Upgrading bitnami/moodle container

Question

I have a setup based on what is described in https://hub.docker.com/r/bitnami/moodle

# Copyright Broadcom, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
# SPDX-License-Identifier: APACHE-2.0

version: '2'
services:
  mariadb:
    image: docker.io/bitnami/mariadb:11.3
    environment:
      # ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD is recommended only for development.
      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
      - MARIADB_USER=bn_moodle
      - MARIADB_DATABASE=bitnami_moodle
      - MARIADB_CHARACTER_SET=utf8mb4
      - MARIADB_COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
    volumes:
      - ./mariadb_data:/bitnami/mariadb
  moodle:
    image: docker.io/bitnami/moodle:4.3
    ports:
      - '80:8080'
      - '443:8443'
    environment:
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_HOST=mariadb
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_PORT_NUMBER=3306
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_USER=bn_moodle
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_moodle
      # ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD is recommended only for development.
      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
    volumes:
      - ./moodle_data:/bitnami/moodle
      - ./moodledata_data:/bitnami/moodledata
    depends_on:
      - mariadb

The moodle version in site administration - notifications: Moodle 4.3.2 (Build: 20231222)

I want to upgrade the moodle instance to moodle:4.4 and for some reason thought it'd be as simple as updating the docker-compose.yml and restarting the stack. But, it does seem that there is much to do and I don't quite understand how to do this.

I also noticed that I would like to have all the language versions available so I created Dockerfile with only FROM bitnami/moodle and docker-compose.yml

# Copyright Broadcom, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
# SPDX-License-Identifier: APACHE-2.0

version: '2'
services:
  mariadb:
    image: docker.io/bitnami/mariadb:11.3
    environment:
      # ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD is recommended only for development.
      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
      - MARIADB_USER=bn_moodle
      - MARIADB_DATABASE=bitnami_moodle
      - MARIADB_CHARACTER_SET=utf8mb4
      - MARIADB_COLLATE=utf8mb4_unicode_ci
    volumes:
      - ./mariadb_data:/bitnami/mariadb
  moodle:
    #image: docker.io/bitnami/moodle:4.4
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile
      args:
        - WITH_ALL_LOCALES=yes
    ports:
      - '80:8080'
      - '443:8443'
    environment:
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_HOST=mariadb
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_PORT_NUMBER=3306
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_USER=bn_moodle
      - MOODLE_DATABASE_NAME=bitnami_moodle
      # ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD is recommended only for development.
      - ALLOW_EMPTY_PASSWORD=yes
    volumes:
      - ./moodle_data:/bitnami/moodle
      - ./moodledata_data:/bitnami/moodledata
    depends_on:
      - mariadb

Could someone provide a step-by-step instructions how I get from old setup to new setup without losing my data?

Answer 1

I treat the upgrade as a "restore from backup" procedure

I've done this a couple of times and not had any issues yet. Here are my steps. Note:

• You will have to adapt for your own DB credentials.
• dc is an alias for docker compose

Step 1: Back up your moodledata and database

dc exec mariadb mariadb-dump -u bn_moodle bitnami_moodle > "${BACKUP_DIR}/backup.sql"
docker cp -a docker-compose-moodle-1:/bitnami/moodledata "${BACKUP_DIR}"

Step 2: Launch a new compose stack with your desired version

# Copy your docker-compose.yml to a new directory
cp <project-dir> <new-project-dir>
cd <new-project-dir>

# NB: Change the external port to a new port to avoid conflict if on the same host

# Start the docker-compose and check the logs
# NB wait for initial install to complete
dc up -d && dc logs -f

Step 3a: Restore the DB (change to match your auth)

# Clear the DB.
dc exec mariadb mariadb -u bn_moodle -e 'drop database bitnami_moodle; create database bitnami_moodle' 
# Load the snapshot DB into the docker mariadb
dc exec -T mariadb mariadb -u bn_moodle -D bitnami_moodle < ${BACKUP_DIR}/backup.sql

Step 3b: Copy in your "moodledata" and set file permissions

# get the name of your **new** <moodle-container>
docker ps

# Copy in the "moodledata"
docker cp -a ${BACKUP_DIR}/moodledata <moodle-container>:/bitnami/

# Update the file permissions
dc exec moodle chown -R daemon:daemon /bitnami/moodledata/

Step 4: Redirect traffic to the new instance

• First check if it is responding locally with curl
• Redirect traffic (whatever LB or reverse-proxy you are using)

Step 5: Log in to the site as admin. The upgrade window should display. Follow the instructions to upgrade

Step 5 (alternative): Restart the moodle container and view the logs. It should auto-upgrade. I don't like this because I can't see what is happening.

Issues with this approach

• I'm not sure if deleting and restoring the DB while the application is running (step 3a) could result in data corruption. Perhaps putting the "new site" in maintenance mode before doing this would prevent that?

NOTE:

• If you don't mind downtime, and you are comfortable with restorting from backups, you could just remove the running stack with dc down -v and restore with the image version bump