I am having backup problems, and was troubleshooting other issues earlier in the year, and my resolution at the semester was to export all the classes, create a clean database and reload the classes thereby getting rid of any cruft issues from a not-as-old-as-one-might-think Moodle setup.
The day started easily but I kept getting a nagging feeling that the classes were to large and found a mdl_log table in the database with entries from years ago and quite a large number of them. Apparently Moodle upgraded and did not remove the old log. So I used TRUNCATE and emptied the table. Of course I had researched the table and implications, backed up the database and so forth.
I then changed the log retention date to 2 days and ran cron repeatedly and was unable to trim the mdl_logstore_standard_log file at all and it was huge as well. I finally used TRUNCATE on that file as well.
I am a week along and the log files are running fine, no logs are appearing in the old table and I am hopeful the current logs are being pruned in accordance with the configuration.
I still haven’t resolved the backup issues and I am sure I have something else in the database and I pass on the obvious lesson that a Moodle site should be completely rebuilt annually, or on some regular schedule, to ensure that old data/tables are pruned or removed effectively.
If I could just resolve the backup stretching out as well as the backups in some, but not all, classes being retained I would have this system under control. Soon though.
Moodle Automated Backup Problems
I am back to troubleshooting, yet again, the problem of Moodle backups taking forever and a day. An actual day, for very small courses.
A second problem occurring with the automated backups is that the old backups are not being purged so the file system is filling up with them rather than purging/pruning them. I am solving the problem at present by a weekly manual clean up.
I could simply pour over the forums for an answer, which has not produced results. I could look at tables/records in the actual database for anomalies and that strikes me as time consuming. Or I could wait until the semester break in two weeks and backup and export each class and all the information and create a brand new instance of Moodle and restore the classes into that and see if that leaves the cruft and problems behind.
I am going with that alternative in the interests of cleaning up any other problems I am not yet aware of that affect other areas including performance.
Will post my results.
MagPi magazine #75
The 75 Greatest Raspberry Pi Projects star in this month’s edition of The MagPi.
We asked our entire community, and stars from the Raspberry Pi Foundation, to unearth the best projects around. The result is an inspirational list of things to create.
Also! Install the brand-new Raspberry Pi TV HAT official add-on board. Discover how to record and watch live television on your Raspberry Pi.
Plus all this inside The MagPi 75:
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4D Arcade
Building an arcade cabinet that sprays water in your face when you crash. -
Add 433MHz radio
Build a secret chat device with Raspberry Pi to send and receive messages -
Vintage knitting
How one engineer hacked a knitting machine to create a giant star map -
Camera Module
How to add sight to your projects with the Raspberry Pi Camera Module. Plus! The best Camera Projects around. -
Starter kits
These amazing bundles make getting started with Raspberry Pi a breeze. -
Minecraft resources
Hack, build and code virtual worlds with Minecraft Pi. -
Maker Faire New York
The team visit the states and check out some amazing builds. - And much, much more
Packt’s Moodle Books
This spring I reviewed the Packt publishing book Moodle 3 E-Learning Course Development – Fourth Edition
Within a week after it being published I had already recommended it for a teacher/consultant to use it to setup there online training course in support of their book/program. Take a look it is pretty great.
I have just finished reviewing another Moodle book for Packt which should be officially published soon.
Developer Survey Results 2018
https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018/
This year, over 100,000 developers told us how they learn, build their careers, which tools they’re using, and what they want in a job.
Each year, we ask the developer community about everything from their favorite technologies to their job preferences. This year marks the eighth year we’ve published our Annual Developer Survey results—with the largest number of respondents yet. Over 100,000 developers took the 30-minute survey this past January.
This year, we covered a few new topics ranging from artificial intelligence to ethics in coding. Here are a few of the top takeaways from this year’s results:
- DevOps and machine learning are important trends in the software industry today. Languages and frameworks associated with these kinds of works are on the rise, and developers working in these areas command the highest salaries.
- Only tiny fractions of developers say that they would write unethical code or that they have no obligation to consider the ethical implications of code, but beyond that, respondents see a lot of ethical gray. Developers are not sure how they would report ethical problems, and have differing ideas about who ultimately is responsible for unethical code.
- Developers are overall optimistic about the possibilities that artificial intelligence offers, but are not in agreement about what the dangers of AI are.
- Python has risen in the ranks of programming languages on our survey, surpassing C# in popularity this year, much like it surpassed PHP last year.
- When assessing a prospective job, different kinds of developers apply different sets of priorities. Women say their highest priorities are company culture and opportunities for professional development, while men say their highest priorities are compensation and working with specific technologies.
Want to dive into the results yourself? In a few weeks, we’ll make the anonymized results of the survey available for download under the Open Database License (ODbL). We look forward to seeing what you find!