What is Moodle?

Moodle is a very popular open source learning management solution (LMS) for the delivery of elearning courses and programs. It’s used not only by universities, but also by hundreds of corporations around the world who provide eLearning education for their employees. Moodle features a simple interface, drag-and-drop features, role-based permissions, deep reporting, many language translations, a well-documented API and more. With some of the biggest universities and organizations already using it, Moodle is ready to meet the needs of just about any size organization.

https://www.moodle.org/

TL;DR;

Docker Compose

$ curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bitnami/bitnami-docker-moodle/master/docker-compose.yml > docker-compose.yml
$ docker-compose up -d

Why use Bitnami Images?

Bitnami closely tracks upstream source changes and promptly publishes new versions of this image using our automated systems.
With Bitnami images the latest bug fixes and features are available as soon as possible.
Bitnami containers, virtual machines and cloud images use the same components and configuration approach - making it easy to switch between formats based on your project needs.
Bitnami images are built on CircleCI and automatically pushed to the Docker Hub.
All our images are based on minideb a minimalist Debian based container image which gives you a small base container image and the familiarity of a leading linux distribution.

Prerequisites

To run this application you need Docker Engine 1.10.0. Docker Compose is recomended with a version 1.6.0 or later.

How to use this image

Run Moodle with a Database Container

Running Moodle with a database server is the recommended way. You can either use docker-compose or run the containers manually.

Run the application using Docker Compose

This is the recommended way to run Moodle. You can use the following docker compose template:

version: '2'

services:
  mariadb:
    image: 'bitnami/mariadb:latest'
    environment:
      - MARIADB_USER=bn_moodle
      - MARIADB_DATABASE=bitnami_moodle
      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
    volumes:
      - 'mariadb_data:/bitnami'
  moodle:
    image: 'bitnami/moodle:latest'
    environment:
      - MARIADB_HOST=mariadb
      - MARIADB_PORT_NUMBER=3306
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_USER=bn_moodle
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_moodle
      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
    ports:
      - '80:80'
      - '443:443'
    volumes:
      - 'moodle_data:/bitnami'
    depends_on:
      - mariadb

volumes:
  mariadb_data:
    driver: local
  moodle_data:
    driver: local

Run the application manually

If you want to run the application manually instead of using docker-compose, these are the basic steps you need to run:

Create a new network for the application and the database:

$ docker network create moodle-tier

Create a volume for MariaDB persistence and create a MariaDB container

$ docker volume create --name mariadb_data
$ docker run -d --name mariadb \
  -e ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  -e MARIADB_USER=bn_moodle \
  -e MARIADB_DATABASE=bitnami_moodle \
  --net moodle-tier \
  --volume mariadb_data:/bitnami \
  bitnami/mariadb:latest

Note: You need to give the container a name in order to Moodle to resolve the host

Create volumes for Moodle persistence and launch the container

$ docker volume create --name moodle_data
$ docker run -d --name moodle -p 80:80 -p 443:443 \
  -e ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  -e MOODLE_DATABASE_USER=bn_moodle \
  -e MOODLE_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_moodle \
  --net moodle-tier \
  --volume moodle_data:/bitnami \
  bitnami/moodle:latest

Then you can access your application at http://your-ip/

Persisting your application

If you remove the container all your data and configurations will be lost, and the next time you run the image the database will be reinitialized. To avoid this loss of data, you should mount a volume that will persist even after the container is removed.

For persistence you should mount a volume at the /bitnami path. Additionally you should mount a volume for persistence of the MariaDB data.

The above examples define docker volumes namely mariadb_data and moodle_data. The Moodle application state will persist as long as these volumes are not removed.

To avoid inadvertent removal of these volumes you can mount host directories as data volumes. Alternatively you can make use of volume plugins to host the volume data.

Mount persistent folders in the host using docker-compose

This requires a sightly modification from the template previously shown:

version: '2'

services:
  mariadb:
    image: 'bitnami/mariadb:latest'
    environment:
      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
      - MARIADB_USER=bn_moodle
      - MARIADB_DATABASE=bitnami_moodle
    volumes:
      - '/path/to/mariadb-persistence:/bitnami'
  moodle:
    image: 'bitnami/moodle:latest'
    environment:
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_USER=bn_moodle
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_moodle
      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
    ports:
      - '80:80'
      - '443:443'
    volumes:
      - '/path/to/moodle-persistence:/bitnami'
    depends_on:
      - mariadb

Mount persistent folders manually

In this case you need to specify the directories to mount on the run command. The process is the same than the one previously shown:

If you haven't done this before, create a new network for the application and the database:

$ docker network create moodle-tier

Start a MariaDB database in the previous network:

$ docker run -d --name mariadb \
  -e ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  -e MARIADB_USER=bn_moodle \
  -e MARIADB_DATABASE=bitnami_moodle \
  -v /path/to/mariadb-persistence:/bitnami \
  --net moodle-tier \
  bitnami/mariadb:latest

Note: You need to give the container a name in order to Moodle to resolve the host

Run the Moodle container:

$ docker run -d -p 80:80 -p 443:443 --name moodle \
  -e ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes \
  -e MOODLE_DATABASE_USER=bn_moodle \
  -e MOODLE_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_moodle \
  --net moodle-tier \
  --volume /path/to/moodle-persistence:/bitnami \
  bitnami/moodle:latest

Upgrade this application

NOTE: Since Moodle 3.4.0-r1, the application upgrades should be done manually inside the docker container following the official documentation.

As an alternative, you can try upgrading using an updated docker image but any data from the Moodle container will be lost and you will have to reinstall all the plugins and themes you manually added.

Bitnami provides up-to-date versions of MariaDB and Moodle, including security patches, soon after they are made upstream. We recommend that you follow these steps to upgrade your container. We will cover here the upgrade of the Moodle container. For the MariaDB upgrade see https://github.com/bitnami/bitnami-docker-mariadb/blob/master/README.md#upgrade-this-image

Get the updated images:

$ docker pull bitnami/moodle:latest

Stop your container

For docker-compose: $ docker-compose stop moodle
For manual execution: $ docker stop moodle

Take a snapshot of the application state

$ rsync -a /path/to/moodle-persistence /path/to/moodle-persistence.bkp.$(date +%Y%m%d-%H.%M.%S)

Additionally, snapshot the MariaDB data

You can use these snapshots to restore the application state should the upgrade fail.

Remove the currently running container

For docker-compose: $ docker-compose rm -v moodle
For manual execution: $ docker rm -v moodle

Remove the persisted data. This is needed from 3.4.0-r1 since the whole installation is persisted and otherwise the new docker image will use an old application code.
- Get the volume containing the persisted data
```
$ docker volume ls
```
- Remove the volume
```
$ docker volume rm YOUR_VOLUME
```
Run the new image

For docker-compose: $ docker-compose up moodle
For manual execution (mount the directories if needed): docker run --name moodle bitnami/moodle:latest

Configuration

Environment variables

When you start the moodle image, you can adjust the configuration of the instance by passing one or more environment variables either on the docker-compose file or on the docker run command line.

User and Site configuration

MOODLE_USERNAME: Moodle application username. Default: user
MOODLE_PASSWORD: Moodle application password. Default: bitnami
MOODLE_EMAIL: Moodle application email. Default: user@example.com

Use an existing database

MARIADB_HOST: Hostname for MariaDB server. Default: mariadb
MARIADB_PORT_NUMBER: Port used by MariaDB server. Default: 3306
MOODLE_DATABASE_NAME: Database name that Moodle will use to connect with the database. Default: bitnami_moodle
MOODLE_DATABASE_USER: Database user that Moodle will use to connect with the database. Default: bn_moodle
MOODLE_DATABASE_PASSWORD: Database password that Moodle will use to connect with the database. No defaults.
ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD: It can be used to allow blank passwords. Default: no

Create a database for Moodle using mysql-client

MARIADB_HOST: Hostname for MariaDB server. Default: mariadb
MARIADB_PORT_NUMBER: Port used by MariaDB server. Default: 3306
MARIADB_ROOT_USER: Database admin user. Default: root
MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: Database password for the MARIADB_ROOT_USER user. No defaults.
MYSQL_CLIENT_CREATE_DATABASE_NAME: New database to be created by the mysql client module. No defaults.
MYSQL_CLIENT_CREATE_DATABASE_USER: New database user to be created by the mysql client module. No defaults.
MYSQL_CLIENT_CREATE_DATABASE_PASSWORD: Database password for the MYSQL_CLIENT_CREATE_DATABASE_USER user. No defaults.
ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD: It can be used to allow blank passwords. Default: no

If you want to add a new environment variable:

For docker-compose add the variable name and value under the application section:

moodle:
  image: bitnami/moodle:latest
  ports:
    - 80:80
    - 443:443
  environment:
    - MOODLE_PASSWORD=my_password

For manual execution add a -e option with each variable and value:

$ docker run -d  -p 80:80 -p 443:443 --name moodle
  -e MOODLE_PASSWORD=my_password \
  --net moodle-tier \
  --volume /path/to/moodle-persistence:/bitnami \
  bitnami/moodle:latest

SMTP Configuration

To configure Moodle to send email using SMTP you can set the following environment variables:

SMTP_HOST: SMTP host.
SMTP_PORT: SMTP port.
SMTP_USER: SMTP account user.
SMTP_PASSWORD: SMTP account password.
SMTP_PROTOCOL: SMTP protocol.

This would be an example of SMTP configuration using a GMail account:

docker-compose:

moodle:
  image: bitnami/moodle:latest
  ports:
    - 80:80
    - 443:443
  environment:
    - MARIADB_HOST=mariadb
    - MARIADB_PORT_NUMBER=3306
    - MOODLE_DATABASE_USER=bn_moodle
    - MOODLE_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_moodle
    - SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
    - SMTP_PORT=587
    - SMTP_USER=your_email@gmail.com
    - SMTP_PASSWORD=your_password
    - SMTP_PROTOCOL=tls

For manual execution:

$ docker run -d  -p 80:80 -p 443:443 --name moodle
  -e MARIADB_HOST=mariadb \
  -e MARIADB_PORT_NUMBER=3306 \
  -e MOODLE_DATABASE_USER=bn_moodle \
  -e MOODLE_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_moodle \
  -e SMTP_HOST=smtp.gmail.com \
  -e SMTP_PORT=587 \
  -e SMTP_USER=your_email@gmail.com \
  -e SMTP_PASSWORD=your_password \
  --net moodle-tier \
  --volume /path/to/moodle-persistence:/bitnami \
  bitnami/moodle:latest

Contributing

We'd love for you to contribute to this container. You can request new features by creating an issue, or submit a pull request with your contribution.

Issues

If you encountered a problem running this container, you can file an issue. For us to provide better support, be sure to include the following information in your issue:

Host OS and version
Docker version ($ docker version)
Output of $ docker info
Version of this container ($ echo $BITNAMI_IMAGE_VERSION inside the container)
The command you used to run the container, and any relevant output you saw (masking any sensitive information)

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

tmdoit-zz/bitnami-docker-moodle