Appendix B. Installing Mahara

This book is aimed at Mahara users, rather than Mahara administrators. However, a new user may wish to install a Mahara instance in order to experiment. Also, lots of people like to install Mahara on their own Linux machines or on a web server of their own in order to organize their own personal learning data.

This section is for those of you who have some knowledge of web applications and servers or feel that you could have a good go at installing Mahara.

Don't worry, we will keep it as simple as possible...

What will you need?

Before you can install Mahara, you will need to have access to a Linux server. It may be that you run Linux on a laptop or desktop at home or that your company or institution has its own Linux servers, in which case, great! If not, there are many hosting services available on the Internet, which will enable you to access a Linux server and therefore run Mahara.

It is important that you get a server to which you have root access. It is also important that you set your server up with the following features:

• Database: Mahara must have a database to work. The databases supported are PostgreSQL Version 8.1 or later and MySQL Version 5.0.25 or later. The Mahara developers recommend that you use PostgreSQL, if possible, but for most installations, MySQL will work just as well.

• PHP: Mahara requires PHP Version 5.1.3 or later.

• Web Server: The preferred web server is Apache.

• PHP extensions:

  • Compulsory Extensions: GD, JSON, cURL, libxml, SimpleXML, Session, pgSQL or Mysqli, EXIF, OpenSSL or XML-RCP (for networking support)

  • Optional Extension: Imagick

Ask your resident IT expert about the features listed above if you don't understand what they mean.

Note

A quick way to install some of the software listed above is to use the apt-get install command if you are using the Ubuntu/Debian Linux systems. See http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ to find out more.