Moodle — an open PHP-based LMS (Learning Management System) built around modularity and a flexible permission model. Suitable for corporate training, universities, schools and commercial online courses — from small installations to clusters with thousands of concurrent learners.

Server preparation

Update the system and install utilities

Update packages and install basic tools.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y curl git unzip rsync ufw

Enable the firewall

Allow SSH and HTTP/HTTPS

sudo ufw allow OpenSSH
sudo ufw allow 80,443/tcp
sudo ufw --force enable
sudo ufw status

sudo iptables -A INPUT -i lo -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -m conntrack --ctstate ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 22 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
sudo iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT

Install LEMP (Nginx, MariaDB, PHP-FPM 8.3)

Install and start Nginx

Install the web server and enable autostart.

sudo apt install -y nginx
nginx -v
sudo systemctl enable --now nginx

Install MariaDB 10.11

Install the database server and perform basic hardening.

sudo apt install -y mariadb-server
mariadb --version
sudo systemctl enable --now mariadb
sudo mysql_secure_installation

Install PHP-FPM 8.3 and required extensions

Install PHP-FPM and the modules required by Moodle.

sudo apt install -y php8.3-fpm php8.3-cli php8.3-mysql php8.3-xml php8.3-zip php8.3-gd php8.3-intl php8.3-curl php8.3-mbstring php8.3-bcmath php8.3-readline php8.3-redis
php -v
php -m | grep -E 'intl|xml|curl|zip|gd|mbstring|bcmath|sodium'

Database preparation

Create the database, user and privileges

Connect to MariaDB and create resources with utf8mb4 encoding.

sudo mariadb

CREATE DATABASE DB_NAME DEFAULT CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci;
CREATE USER 'DB_USER'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'DB_PASSWORD';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DB_NAME.* TO 'DB_USER'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;

Downloading and placing Moodle

Create the required directories and set permissions

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/moodle /var/moodledata
sudo git clone -b MOODLE_500_STABLE https://github.com/moodle/moodle.git  /var/www/moodle
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data  /var/www/moodle /var/moodledata

Install from the Git repository

Create the directories, clone the stable branch and set permissions.

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/moodle /var/moodledata
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/moodledata
sudo chmod 770 /var/moodledata

sudo git clone -b MOODLE_500_STABLE https://github.com/moodle/moodle.git /var/www/moodle
sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/moodle

Nginx configuration

Create a virtual host for Moodle

Create the site config with the correct root, routing and PHP-FPM settings.

[line_numbers,nginx]
server {
    listen 80;
    server_name SERVER_IP;   # add the IP or your domain name
    root /var/www/moodle;
    index index.php;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php(/|$) {
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.*)$;
        set $path_info $fastcgi_path_info;

        try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;

        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $path_info;

        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.3-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        fastcgi_read_timeout 300s;
        fastcgi_buffers 16 16k;
        fastcgi_buffer_size 32k;
    }

    location ~* \.(?:css|js|jpg|jpeg|gif|png|svg|ico|webp|woff2?)$ {
        try_files $uri =404;
        access_log off;
        expires 7d;
    }

    location ~ /. { deny all; }
}

Enable the site and disable the default

Activate the config and reload Nginx.

sudo ln -sf /etc/nginx/sites-available/moodle.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/moodle.conf
sudo rm -f /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
sudo nginx -t && sudo systemctl reload nginx

PHP tuning

Adjust PHP limits for Moodle

Open php.ini and increase the key parameters.

memory_limit = 512M
upload_max_filesize = 100M
post_max_size = 100M
max_execution_time = 300
max_input_vars = 5000
cgi.fix_pathinfo = 0

Apply PHP-FPM changes

Restart PHP-FPM and check status.

sudo systemctl restart php8.3-fpm
systemctl status php8.3-fpm --no-pager

Web installation of Moodle

Run the installation wizard

Open http://YOUR_DOMAIN/ or http://SERVER_IP/ and follow the wizard:

1. Select language, confirm MOODLE_DIR and MOODLEDATA_DIR paths.

2. Choose the MariaDB (mysqli) driver and enter DB_NAME, DB_USER, DB_PASSWORD.

3. Wait for environment checks and table installation.
4. Create the administrator account.

5. Fill in the final information to start using Moodle:

After completing these steps you will reach the administration panel:

Additional

Optimize OPcache

Add basic opcode cache settings.

opcache.enable=1
opcache.memory_consumption=192
opcache.interned_strings_buffer=16
opcache.max_accelerated_files=8000
opcache.validate_timestamps=1
opcache.revalidate_freq=60

sudo systemctl restart php8.3-fpm

Checks and post-installation steps

Verify component versions

Ensure the versions meet expectations.

php -v && nginx -v && mariadb --version

Test cron

Verify that background tasks run.

sudo -u www-data php /var/www/moodle/admin/cli/cron.php

Configure backups

Schedule backups for the database and moodledata.

sudo mkdir -p /opt/backups
echo '0 3 * * * root mysqldump DB_NAME | gzip > /opt/backups/moodle-$(date +\%F).sql.gz' | sudo tee /etc/cron.d/moodle-db-backup
echo '30 3 * * * root tar -czf /opt/backups/moodledata-$(date +\%F).tgz /var/moodledata' | sudo tee -a /etc/cron.d/moodle-db-backup

Common issues

Useful links