Moodle Setup with MariaDB 10.2, PHP 7.1.x, Nginx

Step -1: Setting the Locale

$ locale -a

$ /etc/default/locale

$ sudo apt-get install language-pack-en

$ sudo locale-gen en_US.UTF-8

sudo vi /etc/environment

LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8

LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Step -2: Update packages

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get upgrade

Step -3: Install MariaDB

$ sudo apt-get install software-properties-common

$ sudo apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 0xF1656F24C74CD1D8

$ sudo add-apt-repository 'deb [arch=amd64,i386,ppc64el] http://mirror.fibergrid.in/mariadb/repo/10.2/ubuntu xenial main'

$ sudo apt update

$ sudo apt install mariadb-server

$ sudo service mariadb start

$ mysql_secure_installation

Step -4: (Optional) Install PhpMyAdmin

$ sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin

Step -5: Install PHP 7.1.x from custom repository

$ sudo apt-get install python-software-properties

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ondrej/php

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install -y graphviz aspell php7.1-fpm php7.1-cli php7.1-pspell php7.1-curl php7.1-gd php7.1-intl php7.1-mysql php7.1-xml php7.1-xmlrpc php7.1-ldap php7.1-zip php7.1-json php7.1-opcache php7.1-readline php7.1-mbstring php7.1-soap

Step -6: PHP Custom configuration

Note: It is a good practise to run the web-server, php-fpm and set the ownership of document_root to the same user.

$ cd /etc/php/7.1/fpm

$ cp php.ini php.ini.default

$ cd /etc/php/7.1/fpm/pool.d

$ cp www.conf www.conf.default

Step -7: Install Nginx

$ sudo apt-get install nginx

Step -8: Configure Nginx

# Author : Shashi Yebbare

# nginx.conf file [/etc/nginx]

user shashi;

worker_processes auto;

pid /run/nginx.pid;

events {

    worker_connections 768;

    # multi_accept on;

}

http {

    ##

    # Basic Settings

    ##

    sendfile on;

    tcp_nopush on;

    tcp_nodelay on;

    keepalive_timeout 65;

    types_hash_max_size 2048;

    server_tokens off;

    # server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;

    # server_name_in_redirect off;

    include /etc/nginx/mime.types;

    default_type application/octet-stream;

    ##

    # SSL Settings

    ##

    ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2; # Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE

    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;

    ##

    # Logging Settings

    ##

    access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;

    error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;

    ##

    # Gzip Settings

    ##

    gzip on;

    gzip_disable "msie6";

    gzip_vary on;

    gzip_proxied any;

    gzip_comp_level 6;

    gzip_buffers 16 8k;

    gzip_http_version 1.1;

    gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;

    ##

    # Virtual Host Configs

    ##

    include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;

    include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;

}

Step -9: Nginx Server block to process the application

# HTTP Configuration

server {

    listen 80;

    server_name moodle-32.skydevops.co.in;

    root /var/www/html/moodle/;

    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;

    index index.php index.html;

    rewrite ^/(.*\.php)(/)(.*)$ /$1?file=/$3 last;

    location ~ \..*/.*\.php$ {

        return 403;

    }

    # Block access to "hidden" files and directories

    location ~ (^|/)\. {

        return 403;

    }

    location ^~ / {

        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?q=$request_uri;

        index index.php index.html index.htm;

        location ~ \.php$ {

            try_files $uri =404;

            fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;

            fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;

            fastcgi_index index.php;

            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;

            include fastcgi_params;

        }

    }

    location /phpgui {

        alias /var/www/html/moodle/phpgui;

        # Optionally set separate access and error logs for phpgui

        access_log /var/log/nginx/phpgui_access.log;

        error_log /var/log/nginx/phpgui_error.log;

        index index.php index.html;

        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;

        # Deny some static files

        location ~ ^/phpgui/(README|LICENSE|ChangeLog|DCO)$ {

            deny all;

        }

        # Deny .md files

        location ~ ^/phpgui/(.+\.md)$ {

            deny all;

        }

        # Deny some directories

        location ~ ^/phpgui/(doc|sql|setup)/ {

            deny all;

        }

    }

}

Step -10: Application Specific Settings – Moodle – Opcache Settings

# PHP INI configuration

[opcache]

opcache.enable = 1

opcache.memory_consumption = 64

opcache.max_accelerated_files = 8000

opcache.revalidate_freq = 60

; Required for Moodle

opcache.use_cwd = 1

opcache.validate_timestamps = 1

opcache.save_comments = 1

opcache.enable_file_override = 0