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Written by Ken Task
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Tuesday, 03 August 2010 10:19 |
Is Moodle 2.0 in your immediate future?
If so, what OS will it run upon? CentOS 5.5 , Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, or Windows 2008?
See: http://docs.moodle.org/en/Upgrading_to_Moodle_2.0
The makers of PHP have announced a release for 5.2.14:
http://www.php.net/archive/2010.php#id2010-07-22-1
at the same time, PHP warns users that this release marks the end of active support for 5.2.
"Following this release the PHP 5.2 series will receive no further active bug maintenance. Security fixes for PHP 5.2 might be published on a case by cases basis. All users of PHP 5.2 are encouraged to upgrade to PHP 5.3."
Moodle 2.0 Preview 4 Requires: PHP 5.2.8, MySQL 5.0.25
Strategic decisions …
Many had thought Red Hat Enterprise was the way to go with a Moodle (open source box) for good reasons - grand-daddy of all things Linux, commercial support, etc.. However, when one considers the purpose of the server (assuming we are talking Moodle here), RHE presents some small hurdles in the version of PHP.
It looks like, however, RHE owners will have to upgrade to RHEL-6 to get php 5.3.x. OR, the harder route, would be to download the source and compile PHP 5.3 yourself making sure you've set all the 'right' support switches for MySQL and Apache. OR, possibly, install from a Fedora distro: 12, 13, and latest rawhide provides 5.3.0, 5.3.1 and 5.3.3 respectively.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=redhat
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=fedora
CentOS 5.x (which is based on RHE 5) does have a repository for folks that need/require higher versions of PHP - c5-testing (which is NOT really a 'testing' repo as the name suggest, but, rather, a repo for users that need apps higher versions not supplied by RHE).
Example … recently updated PHP on a CentOS 5.5 server which has the c5-testing repo in the repo list. Here's command used to upgrade the PHP:
yum --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=c5-testing update php*
Testing repo, however, only takes PHP to version 5.2.10 - which is good enough to run Moodle 2.0 but, might not be getting regular updates.
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=centos
While somewhat painful to do, one could chose Ubuntu and replace the RHE or CentOS on the same hardware using the latest "Long Term Support" server version.
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS lucid has PHP version 5.3.2
http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=ubuntu
So, if we're talking a Moodle 2.0 box (maybe even one for Joomla's), you've some decisions to make.
Windows … not up on that 'world' but did hear that Server 2008 could and comes with PHP from Zend.
But even there, what version is the PHP? Saw this in comments of an announcement concerning MS and Zend collaborating on providing PHP for Windows 2008 server
"I bought one license of Zend Core and I'm using it on a Windows Server 2003 machine.
I noticed that Zend Core is still using PHP 5.2.6. When does Zend plan to update Zend Core to PHP 5.2.9? Thank you."
http://devzone.zend.com/article/3233
So, is there an advantage in running Windows Server 2008 to get PHP up to a supported version?
Uhhh, nope.
From what I've written above, most might be best off using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. Guess it depends upon how much one wants to 'gamble' that no issues of real significance concerning security of a server running 5.2.x and Moodle/Joomla/Drupal/WordPress, etc.
Time to roll the dice?
If anyone runs Red Hat Enterprise or Windows 2008 server have you investigated the PHP situation?
If so, please share your findings and your strategy when it comes to Moodle 2.0.
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Last Updated on Sunday, 08 August 2010 03:54 |
