This is notes i’ve written to help fellow moodlers out there who may come across similar problems as i did.. if you need help feel free to post a comment - these notes aren’t bullet proof and may not work for everyone.

Development Environment

I have been developing on my local machine for months so I’m ready to migrate to a production server!
My setup is pretty normal - Ubuntu 8.04 sitting on Virtualbox on Windows host machine.
Virtual HDD sitting on a External USB Drive.
Following the Moodle docs installation page step-by-step to install and configure and develop:
http://docs.moodle.org/en/Step-by-step_Install_Guide_for_Ubuntu#Install_Ubuntu

Production migration notes:

Backup up the development server:
Using Navicat rather than terminal (which ever you prefer) - ran Dump SQL file on the development moodle database.
Copied the moodledata directory to a Shared location.

System Environment
Migration to a Virtual Machine on MS Server 2008 with Hyper-V It’s a controlled backed-up environment which was necessary.
Installation of Ubuntu 8.04 was done in the IT Dept on the Hyper-V Terminal. Created the VM with default settings - Mounting the Ubuntu ISO image installation took approximately 30mins.
As Ubuntu is not entirely supported by Microsoft we needed to install the Legacy Network driver in order to pick up a Network Adaptor.
IP address was picked up via DHCP.
Setting up a DNS entry if you like to yourdomain.com.au
Switching on Remote Desktop on the Ubuntu VM to enable VNC into the machine as RDP is not supported on Ubuntu
Installed RealVNC on my Windows client to Remote into the machine and started the migration process.

Installing Moodle

Following the Moodle docs installation instructions again, proceeded to install Moodle on the production server.
Remember to add ServerName {yourdomain.com.au} to the apache2.conf file at the end of the file if you have a DNS entry – if you don’t Apache throws: Could not reliably determine the server’s fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1

After installing the necessary lib’s followed the Moodle migration notes side-by-side the installation instructions -> http://docs.moodle.org/en/Moodle_migration

After copying the moodledata directory to the production server (make sure you re-set the necessary permissions via - sudo chown -R www-data.www-data /var/moodledata)

Using Navicat again I Executed the Batch file on the production moodle database and selected the SQL dump file I created previously.

This restored all the necessary database values into the production server in approximately 2mins.

Also run the replace.php in the new address header to make sure references to the old ip address doesn’t exist in the new database.

After browsing to the new address domain I noticed that I received the following error after trying to login as Admin user: Your session has timed out please login again.

After trying multiple password combinations I found that the problem was not in the password – using an md5 generator I checked the md5 hash result in the mdl_users table my password hadn’t changed. I proceeded to check the moodledata folder and realised that I did not reset the permissions on the folder. So run sudo chown -R www-data.www-data /var/moodledata) – again if you have to

After setting the correct permissions it worked! wo0t

LDAP authentication yay me!

The first document to check is http://docs.moodle.org/en/LDAP_authentication following the guidelines enter in the correct information in the LDAP authentication page within Moodle.

Make sure IT gives you the correct LDAP address – mine was incorrect after checking.
Moodle suggests you put each string within single quotes. I found after much testing that this is not necessary (however it may still work for you)

Using the below utilities it is imperative that you gather the correct distinguished name as well as search context for LDAP.

Testing utilities used:
Ldap.exe
Softerra LDAP Browser

After multiple attempts to get LDAP working I found on the Moodle forums a test_ldap.php script that a user had contributed - http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=79465
placing the file in the ldap folder and browsing to it – I tested using different different values for the DN and bind user – I found the following worked:

LDAP Host URL: ldap.yourdomain.com.au
LDAP Host Port: 389
Bind User DN: myname@mydomain.com.au
Bind Password: mypassword

For some the Bind user DN may be contextual and you may need to explicitly specify DC=you,DC=yourdomain,DC=com,DC=au

Test everything – but the test_ldap script rocks!

After testing with the script you get a green response and your good to go!

To be continued… I have more to post about mods and user logins ..

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With all the Vista hype going around, XP users have been left out hanging to dry. This is not a post about how bad or good Vista is. This is about enhancing your XP machine and getting the most out of it. So I will be posting a series of tutorials on how to enhance XP and have it run smoother and without any hiccups. I hope

How to Make Windows XP Shut-Down Faster?
Short of pulling the power cable, this guide will enable you to shut down your XP machine as fast as possible.

Kill those irritating services.
Click on Start then select Run. Type ‘services.msc’ in the Run Dialog Box and click on OK. In the services window double click on the service you wish to disable. In the properties box for the selected service choose disabled in the Startup Type dropdown box. Click on OK.
Its best to restart your computer after disabling a couple of services at a time so if something undesired happens to your computer you know what disabled service needs to be re-enabled.
I wouldn’t recommend this if you don’t know what you are doing.

Automatically kill tasks on shutdown.
Windows XP by default will ask you if you wish to end a process if an application is still running during the shutdown process. This registry change will tell Windows to automatically end the process without your confirmation.
Click on Start then select Run. Type ‘regedit’ in the Dialog Box and click on OK. Navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop’ and double click on the ‘AutoEndTasks’. Change the value to 1 and click on OK.

Reduce the wait time to kill open applications.
When you shutdown your computer, Windows will wait a little bit before it kills applications that are open. This part will show you how to reduce the wait time.
Click on Start then select Run. Type ‘regedit’ in the Dialog Box and click on OK. Navigate to ‘HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktop’ and double click on the ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’. Change the value to 1000 and click on OK. Double click on ‘HungAppTimeout’ and change the value to 1000 then click on OK. Navigate to ‘HKEY_USERS.DEFAULTControl PanelDesktop’ and double click on the ‘WaitToKillAppTimeout’. Change the value to 1000 and click on OK. Double click on ‘HungAppTimeout’ and change the value to 1000 then click on OK.

Reduce the wait time for services to be shutdown.
Windows XP waits a bit for the services to shutdown before it starts killing them. Here is how to reduce the wait time.
Click on Start then select Run. Type ‘regedit’ in the Dialog Box and click on OK. Navigate to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESystemCurrentControlSetControl’. Double click on ‘WaitToKillServiceTimeout’ and change the value to 1000 then click on OK.

The ONE click shutdown
More mouse clicks equals more time. Why go to start then click on shutdown and select shutdown. It seems like too much work for me. Here is a nifty trick to make a shutdown shortcut on your desktop.
Right click on your desktop and select new then shortcut. Now you will see the New Shortcut wizard. Under the location for this item type ‘SHUTDOWN -s -t 01’ then click on Next. Give the shortcut a name, like Shutdown. Then click on Finish.
Just as a quick note you can do the same for a quick restart, just enter in ‘SHUTDOWN -r -t 01’ as the location and then you are all set.

This has been posted on www.howdidya.com

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A collegue of mine introduced me to Jumpbox last week, i thought i might share the love of these ‘free’ virtual appliances. In a nutshell.. Jumpbox is an instant virtual environment rolled up in a small downloadable file able to be plugged in to almost any virtualisation software out there.. I know that VMware have their virtual appliances however i found Jumpbox a much more quicker way of virtualising, especially for instant ‘proof of concept’ work. You may have a short time frame to convince someone about a particular technology and Jumpbox is helpful in that sense. They have numerous appliances available, the catch is that what you see is what you get with the initial ‘free’ download - if you need to tweak or add anything to the machine you need to purchase a subscription with Jumpbox in order for you to register options such as SSH to be able to enter the machine. Most of you will not need to get a subscription if your only looking to show ‘proof of concept’ so its a good tool to get your hands on.

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Im currently working on a project to implement Moodle for medications proficiency testing. I must say Moodle is an extreemly powerful tool. We are still in testing so the current setup I have is:
sitting on my XP machine is Virtualbox with Ubuntu on top. Having already installed most of the required services, (mySQL, php5, apache2) for my Ruby on Rails development, i followed these easy steps from the Moodle site as my primary guide to getting it up and running.

Within 30 minutes i was playing around with the most powerful course management system in the world! Having never used Moodle before i must say it is quiet complicated.. but thanks to all the forums and Moodle docs i managed to figure it out - i believe anyway!

At the moment im working on getting it working with LDAP, this has been pretty fiddly but i managed to download an LDAP browser to test connectivity and to get the correct context strings.. hopefully i can have a fully functional testing version done by friday..

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Hi all! Welcome to Chic geeks This is our first blog entry! yay us! i guess its best to introduce myself, my name is Hanina! Im the founder and owner of Chic Geeks.. we are currently in the middle of establishing more of a presence in the IT business arena.. hope to get our services out there and grow.. but anyway look forward to meeting new peeps and establishing contacts in Melbourne.. drop a comment and say hi..

At the moment we are building our knowledge in a lot of new areas. Especially Ruby on Rails. I believe, as a native .NET developer, expanding outside of the Microsoft box is refreshing!

We are currently in the middle of some small projects, mainly web apps, so im hoping to add tips and code snippets to help other users (and us) to gain more knowledge and experience.

anyway.. Visual Studio is calling me..

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