Moodle

And is theoretically not too hard even (both MediaWiki and Moodle are PHP apps which are built on top of the TurnKey LAMP appliance). However like always, the devil is in the detail... Especially if you aren't very familiar with Linux in general (or Debian more specifically).

In the future we hope to make this sort of TurnKey usage scenario much easier to achieve but that will still be a while away. And unfortunately I don't have the time right now to sit down and walk you through it... (Actually I'd probably have to sit down and work through it myself and then tell you how I did it, which I really don't have time for...!)

If you are using it 'inhouse' (i.e. on a local network) then my suggestion would be to keep them as separate appliances and run them as VMs. Whilst it can be argued that it is more resource efficient to combine them, personally I prefer the redundancy provided by 2 separate systems.

If you have a desktop PC made within the last few years spare then ProxmoxVE is IMO a great free open source hypervisor (I run it at home for my test lab on 6yo desktop hardware) and then have them as OVZ templates (TurnKey appliance OVZ templates are available for download within the Proxmox WebUI) - then transfer your existing data in with TKLBAM. However there are plenty of other options...

If you have limited resources or are running them in the cloud and separate appliances is not really an option for you, then possibly the quickest, easiest way would be to just install Moodle and MediaWiki side-by-side (from upstream) onto the TurnKey LAMP appliance; each into their own directory (e.g. install Moodle into /var/www/moodle; making it accessible via http://site.com/moodle and MediaWiki into /var/www/wiki; making it accessible via http://site.com/wiki).

Sorry it doesn't directly answer your question but should get you going in the right direction...

Proxmox requires a 64 bit CPU and I don't think that Pentium 4s were... :(

You could still try with the TurnKey LXC host appliance and use TurnKey LXC containers. I would expect that even with your low specs it should still run ok. Only thing is though that i haven't played with the LXC appliance much and not sure how user friendly it is. I don't think that it has a pretty UI (like Proxmox) so you'll need to learn the commandline commands. But beyond the initial learning curve it should still be workable...

Dear Jeremy,

thanks for your response and your ideas.

I'm willing to try your first idea: "… to keep them as separate appliances and run them as VMs." but I'm not sure if we have the minimum or recommended system requirements so I want to post them here and ask for further advice:

• Computer: HP Compag dc7100 CMT.
• Processor: Intel Pentium 4 (2.80 GHz).
• RAM: 1.024 MB (DDR / 400 MHz).
• HD: 200 GByte (Western Digital).

Thanks for your help and feedback.

best regards

And thanks for taking the time to provide your detailed feedback. Seriously it's gold for us! :)

I have been planning to have a play with the TurnKey LXC appliance so this is definitely a good nudge for me to get into it.

Dear Jeremy,

thanks for your response and your ideas. Today I have finished the work of our TurnKey-Server and I want to write some feedback about my problems and the final solution.

Plan A: LXC-App

I truly had some problems with the installation of the LXC-App:

1. Find the right i386 image download link (I suggest to create a link to the download location for the i386 images).
2. The already known "refusing to write to /etc/network/interfaces header not found: # UNCONFIGURED INTERFACES" error.
3. The set-up process of the nat-connections.
4. Access the VMs and running them.

The first two problems I could solve by myself the other ones are still present. I checked numerous guides, clues and tutorials from many sites to try to solve these issues but these were all very different and not helpful - So I couldn't solve these two issues.

/!\ Learning curve down - Plan A: failed.

Plan B: LAMP-App

I changed my strategy and switched over to your last suggested plan "... to just install Moodle and MediaWiki side-by-side (from upstream) onto the TurnKey LAMP appliance; each into their own directory.".

The installation of the LAMP-App was very easy next to the installation of Moodle and MediaWiki.

The installation guides for both of them explained every step and the faq's listed additional details for every system - No errors occured.

/!\ Learning curve up - Plan B: success.

My opinion

Thanks for your great effort, your help and support. Your presented ideas next to the easy and simple installation process of the LAMP-App was more than helpful.

My initial learning curve is still there and I'm willing to try the LXC-App or other VM-Apps again. Perhaps I need a good tutorial or better guide which explains me every step. 

/!\ Let me know when something is out and I'm onto the train for "research and development".

I'm very excited about the next development steps of the TurnKey Linux Apps and thanks again for your help and feedback.

best regards