Re: install script for custom moodle install

[Paul O'Rourke]

Hi Chris,   Thanks for this.     I had figured that the IP Address approach was the way to go (even if it looks a bit strange with the port number tacked on the end).  Just needed a sense check that the hostname idea isn't really a runner.   I think the plan is for the Africa 09 volunteers to roll out the Moodle install when they go over this this summer.  So between now and then there's quite a bit of work to do!   Now I'm not familiar with the general networking set ups they're putting in place in the African schools, but I imagine there wouldn't be more than 25 or 50 PCs in a network - probably no more than a large handful).  So more than a soho set up, but less than an enterprise.  Definitely very useful to have a networking diagram in place, but I'm pretty sure they'll really only be able to draw it when they get over there.   I'm sure it will be very helpful for the volunteers to have one or two example drawings - soft copies as well as paper.   I'm thinking we could have this moodle app running on a "PC as Server", which should be fine for a reasonably small number of simultaneous users.  The quoted estimate in the book I was looking at is 1GB of RAM for every 50 concurrent users, with a min of 256MB for 1 user.  So we'll probably want to install on a decent-ish PC.   Kind Regards,   Paul --- On Sat, 25/4/09, Krzysztof Mustwilo <kmus...@dublin.ie> wrote: From: Krzysztof Mustwilo <kmus...@dublin.ie> Subject: Re: install script for custom moodle install To: porsy...@yahoo.co.uk Date: Saturday, 25 April, 2009, 2:11 PM Hi Paul, Having read your post, I'd like to refer to your question: "Actually this is one for the networkers / sysadmins to think about: better to use the ip address or the hostname." In my opinion, it's better to use the IP addy, because: 1) every machine that you will install ubuntu on, will get the same hostname. Nobody changes hostaname during O/S installation, because it's too simple process, everyone just click next,next,next and skips the hostname part. 2) If there is no DNS server on the network, there can be many machines with the same hostname 3) There can NOT be two machines with the same IP addy on one network segment. If there are you will see strange behaviour of both PC's. Besides it gives you only one point of failure to check. 4) you won't know if there are two or more PC's with the same hostname (when there's no DNS) and i.e. if someone (client) is trying to contact a machine (server) by hostname but the client's computer finds another machine that is not the server (but has the same hostname) you will have to go to every machine to check for duplicate hostnames, then change it and restart it. 5) If you want to send the moodle to Africa and someone will install it by himself, then I'd suggest to create a network map with IP addresses of the moodle server and clients, so teachers in Africa can first prepare the network (set appopriate IP's) before deploying moodle. I can do the drawing / network diagram. 6) this may bring another issue: how big is the network (classroom), namely: how many PC's are on the network where you are going to install moodle? if it's a small network (upto 253 PC's) then we will insist teachers use the 192.168.x.x network, otherwise a different range. Whatever IP range they want to use, it's a good idea to keep first 20 IP's reserved for servers and printers. This way we could have a consistency in each hub / classroom.  them to re7) is there an always-on Internet connection in the class? If so, we could think of deploying a server (or more for Fauult Tolerance) that will be available 24/7/365 so other hubs can download data from it With regs Chris