Install Moodle by Hand in cPanel

What is Moodle?

Moodle is a free program for online classes. Teachers use it to share lessons, quizzes and grades. It is written in PHP. PHP is a language that web servers use to build pages.

A manual install means you do each part yourself. You need three things: the Moodle files, a database and a data folder. A database is like a big digital notebook where Moodle keeps its information. cPanel is the control panel where you manage your hosting.

Before you start

• Log in to your client area and open cPanel from your services.
• Download the latest stable Moodle zip file from the official Moodle website to your computer.

  

  

• Check that your PHP version fits the Moodle version. If unsure, ask Hostvento support.

Steps

1. In cPanel, open File Manager.
2. Go to public_html. Create a folder named moodle if you want the site at yourdomain.com/moodle.
3. Open that folder and click Upload. Pick the Moodle zip file.
4. When the upload ends, right-click the zip file and choose Extract.

   

5. Moodle unpacks into another folder named moodle. Move its contents up one level if you want a cleaner address.
6. Create the data folder. Moodle needs a folder for uploaded files. Make it above public_html, for example in your home folder, so visitors cannot reach it. Name it moodledata.

   

   

   

7. Back in cPanel, open MySQL Databases (or MySQL Database Wizard).

   

   

8. Create a new database. Then create a database user with a strong password.

   

9. Add the user to the database. Give it All Privileges.

   

10. Write down the database name, user name and password.
11. Open your Moodle address in a browser, such as yourdomain.com/moodle.

    

12. Choose your language and continue.

    

13. Type the web address and the paths for the Moodle files and the moodledata folder.
14. Choose the database type. MariaDB or MySQL both work. Use localhost as the host, then add your database name, user and password.
15. Follow the checks. If one fails, it tells you what to change, such as a PHP setting. Hostvento support can help.
16. Create your admin account and name your site.

Quick recap

• Upload and extract the Moodle zip in File Manager.

  

• Make a moodledata folder outside public_html.
• Create a database and a user with all privileges.

  

  

• Run the setup page in your browser and create the admin account.
• Back up first if the domain already has a site.