This project is an alternative way to setup Moodle dev environment using Docker. It is close to LAMP approach from configuring perspective - there is only one database server for all instances of Moodle, and instead of several Apache VirtualHost sites, separate webserver container is used for each Moodle instance. This results in having clean host system (no direct installation of service packages) and provides flexibility to mix versions of PHP for different Moodle instances, as well as easily add other services, such as Memcached or SAML.
This setup can co-exist on the same host with moodle-docker, which is strongly advised to use for running tests.
- Different virtual hostnames (or virtual paths) for each instance of Moodle.
- Uses
moodlehq/moodle-php-apacheMoodle HQ maintained images. - Shared DB server for all Moodle instances.
- Mail server container with web UI.
- Easy to extend, enable SSL, add other any other services (see examples).
You will need:
- Docker. If you don't need GUI, installing only Docker engine is sufficient, but you need Docker Compose installed separately.
- Clone of Moodle repo that you want to work on.
- Make sure you don't run local webserver that is using port 80 (if you need, change it to different port or use different port in compose file).
- Make sure you don't run local mysql/mariadb server that is using port 3306 (if you need, change it to different port or use different port in compose file)
Your Moodle config.php should contain (as minimum):
<?php // Moodle configuration file
unset($CFG);
global $CFG;
$CFG = new stdClass();
$CFG->dbtype = 'mariadb';
$CFG->dblibrary = 'native';
$CFG->dbhost = 'mariadb';
$CFG->dbname = 'moodle-main';
$CFG->dbuser = 'moodle';
$CFG->dbpass = 'moodle';
$CFG->prefix = 'mdl_';
$CFG->dboptions = array (
'dbpersist' => 0,
'dbport' => '',
'dbsocket' => '',
'dbcollation' => 'utf8mb4_general_ci',
);
$CFG->wwwroot = 'http://moodle.local';
$CFG->dataroot = '/var/www/moodledata';
$CFG->admin = 'admin';
$CFG->directorypermissions = 0777;
require_once(__DIR__ . '/lib/setup.php');
You may add subdirectory to dataroot if you wish, e.g. for using different
dir for different databases when you switch between Moodle versions.
Compose file is defining proxy container that handles hostname mapping to web container, this makes things simpler as you may add more web containers (e.g. for different repos, php versions or DBs) using a different hostname for each.
By default, the only web container is called moodle.local.
To make possible accessing container from your host machine by using
hostname, you need a record in your /etc/hosts file pointing to localhost.
127.0.0.1 moodle.local
Define env variable with location to your Moodle code:
export MOODLE_DOCKER_WWWROOT=/home/ruslan/git/moodleThis env var is used for Moodle codebase mount inside the web container.
Define env variable with PHP version to be used:
export MOODLE_DOCKER_PHP_VERSION=8.1This is used to select moodlehq/moodle-php-apache image version to use.
To start the environment, use docker compose command. You need to execute it
from this repo directory:
> docker compose upYou can keep the terminal open to see the log, alernatively you may run it in deaemon mode:
> docker compose up -dYou can see the status of containers using:
> docker compose psAbove command amond other things is showing ports mapping from local interface to containers.
Notice that names of containers specified in compose file are resolved to
their IPs on any container in the set, e.g. you may use mariadb in your
moodle config.php as DB hostname.
You may stop the containers using docker compose stop or destroy them using
docker compose down. It is safe to desroy as you are using volumes, so next
time you start them, all data will be in place within newly created
containers.
Now when you have database created and config.php configured, you may enter
http://moodle.local in your browser on host machine. This will point to your
localhost according to /etc/hosts record we created, which will then be
handled by nginx-proxy container (notice the port mapping mentioned above).
nginx-proxy will recognise hostname moodle.local and redirect request to
moodle-dev-compose-moodle-1 container that will show you Moodle setup screen
in the browser.
If you need php command line (e.g. for setting up Moodle or cron run), you
may access it from web container:
> docker exec -it -u www-data moodle-dev-compose-moodle-1 bash
www-data@0c46f3f2037a:~/html$
www-data@1d18bc646bf4:~/html$ php admin/cli/upgrade.php
No upgrade needed for the installed version 4.4dev (Build: 20240215) (2024021500). Thanks for coming anyway!By default MariaDB docker image is used. The data is located on the volume, so recreating container will not cause data loss.
On the first run, you will probably need to create database that you will use.
You can do that using phpmyadmin included in compose service file, and accessible at
http://moodle.local:8081 (use user root and password root for admin
access). User moodle with password moodle is pre-created (we use it in
moodle config.php).
Accessing server using DB client is also possible on localhost:3306, as container
propagates this port to the host machine. Alternatively, you can access it by
executing shell on running DB container and using mysql client:
> docker exec -u mysql -it moodle-dev-compose-mariadb-1 bash
mysql@35e794676852:/$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 5
Server version: 10.6.16-MariaDB-1:10.6.16+maria~ubu2004 mariadb.org binary distribution
Copyright (c) 2000, 2018, Oracle, MariaDB Corporation Ab and others.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
MariaDB [(none)]>If you prefer Postgres, modify include section at the top of compose.yaml.
include:
# - mariadb.service.yaml
- postgres.service.yaml
For postgres service offical Postgres 13 docker image is used. The data is located on the volume, so recreating container will not cause data loss.
On the first run, you will probably need to create database and user that you will use.
You can do that using adminer included in compose service file, and accessible at
http://moodle.local:8082 (use user postgres and password postgres for
admin access).
Accessing server using DB client is possible on localhost:5432, as container
propagates this port to the host machine. Alternatively, you can access it by
executing shell on running DB container and using psql client:
> docker exec -it -u postgres moodle-dev-compose-postgres-1 bash
postgres@6f001003d4c4:/$ createuser -DPRS moodle
Enter password for new role:
Enter it again:
postgres@6f001003d4c4:/$ createdb -O moodle -E UTF-8 moodle-main
postgres@6f001003d4c4:/$ psql
postgres=# \l
List of databases
Name | Owner | Encoding | Collate | Ctype | Access privileges
---------------------------+----------+----------+------------+------------+-----------------------
moodle-main | moodlepg | UTF8 | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |
postgres | postgres | UTF8 | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 |
template0 | postgres | UTF8 | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 | =c/postgres +
| | | | | postgres=CTc/postgres
template1 | postgres | UTF8 | en_US.utf8 | en_US.utf8 | =c/postgres +
| | | | | postgres=CTc/postgres
(4 rows)
postgres=#
Moodle config.php would need changes:
$CFG->dbtype = 'pgsql';
$CFG->dbhost = 'postgres';
I suggest to use https://github.com/tianon/docker-postgres-upgrade image to
perform major release upgrade. For 12 to 13 upgrade I createed a new volume
called pgdata13, then stop database gracefully by logging in into container
and executing:
docker exec -it -u postgres moodle-dev-compose-postgres-1 bash
postgres@ea13edb262fb:/$ pg_ctl stop
Now, when service is gracefully stopped, execute:
docker run --rm -v pgdata12:/var/lib/postgresql/12/data -v pgdata13:/var/lib/postgresql/13/data tianon/postgres-upgrade:12-to-13
This will perform upgrade. Finally, shut down your dev suit, make necessary changes in compose files and start again.
We run Mailpit container by default that allows to receive email and provides interface to view it.
In Moodle configuration file add:
$CFG->smtphosts = 'mail:1025'
Web interface to view emails is available at http://moodle.local:8025
You can add Xhprof extension and use Moodle built-in profiling tool.
> docker exec -it moodle-dev-compose-moodle-1 bash
root@62ba9a041e0f:/var/www/html# pecl install xhprof
WARNING: channel "pecl.php.net" has updated its protocols, use "pecl channel-update pecl.php.net" to update
downloading xhprof-2.2.0.tgz ...
...
root@62ba9a041e0f:/var/www/html# docker-php-ext-enable xhprof
root@62ba9a041e0f:/var/www/html# php -i | grep xhprof
/usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/docker-php-ext-xhprof.ini,
xhprof
xhprof support => enabled
xhprof.collect_additional_info => 0 => 0
xhprof.output_dir => no value => no value
xhprof.sampling_depth => 0x7fffffff => 0x7fffffff
xhprof.sampling_interval => 100000 => 100000Xhprof extension has been installed and enabled, restart the web container.
> docker restart moodle-dev-compose-moodle-1A this point you can navigate to Site administration > Development > Profiling, enable it and trigger for the content you need to profile.
Notice, if you destroy container, you will need to repeat above steps on the new one.
Suppose you need another container with a different php version, but for the same Moodle instance. You can easily add another container either directly to existing compose file, or by using a seaparate file:
Create a new file called compose.local.yaml containing:
services:
moodle83:
image: moodlehq/moodle-php-apache:8.3
volumes:
- moodledata:/var/www/moodledata
- $MOODLE_DOCKER_WWWROOT:/var/www/html
depends_on:
- mariadb
environment:
- VIRTUAL_HOST=moodle83.local
networks:
- devbox
Now, stop the existing containers and modify compose.yaml, to include compose.local.yaml:
include:
- mariadb.service.yaml
# - postgres.service.yaml
- compose.local.yaml
This will bring a new container into play on the next docker compose up run.
Note: if you prefer not to use include section in compose.yaml, alternative way to use many config
files is:
> docker compose -f compose.yaml -f compose.local.yaml upAdd the new host to your /etc/hosts and you can start using it on http://moodle83.local.
127.0.0.1 moodle.local moodle83.local
If you need access by https, create self-signed certificates named
localhost:
$ mkdir certs
$ openssl req -x509 -nodes -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout certs/localhost.key -out certs/localhost.crt
Then use them as part of nginx-proxy configuration:
diff --git a/compose.yaml b/compose.yaml
index 0bc7fb0..934cc58 100644
--- a/compose.yaml
+++ b/compose.yaml
@@ -5,9 +5,11 @@ services:
container_name: nginx-proxy
ports:
- "80:80"
+ - "443:443"
volumes:
- /var/run/docker.sock:/tmp/docker.sock:ro
- ./nginx_proxy.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/nginx_proxy.conf:ro
+ - ./certs:/etc/nginx/certs
networks:
- devbox
moodle:
and in the service that you need to make accesible over https, add CERT_NAME env var:
- mariadb
environment:
- VIRTUAL_HOST=moodle.local
+ - CERT_NAME=localhost
networks:
- devbox
Also in Moodle config make sure wwwroot reflects correct protocol:
$CFG->wwwroot = 'https://moodle.local';
Using docker you can add any service you need. Examples below assume you are
adding configuration to compose.local.yaml.
Adding memcached will make your instance running faster.
Your compose.local.yaml should contain:
services:
memcached0:
image: memcached:1.4.33
networks:
- devbox
In Moodle, navigate to cache configuration and create instance using
memcached0 as hostname and 11211 as port.
In order to deploy SAML2 IdP, we will be using kristophjunge/docker-test-saml-idp docker image.
You need auth_saml2 plugin to be installed in Moodle, it will act as SAML2 service provider (SP).
Your compose.local.yaml should contain:
services:
samlidp:
image: kristophjunge/test-saml-idp
environment:
VIRTUAL_HOST: samlidp.local
SIMPLESAMLPHP_SP_ENTITY_ID: http://moodle.local/auth/saml2/sp/metadata.php
SIMPLESAMLPHP_SP_ASSERTION_CONSUMER_SERVICE: http://moodle.local/auth/saml2/sp/saml2-acs.php/moodle.local
SIMPLESAMLPHP_SP_SINGLE_LOGOUT_SERVICE: http://moodle.local/auth/saml2/sp/saml2-logout.php/moodle.local
SIMPLESAMLPHP_ADMIN_PASSWORD: admin1
SIMPLESAMLPHP_SECRET_SALT: salt
ports:
- "8080:8080"
- "8443:8443"
volumes:
- ./saml2/authsources.php:/var/www/simplesamlphp/config/authsources.php
networks:
devbox:
aliases:
- samlidp.local
Those SIMPLESAMLPHP_SP_* values can be identified from SP metadata output (http://moodle.local/auth/saml2/sp/metadata.php).
You also need saml2/authsources.php containing user accounts, which is mounted
in container, use example below as starting point:
<?php
$config = [
'admin' => [
'core:AdminPassword',
],
'example-userpass' => [
'exampleauth:UserPass',
'samlu1:samlu1pass' => [
'uid' => ['samlu1'],
'eduPersonAffiliation' => ['group1'],
'email' => '[email protected]',
'firstName' => 'Saml',
'lastName' => 'User 1',
'customOrg' => 'Company 1',
],
'samlu2:samlu2pass' => [
'uid' => ['samlu2'],
'eduPersonAffiliation' => ['group2'],
'email' => '[email protected]',
'firstName' => 'Saml',
'lastName' => 'User 2',
'customOrg' => 'Company 2',
],
],
];
When you start containers, navigate to
http://samlidp.local:8080/simplesaml/module.php/core/frontpage_federation.php,
you will find metadata link you can use in auth_saml2 idpmetadata setting
to complete setup (or you can use metadata XML that you can retrieve on the
same page).
If you get Invalid metadata at http://samlidp.local:8080/simplesaml/saml2/idp/metadata.php error, most
likely CURL security settings do not permit URL access, check
curlsecurityblockedhosts and curlsecurityallowedport config settings in
Moodle. If you get Setting secure cookie on plain http is not allowed, untick cookiesecure in Moodle settings.
Once configured (you need to add field mapping as well, for example snippet
above you may need to map firstName, lastName and email), you should be
able to login to Moodle using one of accounts defined in authsources.php.