Dokeos is a free and open source learning management system. There are two versions of Dokeos:
Objective
In this tutorial we’ll learn how to install the Dokeos Community Edition on Ubuntu 14.04. We will also install and configure its prerequisites.
Prerequisites
We will install Dokeos in a fresh installation of Ubuntu Server 14.04. We also need these applications to be able to run Dokeos:
- Apache 2
- MySQL 5
- PHP > 5
Update Base System
Before we install Dokeos, let’s update the system to the latest update.
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get -y upgrade
Install Apache 2
After applying latest update to our base system, Lets’s start installing Apache 2 and required libraries.
$ sudo apt-get -y install apache2 apache2-bin apache2-data apache2-mpm-prefork libaio1 libapache2-mod-php5 libapr1 libaprutil1 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libhtml-template-perl libmysqlclient18 libterm-readkey-perl libwrap0 ssl-cert tcpd
We can check the Apache 2 service status using command below.
sudo service apache2 status
* apache2 is running
We can also check whether Apache 2 listen on which port using command below.
sudo netstat -naptu | grep apache
tcp6 0 0 :::80 :::* LISTEN 14873/apache2
Install MySQL 5.6
We will install and use MySQL 5.6 for the Dokeos database.
We will use MySQL Server 5.6 since MySQL 5.6 is the most up to date version of MySQL shipped with Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr.
$ sudo apt-get -y install mysql-server-5.6
We need to setup MySQL root password. Please input password for MySQL root user.
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Verify root password.
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Securing MySQL Installation
We will secure MySQL installation by running mysql_secure_installation.
Enter root password that we set on installation
$ mysql_secure_installation
NOTE: RUNNING ALL PARTS OF THIS SCRIPT IS RECOMMENDED FOR ALL MySQL
SERVERS IN PRODUCTION USE! PLEASE READ EACH STEP CAREFULLY!
In order to log into MySQL to secure it, we'll need the current
password for the root user. If you've just installed MySQL, and
you haven't set the root password yet, the password will be blank,
so you should just press enter here.
Enter current password for root (enter for none):
OK, successfully used password, moving on...
Since we already have root password set, answer this part with n.
Setting the root password ensures that nobody can log into the MySQL
root user without the proper authorisation.
You already have a root password set, so you can safely answer 'n'.
Change the root password? [Y/n] n
... skipping.
Remove the anonymous user to improve security. This will make sure people or the application has the correct username and password to login to MySQL. Answer with Y
By default, a MySQL installation has an anonymous user, allowing anyone
to log into MySQL without having to have a user account created for
them. This is intended only for testing, and to make the installation
go a bit smoother. You should remove them before moving into a
production environment.
Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] Y
... Success!
We also want remove root login from remote machine. Answer with Y.
Normally, root should only be allowed to connect from 'localhost'. This
ensures that someone cannot guess at the root password from the network.
Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] Y
... Success!
Previously the test database was created automatically by the MySQL installation, but MySQL 5.6 does not create test database. We can still choose Y, it will throw an error but that’s fine.
By default, MySQL comes with a database named 'test' that anyone can
access. This is also intended only for testing, and should be removed
before moving into a production environment.
Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] Y
- Dropping test database...
ERROR 1008 (HY000) at line 1: Can't drop database 'test'; database doesn't exist
... Failed! Not critical, keep moving...
- Removing privileges on test database...
... Success!
The last step is to reload MySQL privilege table.
Reloading the privilege tables will ensure that all changes made so far
will take effect immediately.
Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] Y
... Success!
All done! If you've completed all of the above steps, your MySQL
installation should now be secure.
Thanks for using MySQL!
Cleaning up...
Create a Database for Dokeos
Now we have a secure MySQL installation, it’s time to create database and user for dokeos itself.
Login to MySQL using your root credentials.
$ mysql -u root -p
Enter password:
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 58
Server version: 5.6.30-0ubuntu0.14.04.1 (Ubuntu)
Copyright (c) 2000, 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.
mysql>
Create new database named dokeos using command below:
mysql> CREATE DATABASE dokeos_main;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)
Create a User for Dokeos
The database for dokeos is ready, let’s create a username and password and grant privileges to the dokeos database.
Don’t forget to change the password dokeos123secret below with better password.
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `dokeos_main`.* TO 'dokeos'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'dokeos123secret';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
We need to run the FLUSH PRIVILEGES command so that the privileges table will be reloaded by MySQL and we can use the new credentials.
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Exit from the MySQL console by typing \q
mysql> \q
Install PHP 5
The last component that we have to install before we can install dokeos is PHP 5. We will install PHP 5 and several common PHP libraries.
$ sudo apt-get -y install php5-cli php5-common php5-json php5-mysql php5-readline
Install additional php libraries:
$ sudo apt-get -y install php5-gd php5-ldap php5-intl
Restart the Apache 2 process so the changes will be applied:
$ sudo service apache2 restart
Install Dokeos
All prerequisites are now installed. So we’re ready to install dokeos. The latest stable version of dokeos is available via the Dokeos Community Edition download page.
At the time of this writing, the latest stable version is 3.0, let’s download dokeos compressed file using wget.
$ wget -c http://www.dokeos.com/dokeosce30.zip
Extract the downloaded file using unzip. If your system don’t have unzip yet, you can install unzip using command below:
$ sudo apt-get -y install unzip
Extract dokeos using unzip:
$ unzip dokeosce30.zip
There are two version of dokeos included in Dokeos Community edition archive, we will use unicode version. let’s extract this version.
$ cd dokeosce30
$ unzip dokeosce-unicode-rc.zip
Move dokeosce-unicode-rc directory as dokeos to Apache directory:
$ sudo mv dokeosce-unicode-rc /var/www/dokeos
Change the ownership of dokeos directory to www-data user and group.
$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/dokeos
The Dokeos files are ready, now let’s create Apache Virtual Host configuration to serve dokeos.
Configure Apache Virtual Host for http Only
Create new apache configuration file on /etc/apache2/sites-available/dokeos.conf with contents below.
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName dokeos.exampleserver.xyz
DocumentRoot /var/www/dokeos
<Directory /var/www/dokeos>
Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
php_value post_max_size 10M
php_value upload_max_filesize 10M
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/dokeos.exampleserver.xyz-error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/dokeos.exampleserver.xyz-access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
Don’t forget to change dokeos.exampleserver.xyz above with the domain name that you use for your dokeos installation.
Enable the site using a2ensite command.
$ sudo a2ensite dokeos
Reload apache2 process so it read the new virtualhost configuration:
$ sudo service apache2 reload
Dokeos Setup Wizard
Now point our browser to Dokeos URL, it will redirect to Dokeos setup wizard. Click on CLICK TO INSTALL DOKEOS button
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Step 1 is choosing installation language. We will use English in this tutorial, click next.
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Step 2 is requirements checking, We should pass all requirements check except Xapian support. Click New Installation
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Step 3 is license agreement, Click I ACCEPT
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Step 4 is database settings. We can input database that we already created and credential for Dokeos that we created before.
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Step 5 is config settings. Input all settings to match your setup.
Choose :
* sha1 for encryption method
* no for self registration
* no for self registration as trainer
This to make sure our setup is closed for public by default.
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Step 6 is last check before install, we can review the parameters that we already add on setup, then click INSTALL DOKEOS
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Dokeos site is ready. You can login from login form on the homepage using admin credentials we created on step 5.
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After successfully login we will be redirected to Dokeos admin dashboard.
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Secure Dokeos Installation
As advised by Dokeos installer we need to change permissions on some files to read only.
$ cd /var/www/dokeos
$ chmod 444 main/inc/conf/configuration.php
$ chmod 444 main/install/index.php
Configure https only site for dokeos
A secure connection is now a requirement for web applications. The last step that we will do in this tutorial is changing the connection to only use https. We assume that you already have SSL certificate and private key.
Let’s create new apache virtual host configuration on /etc/apache2/sites-available/dokeos-ssl.conf with contents below. Don’t forget to change:
ServerNameSSLCertificateFileSSLCertificateChainFileSSLCertificateKeyFile
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName dokeos.exampleserver.xyz
Redirect permanent / https://dokeos.exampleserver.xyz/
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost *:443>
ServerName dokeos.exampleserver.xyz
DocumentRoot /var/www/dokeos
<Directory /var/www/dokeos>
Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
php_value post_max_size 10M
php_value upload_max_filesize 10M
</Directory>
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/dokeos.exampleserver.xyz-error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/dokeos.exampleserver.xyz-access.log combined
SSLEngine on
SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/dokeos.exampleserver.xyz.crt
SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/apache2/ssl/dokeos.exampleserver.xyz.crt
SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/dokeos.exampleserver.xyz.key
# Uncomment the following directive when using client certificate authentication
#SSLCACertificateFile /path/to/ca_certs_for_client_authentication
# HSTS (mod_headers is required) (15768000 seconds = 6 months)
Header always set Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=15768000"
</VirtualHost>
# intermediate configuration, tweak to your needs
SSLProtocol all -SSLv2 -SSLv3
SSLCipherSuite ECDHE-ECDSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-RSA-CHACHA20-POLY1305:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:DHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA384:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA256:DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:ECDHE-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA:AES128-GCM-SHA256:AES256-GCM-SHA384:AES128-SHA256:AES256-SHA256:AES128-SHA:AES256-SHA:DES-CBC3-SHA:!DSS
SSLHonorCipherOrder on
We will also disable dokeos http only virtual host and enable the new virtual host config.
$ sudo a2dissite dokeos
$ sudo a2ensite dokeos-ssl
The new virtual host configuration needs Apache mod_ssl and mod_headers modules. We need to enable those modules.
$ sudo a2enmod ssl
$ sudo a2enmod headers
Now, restart Apache 2 service so it will reload its configuration. We need to restart instead of reload since we enable new module.
$ sudo service apache2 restart
We need to change root_web value of Dokeos to be able to serve Dokeos using https correctly. We need to change configuration.php and configur
Open /var/www/dokeos/main/inc/conf/configuration.php
Find the line:
$_configuration['root_web'] = 'http://dokeos.exampleserver.xyz/';
Replace http:// with https://
$_configuration['root_web'] = 'https://dokeos.exampleserver.xyz/';
Now our Dokeos installation is ready to be served from https endpoint.
You can start exploring and learning more about Dokeos from the Dokeos documentation.
Summary
In this tutorial we learned how to install dokeos on Ubuntu 14.04.
We installed all the prerequisites, created a user and database on MySQL for Dokeos and also configured Apache 2 virtual hosts to be able to serve dokeos.
We also configured https settings for dokeos so we can run Dokeos securely.
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