🚀 Quick Start

This page shows the fastest way to get a working Moodle instance.

tip

Always override MOODLE_USERNAME and MOODLE_PASSWORD. The defaults (moodleuser / PLEASE_CHANGEME) must never be used in a reachable environment.

Option 1 — Single container (SQLite)

Great for local demos, evaluation, and CI smoke tests. Not for production.

docker run -d --name moodle \
  -p 80:8080 \
  -e MOODLE_DATABASE_TYPE=sqlite3 \
  -e MOODLE_USERNAME=admin \
  -e MOODLE_PASSWORD=ChangeMe123! \
  -e SITE_URL=http://localhost \
  -v moodledata:/var/www/moodledata \
  ruseler/alpine-moodle

Then watch the logs until initialization finishes:

docker logs -f moodle

Open <http://localhost> and log in.

Option 2 — Docker Compose with PostgreSQL

The recommended minimum for a persistent deployment:

services:
  postgres:
    image: postgres:alpine
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: moodle
      POSTGRES_USER: moodle
      POSTGRES_DB: moodle
    volumes:
      - postgres:/var/lib/postgresql

  moodle:
    image: ruseler/alpine-moodle
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      SITE_URL: http://localhost
      DB_TYPE: pgsql
      DB_HOST: postgres
      DB_NAME: moodle
      DB_USER: moodle
      DB_PASS: moodle
      MOODLE_USERNAME: admin
      MOODLE_PASSWORD: ChangeMe123!
    ports:
      - "80:8080"
    volumes:
      - moodledata:/var/www/moodledata
      - moodlehtml:/var/www/html
    depends_on:
      - postgres

volumes:
  postgres:
  moodledata:
  moodlehtml:

Start the stack:

docker compose up -d
docker compose logs -f moodle

The first boot installs the database schema and runs the Moodle CLI installer. Subsequent boots reuse the existing data.

What to do next

• Put the container behind a reverse proxy for HTTPS.
• Review the environment variables to tune PHP limits, SMTP, Redis, etc.
• Read Persistence & Volumes before your first backup.
• When upgrading Moodle, follow Upgrading.

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This documentation is a fork of erseco/alpine-moodle. The upstream documentation is available here.