How to host Moodle on AWS Lightsail VM Instance - ServerAvatar

Moodle is a widely used open-source learning management system (LMS) known for its versatility and robust features. It enables educators and organizations to create interactive online learning environments, facilitating course management, assessments, and collaborative tasks effectively. Hosting Moodle on AWS Lightsail offers a reliable and straightforward solution. AWS Lightsail provides a range of pre-configured instances with easy deployment options. ServerAvatar simplifies the setup process with easy steps for installing your Moodle application on AWS Lightsail.

Create VM Instance in AWS Lightsail

To create a server in AWS Lightsail, First log in to the AWS Lightsail console. Once you are there, Follow the steps given below.

Step 1: Go to the Instance Creation Form

To access the instance creation form, Go to the AWS Lightsail dashboard and click on the orange button with the Create Instance text. See the following image for reference.

Step 2: Select the Location of your Instance

First of all, You have to select the location for your instance. It is always better to select a location closest to your major traffic source. It will decrease the latency for the majority of your website visitors.

If you want to change the location of your server, You can simply update the current region in your AWS account.

Step 3: Select the OS for your Instance

After selecting the location, Select the operating system for your instance. In this case, First, click on OS Only and then select Ubuntu 20.04 as an operating system just like the following image.

Step 4: Select SSH Key and Launch Script (Optional/Advanced)

This is an optional step. Here you can set the Launch script and the main SSH key for your server. If you don't understand the launch script and SSH keys, Just ignore this step.

Step 5: Select the Plan

In this step, select the size of your VM instance. AWS Lightsail provides lots of different options when it comes to plans and pricing. The plan and pricing selection completely depend on the requirements of your site(s). So, select the plan based on the complexity and traffic of your sites.

We recommend the minimum configuration of 4-8 GB RAM and 20-40 GB of disk space for hosting Moodle. You can select another plan of higher configuration based on your specific requirements and usage.

Step 6: Verify and Create the Instance

Finally, Enter the name of your instance, the number of instances you want to create and assign the tags accordingly for identification. Once done, click on the Create Instance button to start the instance creation process.

It might take a few minutes to deploy the instance. Once done, follow the below-given step to update the firewall rules for the VM instance.

Step 7: Update Firewall Rules

ServerAvatar requires 43210 port open. In total, You need to keep the following ports open on the instance.

• 22 (SSH): To access your server via SSH.
• 80 (HTTP): To access your sites on HTTP.
• 443 (HTTPS): To access your sites on HTTPS.
• 43210 (ServerAvatar): To allow communication between ServerAvatar and your instance.

To update the firewall rules for a specific instance, Go to the AWS Lightsail dashboard and click on the name of the instance you want to update. Then go to the Networking section and add the missing firewall rules. After updating the firewall rules, the networking section of your Instance should look like the following image.

Initial Server Configuration

The Initial server configuration includes the installation and configuration of various packages required to host your website. Usually, You have to write commands and modify configuration files. Luckily, With ServerAvatar, Your full server configuration and optimization can be automated.

Here are the three ways to automatically configure your server with ServerAvatar.

wget https://srvr.so/install
chmod +x install
./install

Auto-install Moodle with ServerAvatar

Step 1: Create a PHP application

To create a PHP application, access the Application tab from the server panel and click the Create button.

Now fill up the required details in the application form to create an application.

Click on the Create Application button.

Note that:

If you want to host Moodle LMS on your domain, then make sure to point your domain to the current IP address of your server, and for that:

1. Log in to your hosting provider site, where you buy your domain. You can check your domain information with one click.

2. Access DNS Manager to edit your DNS records(contact the support team if you don’t find them)

3. Change the IP address of A Record of your website to the current server’s IP address.

Step 2: Auto-install Moodle application

On the application panel, click the Auto deploy tab from the sidebar.

Now click on the Moodle Install Now Card from the list of auto-deploying applications.

It asks you to enter details to deploy the Moodle application, which includes-

Registration details

• Full Name: Full site name displays to your users on the site home page
• Short Name: Site short name
• Summary: A brief description of your course that will appear on your site's home page
• Database Server: Choose the server from the connected server in which you want to host your database
• Database Name: The name of your database

PHP Settings

• PHP Version: Select the supported PHP version of Moodle

Admin Information

• Username: Admin username
• Email: Admin Email address
• Password: Admin password
• Support Email: Support email for your user.

Click the Install Now button after filling up all the details.

Access your site URL from the application panel to log in to your Moodle Admin area.