The last step: Setting up a cron process
Before you can be let loose on your Mahara, there is one last thing that you must remember to do to complete the installation: set up a cron job. If, like me, when I installed Mahara for the first time, you are thinking "What on earth is a cron job?", don't worry, it is relatively simple.
The cron job is a process that simply enables a number of tasks to be performed regularly, typically every hour. This is useful for updating RSS feeds, amongst other things. The easiest way to add a cron process on a Debian or Ubuntu Linux server is to add a new entry in a file, called a crontab, by using the command:
crontab -e
...and adding a line similar to:
* * * * www-data php /path/to/mahara/htdocs/lib/cron.php
If you are interested, see http://www.adminschoice.com/docs/crontab.htm for more information on crontab files.
Can I install Mahara on Windows?
At the moment, the Mahara developers offer no support for running Mahara on Windows Servers. It is designed to primarily work with Linux, Apache, PHP, and open source SQL databases.
This, however, doesn't mean that Mahara won't work on Windows, so If you are feeling adventurous why not give it a go and report back to Mahara on your experience?
What about installation on other operating systems?
The Mahara developers state clearly that they don't test their system with any other operating systems, including Solaris, Mac, and BSD. Again, that isn't to say that Mahara won't work on these systems, it is just best if you play it safe and choose to run your Mahara on the system that it was built for—Linux.
