Installing a new moodle instance, 2.3

I am creating a new moodle instance on one of our servers today.  Since moodle 2.3 came out last week, I will use it.  The site I am creating does not have any3rd party course ware, so I am safe to explore the 2.3 option.  Our other instance on this server supports 3rd party course ware, where I have to install course shells and have to converse with their technical reps to ensure we have no trouble with a most recent version.

Steps to install moodle 2.3

1. Launched phpMyAdmin 
2. Created a new empty database with UTF8 collation definition. (will populate during install)
3. Added privileges to the user that I will use to connect to DB during install (user account defined in the mysql table of local DB server)
4. Went to moodle.org and downloaded the stable moodle ver. 2.3 zip file.
5. Unzipped the file and extracted to an arbitrary location.  (The extracted folder size is 99MB, that's about a 25 MB increase over version 2.2)
6. Browsed into the moodle folder in the extract directory path and copied all the files
7. On the server, opened a window at the web root and created a new folder to house the extracted source code.
8. opened the new folder and pasted the source code, (includes index.php that when browsing to launches the php moodle installer.)  
9. Note: If you peak at the extracted files you just copied into the new folder, you notice there is NOT a config.php file.  The index.php file will execute the install.php file that will do the job of configuring the DB, and creating the config.php file.
10. Opened a browser window and browsed to the new folder, like serverip/newinstancename.  (This starts the installation process.)

Once moodle starts installing you will see the following steps:

The web address is the IP address of the server you are installing to.
The directory is the folder you copied the moodle code into.
The data directory is the folder you want the uploaded files to go to.

The 4 approved DB type
MySQL
Postgres
Oracle
MSSQL

My database host is localhost. If you have a dedicated DB server, use its IP address here. The DB name is the one I specified when I created the DB earlier. The DB user and password are the ones I mentioned in the mysql table on the db server.  Ensure you gave the user rights to create and alter a table so the installer won't complain when it goes to create the tables.

This list is very important and is a bit of work if this is the initial moodle instance you have installed on the server.  There are many php extensions that moodle requires that may not be present. After each installation of a php extension, restart php and then refresh this view.



Once you get past your server checks view (if this is the first moodle instance you have installed on this server, you will be busy here installing plugins that moodle requires before it will let you past this check), you are in great shape.  The final two steps are

1. Creating an admin account
2. Specifying front page name and description.

Upon completion, you should have a nice fresh install like this: