Install Moodle on a Subdomain

What are Moodle and a subdomain?

Moodle is a free tool for running online courses. Teachers add lessons and quizzes. Students log in to learn.

A subdomain is a smaller address that sits in front of your main website name. For yourdomain.com, a subdomain could be learn.yourdomain.com. It is like a side door to your house. It leads to its own room.

Before you start

• You need a hosting account with a control panel such as cPanel. Your welcome email has the login.
• Ask Hostvento support if Softaculous is on your plan. It makes the install easy.

Step 1: create the subdomain

1. Log in to your hosting control panel.
2. Find Subdomains in the Domains section. In newer cPanel it may be inside Domains.

   

   

3. Type a name, such as learn.
4. Choose your main domain from the list.

   

5. Check the folder (document root) it suggests. It is where the files will live.
6. Click Create.

Step 2: install Moodle with Softaculous

1. Go back to the control panel home and open Softaculous Apps Installer.

   

2. Search for Moodle and click it.

   

3. Click Install Now.

   

   

4. In Choose Domain, pick your new subdomain, for example learn.yourdomain.com.
5. Leave In Directory empty.
6. Type a site name and an admin username, password and email.
7. Click Install.

Step 3: install by hand (no Softaculous)

1. Download Moodle from the official Moodle website.
2. In File Manager, open the subdomain folder and upload the ZIP file.
3. Right-click the ZIP and choose Extract. Move the files out of the moodle folder so they sit directly in the subdomain folder.
4. In MySQL Databases, create a database and a user, then give the user all privileges.
5. Open learn.yourdomain.com in your browser. Follow the on-screen installer and enter the database details.

Quick recap

• A subdomain gives Moodle its own address.
• Create the subdomain first in your control panel.
• Then install Moodle on it with Softaculous, or by hand with a database.
• Save your admin login details.