View source for LTS Installation Guide Moodle-3.9 Ubuntu-20.04

= General Info =

This guide is going to be specific to Ubuntu/Moodle LTS versions. In self-hosted situations sticking with LTS releases for the OS and Moodle versions seems like the best bet for easier administration and stability. This Moodle-3.9 & Ubuntu-20.04 combination should work well for a few years and should only need to be revised minimally between new LTS releases of Ubuntu and Moodle.
 
Using LTS versions creates a moodle system that administrators will get familiar with managing over an extended period of time and teachers/students will get more familiar with over that time frame as well. This makes tweaking and optimizing over time easier for administrators as they become more familiar with the systems and as more faculty/staff/students become familiar with the system it's easier for them to help others. Spreading out the institutional knowledge.

=OS - Ubuntu 20.04=
Install & Update Ubuntu Server 20.04.<br />

Pretty self explanatory. The only during-install addition being included is the SSH server for remote access.

=Software Install=
Install Apache/MySQL/PHP
<code php>
sudo apt install apache2 mysql-client mysql-server php libapache2-mod-php
</code>
Additional Software Install.
<code php>
sudo apt install php7.4-mysql php7.4-xml php7.4-mbstring php7.4-curl php7.4-zip php7.4-gd php7.4-intl php7.4-xmlrpc php7.4-soap</code>
Restart Apache:
<code php>
sudo service apache2 restart</code>

=Get Moodle - Using GIT!=
Git is a version-control system that makes updating easier. It seems to be installed on 20.04 by default, but just in case...
<code php>
sudo apt install git
</code>

Clone the Moodle GIT repository & track the branch you want to use. This example is putting the cloned repository in the /opt directory to provide some ability to fine-tune control over future GIT updates. 

<span style="color:red">WARNING: Current example uses the MASTER branch. This is an unstable development code base! This should only remain here until MOODLE_39_STABLE branch is created</span>
<code php>
cd /opt
sudo git clone git://git.moodle.org/moodle.git
cd moodle
sudo git branch -a
sudo git branch --track master origin/master
sudo git checkout master</code>

Copy the repository from /opt to the web server and create/modify folder permissions.<br />

<code php>
sudo cp -R /opt/moodle/ /var/www/html/
sudo mkdir /var/moodledata
sudo chown -R www-data /var/moodledata
sudo chmod -R 777 /var/moodledata
sudo chmod -R 0755 /var/www/html/moodle</code>

=MySQL Server Setup=
Hardening the MySQL install.<br />

<span style="color:red">Keep track of the MySQL password this command will ask you to create. Losing this is a headache.</span>

<code php>sudo mysql_secure_installation
</code>
* Validate Password Component: Yes
* Strong: 2
* Password: <Pick Some Password>
* Remove Anonymous Users: Yes
* Disallow root login remotely: Yes
* Remove test database: Yes
* Reload privilege tables now: Yes

Access MySQL to create the moodle database & user
<code php>
sudo mysql -u root -p
</code>

At the 'mysql>' prompt.<br />
Change the default character set.
<code php>
CREATE DATABASE moodle DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;</code>
Create a database user/password for the moodle installation to use. Modify 'moodledude' and 'passwordformoodledude'
<code php>
create user 'moodledude'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'passwordformoodledude';
GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,CREATE TEMPORARY TABLES,DROP,INDEX,ALTER ON moodle.* TO moodledude@localhost;
quit;</code>

=Web Installer=
To use the web installer you need to allow write access to the moodle directory.
<span style="color:red">This is hilariously not safe at all. Make sure you change the permissions back.</span>

<code php>
sudo chmod -R 777 /var/www/html/moodle
</code>

Navigate to the install IP:
<code php>
http://<hostip>/moodle</code>

After going through the install, change permissions back:
<code php>
sudo chmod -R 0755 /var/www/html/moodle</code>

The web installer is pretty self explanatory. You'll need the MySQL user/password from the MySQL setup step.