation, course creation and enrolments Use LDAP auth + external DB enrolment Get higher adoption rates from instructors Instructor can focus more time on teaching less on the technology Just-in-Case Model
  • 22. Hands-on Bulk upload users with a flat file External DB enrollmet setup
  • 23. Roles Avoid changing built in roles Remember reset defaults option Know what level to apply roles at Admin: global Course Creator: global, or category Student, Teacher: course Know what level capabilities work at Make new roles by copying most similar existing role
  • 24. Hands-on Duplicate a role and edit
  • 25. Course backups not a full backup! Disable automated course backups? Yesterday instance Backup Elements Moodle code Moodledata Database Backups Management
  • 26. Hands-on Make a Moodle backup Copy Moodle source dir Copy Moodle data dir 'dump' database to sql file
  • 27. Use an issue tracker / ticket system Get a detailed user report Use Moodle debugger Reproduce issue Use search Google Moodle tracker Moodle forums and docs Finding and Fixing
  • 28. Hands-on Enable debugging Site Admin Development Debugging Increase debugging level Enable display Enable performance info
  • 29. Moodle Issue Tracker Use notification screen to confirm version Moodle Issue Tracker 損Vote for bugs 損Set a watch your important bugs 損Store issue ID in your support system for later reference 損http://tracker.moodle.org
  • 30. Hands-on Visit issue tracker Http://tracker.moodle.org
  • 31. Custom Development and Modules Don't load modules just because they are available Use modules over hacks Use the forums to evaluate modules Use the author's profile to research the creator Consider long term availability Consider security
  • 32. Common Plug-in Types Blocks Activity modules Filters Auth Enrollment Local Themes
  • 33. PhpMyAdmin / Adminer Useful and powerful, but dangerous Useful to pull reports not built into Moodle Change settings not in GUI Fix Moodle when broken by user error Reset administrator password if locked out
  • 34. Hands-on Install the certificate module Install Adminer
  • 35. MyODBC Windows client software Connect MySQL to desktop applications Make ad hoc reports in MS Access, Excel, Open Office, etc.
  • 36. Various Admin Helpers Moodle debug General debugging Performance debugging phpinfo confirm your php build iperf test your network Iostat / sar linux disk usage stats strace see what a process is doing
  • 37. Security Security report Use password salts User passwords less secure then ever! Know about password managers like lastpass and keepass Don't give web server user write permissions to Moodle source
  • 38. General Security Select Enterprise class OS with long term update support. Automate updates / have set release schedule Moodledata outside of web root Try mod_sec Consider using weekly stable git for Moodle auto updates Consider forced logins HTTPS logins
  • 39. General Security Select Enterprise class OS with long term update support. Automate updates / have set release schedule Moodledata outside of web root Try mod_sec Consider using weekly stable git for Moodle auto updates Consider forced logins HTTPS logins
  • 40. Hands-on Run security report Enable force logins Show secure logins setting Show kpass/last pass password manager Go to Moodle Docs security FAQ
  • 41. Email delivery Make sure you have valid reverse DNS Make sure you have permission to send email for primary administrator's email account Use email debug to help diagnose problems.
  • 42. Custom themes Start with a basic theme Copy existing theme to a new folder name Prevents upgrades from wiping out Test on a non-production site Test with many browsers / screen sizes
  • 43. Hands-on Change theme Open theme settings Add image Change colors
  • 45. What we do Expert advice and eLearning program review Evangelism and training Instructional design Custom development System tuning Performance assessment