Moodle 2.

0 with
Microsoft Technologies
Implementing Moodle 2 with Microsoft technologies
including Windows Server, IIS, Active Directory,
Microsoft SQL and Exchange

You can purchase this book from

http://www.bfcnetworks.com

Alex Pearce

Moodl
e2.
0wi
t
h
Mi
c
r
os
of
t
Tec
hnol
ogi
es
I
mpl
ement
i
ngMoodl
e2wi
t
hMi
c
r
os
of
t
t
ec
hnol
ogi
es
i
nc
l
udi
ngWi
ndowsSer
v
er
,
I
I
S,
Ac
t
i
v
eDi
r
ec
t
or
y
,
Mi
c
r
os
of
t
SQLandEx
c
hange

Al
exPear
c
e

Moodle 2.0 with Microsoft Technologies

Copyright 2011 - BFC Networks
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of bried quotation embedded in
critical articles and reviews.
Every effot has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of
the information presented. H2owever, the information contained in this book is
sold without warranty, either express r implied. Neither the author, BFC Networks,
nor its dealers or distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged
to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.
BFC Networks has endeavored to provide trademark information about all the
companies and products mentioed in this book by the appropriate use of Capitals.
However BFC Networks cannot auarantee the accurancy of this information.

First Published: August 2011

Published by BFC Networks Limited
1 The Haylofts
Halesowen
West Midlands
B63 1LG
United Kingdom
http://www.bfcnetworks.com
Special thanks to Martyn Pearce for reviewing the book.

To my beautiful wife Ellen, you make me so happy.

2|P age
Moodle 2.0 with Microsoft Technologies

Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................ 7
Chapter 1: Implementation of Moodle 2.0 on a single Windows Server ................... 9
Configure Windows, Roles and Features ................................................................ 9
Installing PHP to IIS ............................................................................................... 13
Testing IIS and PHP ............................................................................................... 16
Configuring the PHP.ini file ................................................................................... 17
Folders and Permissions ....................................................................................... 20
Installing SQL Server Express 2008 R2................................................................... 23
Install and Configure SQL Server 2.0 for PHP ........................................................ 26
Configure SQL Server Express ............................................................................... 28
Configure Moodle 2.0 ........................................................................................... 31
Summary ............................................................................................................... 35
Chapter 2: Implementation of Moodle 2.0 on two load balanced Window Servers 36
Understanding the Architecture ........................................................................... 36
Pre-requirements .................................................................................................. 39
Server Network Interface Cards ........................................................................ 39
Domain Users .................................................................................................... 39
Shares on SAN ................................................................................................... 40
Enabling the required Features and Role .............................................................. 40
Connecting to an iSCSI Drive ................................................................................. 43
Creating the Cluster .............................................................................................. 49
Installing SQL Server 2008 R2 as a Cluster ............................................................ 58
Configuring Moodle Web Front End Servers. ........................................................ 67
Installing PHP to IIS ............................................................................................... 71
Testing IIS and PHP ............................................................................................... 74
3|P age
Moodle 2.0 with Microsoft Technologies

Configuring the PHP.ini file ................................................................................... 75

Configuring Network Load Balancing .................................................................... 78
Testing the Network Load Balance ....................................................................... 82
Folders and Permissions ....................................................................................... 83
Configuring SQL Server ......................................................................................... 86
Download and Configuring Moodle ...................................................................... 88
Moving Moodle to be Network Load Balanced ..................................................... 92
Configuring IIS for remote Moodle files ................................................................ 93
Summary ............................................................................................................... 96
Chapter 3: Configure Moodle to use Exchange 2010 for email ................................ 97
Grant Moodle permission in Exchange 2010 Management Console .................... 97
Configure Moodle to user Exchange mail ........................................................... 100
Summary ............................................................................................................. 102
Chapter 4: Configuration of Moodle 2.0 authentication with LDAP/Active Directory
................................................................................................................................ 103
Create and delegate a user to view Active Directory .......................................... 104
Configure Moodle Authentication to use LDAP/Active Directory ....................... 106
Domain Name ................................................................................................. 107
Single Domain Controller ................................................................................ 107
Multiple Domain Controllers ........................................................................... 107
Other Active Directory and Moodle LDAP Settings ............................................. 110
Summary ............................................................................................................. 111
Chapter 5: Configure AD Attributes for Moodle users ........................................... 112
Understanding Active Directory Attributes ......................................................... 113
Updating Multiple User Attributes in Active Directory ....................................... 117
Configure Active Directory Attribute for Moodle................................................ 119
4|P age
Moodle 2.0 with Microsoft Technologies

Configure Active Directory to receive updates from Moodle ............................. 121

Summary ............................................................................................................. 124
Chapter 6: Configure Kerberos for Moodle 2 ......................................................... 125
Why use Kerberos with Moodle? ........................................................................ 126
Permission changes to folders ............................................................................ 126
Add SPNs to User ................................................................................................ 128
Add additional services to IIS and configuring Kerberos ..................................... 129
Testing Kerberos Authentication ........................................................................ 132
Summary ............................................................................................................. 135
Chapter 7: Configuring Single Sign On for Moodle 2 .............................................. 136
How Single Sign On works in Moodle 2 ............................................................... 136
Required configuration and changes for SSO ...................................................... 137
Configure Single Sign On ..................................................................................... 139
Summary ............................................................................................................. 141
Appendix ................................................................................................................. 142
Appendix A: Find the Distinguished Name of a User or Organisation Unit. ........ 142

5|P age
Moodle 2.0 with Microsoft Technologies

About the Author

In 2008 Alex Pearce founded BFC Networks in the UK who specialise in
implementing Microsoft technologies into schools and colleges around the country.
In 2009 BFC Networks were joint hosts of the Learning Gateway Conference held at
the world famous Belfry Golf Course in Birmingham where teachers and technical
staff learnt best practise about SharePoint and how schools have implemented the
Microsoft Learning Gateway products.
Alexs experiences include working for the largest school in Europe as the Learning
Gateway and ICT Manager, Learning Platform Solutions Architect for Building
Schools the Future in Birmingham and speaking at many SharePoint conferences.
In 2008, he was awarded Microsoft Most Valuable Professional in SharePoint for
this community support in the education sector helping in forums and blogging
(http://www.bfcnetworks.com/ajp/) an award he still holds today.
In his personal life he enjoys playing football, golf and cricket as well as being a keen
musician. In 2009 he met Ellen who he married in May 2011 in Birmingham, UK
where they live together.

6|P age
Moodle 2.0 with Microsoft Technologies

Introduction
Over the past 30 years technology has changed the world with the internet, email,
mobile phones and communication. With these cultural changes in society so has
education with students emailing teachers their homework, lessons using projectors
and degrees in computer science and programming.
One of the largest changes in educational learner is the ability to learn from the
web, the information highway. With ever growing content available to anyone with
a computer and an internet connection it has become important for education
institutions to be able to create their own content in an easy process, allocating
work to students and the server to give student instant marks and grades. These
types of web sites and web applications are known as Virtual Learning Environments
or VLEs and this is actually what Moodle is built to do.
Moodle 2.0 was released in early 2011 increasing the features of the previous
version allowing more users to communicate with each other and work with courses
specially built for their subject.
Built as a free open source product, Moodle can be implemented on any operating
system that can run a PHP website and one of these is Microsoft stack.
Most Moodle implementations are on Linux with Apache using a MySQL database
but this e-book looks at implementing it on a Microsoft, but why?
Most of Microsoft products are top selling and help the market to stay innovate,
increasing new features from other companies and drives the boundaries where
technology can go next. Some of these are Windows Server their server based
operating system, SQL Server for databases and Exchange for email.
Each of these products has been designed and built to be more resilient than the
previous ensuring that the service is always available for the end users. This allows
websites to run across multiple servers without the end user knowing that one of
the two servers has been shut down for maintenance.
With new features and versions from Microsoft and their products, so do new
security measures ensuring your data is secure and not vulnerable to a hacker.
7|P age
Moodle 2.0 with Microsoft Technologies

This is why this book looks at how Moodle can be implemented on scalable
technologies are that used in most educational establishments such as Windows
Server, SQL Server and Active Directory.
The book will also look at connecting Moodle to other services you may have in your
organisation including Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange.

8|P age
Moodle 2.0 with Microsoft Technologies

Moodle 2.0 with

Microsoft Technologies
Implementing Moodle 2 with Microsoft technologies
including Windows Server, IIS, Active Directory,
Microsoft SQL and Exchange

You can purchase this book from

http://www.bfcnetworks.com

Alex Pearce