In this tutorial, we will show you how to install and configuration of ATutor on your Ubuntu 16.04. For those of you who didn’t know, ATutor is a powerful Open Source Web-based Learning Content Management System (LCMS) that has revolutionized online education. This versatile platform empowers educators, institutions, and organizations to create, manage, and deliver engaging e-learning content. ATutor’s user-friendly interface and robust features make it an ideal choice for those seeking to implement a comprehensive online learning solution.
This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of ATutor on a Ubuntu 16.04 server.
Prerequisites
- A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution.
- It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
- SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
- A
non-root sudo useror access to theroot user. We recommend acting as anon-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.
Install ATutor on Ubuntu 16.04
Step 1. Update System Packages.
The first step in any Ubuntu-based installation is to ensure your system packages are up-to-date. This practice not only provides you with the latest features but also addresses potential security vulnerabilities. Open your terminal and run the following commands:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade
The first command refreshes your package lists, while the second upgrades all installed packages to their latest versions. This process may take a few minutes, depending on your internet connection and the number of packages that need updating.
Step 2. Install LAMP (Linux, Apache, MariaDB, PHP) server.
A Ubuntu 16.04 LAMP server is required. If you do not have LAMP installed, you can follow our guide here. Also, install all required PHP modules:
sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5 php5-mcrypt php5-mysql php5-gd
Step 3. Installing ATutor.
The first thing to do is to go to ATutor’s download page and download the latest stable version of ATutor, At the moment of writing this article it is version 2.2.1:
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/atutor/ATutor%202/ATutor-2.2.1.tar.gz?r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atutor.ca%2Fatutor%2Fdownload.php -O ATutor-2.2.1.tar.gz
Unpack the ATutor archive to the document root directory on your server:
tar -zxvf ATutor-2.2.1.tar.gz mv ATutor/ /var/www/html/atutor/
We will need to change some folders permissions:
chown -R www-data: /var/www/html/atutor/
Step 4. Configuring MariaDB for ATutor.
By default, MariaDB is not hardened. You can secure MariaDB using the mysql_secure_installation script. you should read and below each step carefully which will set a root password, remove anonymous users, disallow remote root login, and remove the test database and access to secure MariaDB:
mysql_secure_installation
Configure it like this:
- Set root password? [Y/n] y - Remove anonymous users? [Y/n] y - Disallow root login remotely? [Y/n] y - Remove test database and access to it? [Y/n] y - Reload privilege tables now? [Y/n] y
Next, we will need to log in to the MariaDB console and create a database for the ATutor. Run the following command:
mysql -u root -p
This will prompt you for a password, so enter your MariaDB root password and hit Enter. Once you are logged in to your database server you need to create a database for ATutor installation:
create database atutor; grant all privileges on atutor.* to atutoruser@localhost identified by 'your_password'; flush privileges; exit
Step 5. Configuring Apache web server for ATutor.
Create a new virtual host directive in Apache. For example, create a new Apache configuration file named ‘atutor.conf’ on your virtual server:
sudo a2enmod rewrite touch /etc/apache2/sites-available/atutor.conf ln -s /etc/apache2/sites-available/atutor.conf /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/atutor.conf nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/atutor.conf
Add the following lines:
<VirtualHost *:80> ServerAdmin admin@yourdomain.com DocumentRoot "/var/www/html/atutor/" ServerName your-domain.com ServerAlias www.your-domain.com <Directory /var/www/html/atutor/> Options FollowSymLinks AllowOverride All Order allow,deny allow from all </Directory> ErrorLog "/var/log/apache2/yourdomain.com-error_log" CustomLog "/var/log/apache2/yourdomain.com-access_log" combined </VirtualHost>
Now, we can restart the Apache webserver so that the changes take place:
systemctl restart apache2.service
Step 6. Accessing ATutor.
ATutor will be available on HTTP port 80 by default. Open your favorite browser and navigate to http://yourdomain.com/ or http://your-server-ip and complete the required steps to finish the installation. If you are using a firewall, please open port 80 to enable access to the control panel.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed ATutor. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing ATutor (Learning Management System) on your Ubuntu 16.04 system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you to check the official ATutor website.
