content - moodle 2 with microsoft technologies

Alex Pearce

Moodle 2.0 withMicrosoft Technologies

You can purchase this book fromhttp://www.bfcnetworks.com

Implementing Moodle 2 with Microsoft technologiesincluding Windows Server, IIS, Active Directory, Microsoft SQL and Exchange

Alex Pearce

Moodle 2.0 withMicrosoft TechnologiesImplementing Moodle 2 with Microsoft technologiesincluding Windows Server, IIS, Active Directory, Microsoft SQL and Exchange

Moodle 2.0 with Microsoft Technologies

Copyright © 2011 - BFC Networks

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval

system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written

permission of the publisher, except in the case of bried quotation embedded in

critical articles and reviews.

Every effot has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of

the information presented. H2owever, the information contained in this book is

sold without warranty, either express r implied. Neither the author, BFC Networks,

nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged

to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

BFC Networks has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the

companies and products mentioed in this book by the appropriate use of Capitals.

However BFC Networks cannot auarantee the accurancy of this information.

First Published: August 2011

Published by BFC Networks Limited

1 The Haylofts

Halesowen

West Midlands

B63 1LG

United Kingdom

http://www.bfcnetworks.com

Special thanks to Martyn Pearce for reviewing the book.

http://www.bfcnetworks.com/

2 | P a g e Moodle 2.0 with Microsoft Technologies

To my beautiful wife Ellen, you make me so happy.


Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................ 7

Chapter 1: Implementation of Moodle 2.0 on a single Windows Server ................... 9

Configure Windows, Roles and Features ................................................................ 9

Installing PHP to IIS ............................................................................................... 13

Testing IIS and PHP ............................................................................................... 16

Configuring the PHP.ini file ................................................................................... 17

Folders and Permissions ....................................................................................... 20

Installing SQL Server Express 2008 R2................................................................... 23

Install and Configure SQL Server 2.0 for PHP ........................................................ 26

Configure SQL Server Express ............................................................................... 28

Configure Moodle 2.0 ........................................................................................... 31

Summary ............................................................................................................... 35

Chapter 2: Implementation of Moodle 2.0 on two load balanced Window Servers 36

Understanding the Architecture ........................................................................... 36

Pre-requirements .................................................................................................. 39

Server Network Interface Cards ........................................................................ 39

Domain Users .................................................................................................... 39

Shares on SAN ................................................................................................... 40

Enabling the required Features and Role .............................................................. 40

Connecting to an iSCSI Drive ................................................................................. 43

Creating the Cluster .............................................................................................. 49

Installing SQL Server 2008 R2 as a Cluster ............................................................ 58

Configuring Moodle Web Front End Servers. ........................................................ 67

Installing PHP to IIS ............................................................................................... 71

Testing IIS and PHP ............................................................................................... 74


Configuring the PHP.ini file ................................................................................... 75

Configuring Network Load Balancing .................................................................... 78

Testing the Network Load Balance ....................................................................... 82

Folders and Permissions ....................................................................................... 83

Configuring SQL Server ......................................................................................... 86

Download and Configuring Moodle ...................................................................... 88

Moving Moodle to be Network Load Balanced ..................................................... 92

Configuring IIS for remote Moodle files ................................................................ 93

Summary ............................................................................................................... 96

Chapter 3: Configure Moodle to use Exchange 2010 for email ................................ 97

Grant Moodle permission in Exchange 2010 Management Console .................... 97

Configure Moodle to user Exchange mail ........................................................... 100

Summary ............................................................................................................. 102

Chapter 4: Configuration of Moodle 2.0 authentication with LDAP/Active Directory

................................................................................................................................ 103

Create and delegate a user to view Active Directory .......................................... 104

Configure Moodle Authentication to use LDAP/Active Directory ....................... 106

Domain Name ................................................................................................. 107

Single Domain Controller ................................................................................ 107

Multiple Domain Controllers ........................................................................... 107

Other Active Directory and Moodle LDAP Settings ............................................. 110

Summary ............................................................................................................. 111

Chapter 5: Configure AD Attributes for Moodle users ........................................... 112

Understanding Active Directory Attributes ......................................................... 113

Updating Multiple User Attributes in Active Directory ....................................... 117

Configure Active Directory Attribute for Moodle................................................ 119


Configure Active Directory to receive updates from Moodle ............................. 121

Summary ............................................................................................................. 124

Chapter 6: Configure Kerberos for Moodle 2 ......................................................... 125

Why use Kerberos with Moodle? ........................................................................ 126

Permission changes to folders ............................................................................ 126

Add SPNs to User ................................................................................................ 128

Add additional services to IIS and configuring Kerberos ..................................... 129

Testing Kerberos Authentication ........................................................................ 132

Summary ............................................................................................................. 135

Chapter 7: Configuring Single Sign On for Moodle 2 .............................................. 136

How Single Sign On works in Moodle 2 ............................................................... 136

Required configuration and changes for SSO ...................................................... 137

Configure Single Sign On ..................................................................................... 139

Summary ............................................................................................................. 141

Appendix ................................................................................................................. 142

Appendix A: Find the Distinguished Name of a User or Organisation Unit. ........ 142


About the Author

In 2008 Alex Pearce founded BFC Networks in the UK who specialise in

implementing Microsoft technologies into schools and colleges around the country.

In 2009 BFC Networks were joint hosts of the Learning Gateway Conference held at

the world famous Belfry Golf Course in Birmingham where teachers and technical

staff learnt best practise about SharePoint and how schools have implemented the

Microsoft Learning Gateway products.

Alex’s experiences include working for the largest school in Europe as the Learning

Gateway and ICT Manager, Learning Platform Solutions Architect for Building

Schools the Future in Birmingham and speaking at many SharePoint conferences.

In 2008, he was awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in SharePoint for

this community support in the education sector helping in forums and blogging

(http://www.bfcnetworks.com/ajp/) an award he still holds today.

In his personal life he enjoys playing football, golf and cricket as well as being a keen

musician. In 2009 he met Ellen who he married in May 2011 in Birmingham, UK

where they live together.

http://www.bfcnetworks.com/ajp/


Introduction Over the past 30 years technology has changed the world with the internet, email,

mobile phones and communication. With these cultural changes in society so has

education with students emailing teachers their homework, lessons using projectors

and degrees in computer science and programming.

One of the largest changes in educational learner is the ability to learn from the

web, the information highway. With ever growing content available to anyone with

a computer and an internet connection it has become important for education

institutions to be able to create their own content in an easy process, allocating

work to students and the server to give student instant marks and grades. These

types of web sites and web applications are known as Virtual Learning Environments

or VLEs and this is actually what Moodle is built to do.

Moodle 2.0 was released in early 2011 increasing the features of the previous

version allowing more users to communicate with each other and work with courses

specially built for their subject.

Built as a free open source product, Moodle can be implemented on any operating

system that can run a PHP website and one of these is Microsoft stack.

Most Moodle implementations are on Linux with Apache using a MySQL database

but this e-book looks at implementing it on a Microsoft, but why?

Most of Microsoft products are top selling and help the market to stay innovate,

increasing new features from other companies and drives the boundaries where

technology can go next. Some of these are Windows Server their server based

operating system, SQL Server for databases and Exchange for email.

Each of these products has been designed and built to be more resilient than the

previous ensuring that the service is always available for the end users. This allows

websites to run across multiple servers without the end user knowing that one of

the two servers has been shut down for maintenance.

With new features and versions from Microsoft and their products, so do new

security measures ensuring your data is secure and not vulnerable to a hacker.


This is why this book looks at how Moodle can be implemented on scalable

technologies are that used in most educational establishments such as Window’s

Server, SQL Server and Active Directory.

The book will also look at connecting Moodle to other services you may have in your

organisation including Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange.

Alex Pearce

Moodle 2.0 withMicrosoft Technologies

You can purchase this book fromhttp://www.bfcnetworks.com

Implementing Moodle 2 with Microsoft technologiesincluding Windows Server, IIS, Active Directory, Microsoft SQL and Exchange

content - moodle 2 with microsoft technologies

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