Moodle Global Search - Elasticsearch Backend

This plugin allows Moodle to use Elasticsearch as the search engine for Moodle's Global Search.

The following features are provided by this plugin:

• Multiple versions of Elasticsearch
• File indexing
• Request signing, compatible with Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Respects Moodle Proxy settings
• Image recognition and indexing (via external service)

Supported Moodle Versions

This plugin currently supports Moodle:

Elasticsearch Version Support

Currently this plugin is tested to work against the following versions of Elasticsearch:

• 5.5.0
• 6.4.1
• 6.6.1
• 7.17.9
• 8.5.3

And following version of OpenSearch:

• 2.4.1

Verified Platforms

This plugin has been tested to work on the following cloud platforms:

• Microsoft Azure
• Amazon Webservices (AWS)
• Elastic Cloud

Generic Elasticsearch Setup

To use this plugin first you will need to setup an Elaticsearch service.

The following is the bare minimum to get Elasticsearch working in a Debian/Ubuntu Operating System environment. Consult the Elasticsearch Documention for in depth instructions, or for details on how to install on other operating systems.

NOTE: The instructions below should only be used for test and dev purposes. Don't do this in production. For a production setup we recommend Elasticsearch running as a cluster, getting started documentation can be found here: https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/setup.html

Elasticsearch requires Java as a prerequisite, to install Java:

sudo apt-get install default-jre default-jdk

Once Java is installed, the following commands will install and start Elasticsearch.

wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-6.6.1.deb
sudo dpkg -i elasticsearch-6.6.1.deb
sudo update-rc.d elasticsearch defaults
sudo service elasticsearch start

A quick test can be performed by running the following from the command line.

curl -X GET 'http://localhost:9200'

The output should look something like:

{
  "name" : "1QHLiux",
  "cluster_name" : "elasticsearch",
  "cluster_uuid" : "mLRqIsnVRrGdgg2OfHWNrg",
  "version" : {
    "number" : "5.1.2",
    "build_hash" : "c8c4c16",
    "build_date" : "2017-01-11T20:18:39.146Z",
    "build_snapshot" : false,
    "lucene_version" : "6.3.0"
  },
  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}

By default the Elasticsearch service is available on: http://localhost:9200

Docker

You can also run Elasticsearch with Docker. The project publishes an offical container for supported version with instructions.

Azure Elasticsearch Setup

To use this plugin first you will need to setup an Elaticsearch service.

To use Microsoft Azure to provide an Elasticsearch service for Moodle:

1. Create a Microsoft Azure account: Account creation page
2. Create a Linux virtual machine and connect to virtual machine: Azure Linux virtual machine setup guide
3. Setup an Elasticsearch service:

Elasticsearch requires Java as a prerequisite, to install Java:

sudo apt-get install default-jre default-jdk

wget https://artifacts.elastic.co/downloads/elasticsearch/elasticsearch-5.5.0.deb
sudo dpkg -i elasticsearch-5.5.0.deb
sudo update-rc.d elasticsearch defaults
sudo service elasticsearch start

curl -X GET 'http://localhost:9200'

{
  "name" : "1QHLiux",
  "cluster_name" : "elasticsearch",
  "cluster_uuid" : "mLRqIsnVRrGdgg2OfHWNrg",
  "version" : {
    "number" : "5.1.2",
    "build_hash" : "c8c4c16",
    "build_date" : "2017-01-11T20:18:39.146Z",
    "build_snapshot" : false,
    "lucene_version" : "6.3.0"
  },
  "tagline" : "You Know, for Search"
}

wget http://apache.mirror.amaze.com.au/tika/tika-server-1.16.jar
java -jar tika-server-1.16.jar

define('TEST_SEARCH_ELASTIC_HOSTNAME', 'http://127.0.0.1');
define('TEST_SEARCH_ELASTIC_PORT', 9200);
define('TEST_SEARCH_ELASTIC_INDEX', 'moodle_test_2');

export TEST_SEARCH_ELASTIC_HOSTNAME=http://127.0.0.1; export TEST_SEARCH_ELASTIC_PORT=9200; export TEST_SEARCH_ELASTIC_INDEX=moodle_test