---
title: "Deploy Moodle 5.2 | Official Release, Postgres, Nightly Backups"
description: "Current Moodle LMS on Postgres, installed with no open setup page"
category: "CMS"
url: https://railway.com/deploy/moodle-5
---

# Deploy Moodle 5.2 | Official Release, Postgres, Nightly Backups

Current Moodle LMS on Postgres, installed with no open setup page

**[Deploy Moodle 5.2 | Official Release, Postgres, Nightly Backups on Railway](https://railway.com/template/moodle-5)**

Machine-readable deploy manifest (JSON, validated by TemplateCI): https://railway.com/deploy/moodle-5/manifest.json

- **Creator:** Two Workspaces
- **Category:** CMS

## Template content

### Moodle https://beekee.ch/images/icons/moodle.webp

- **Source:** https://github.com/nomideusz/moodle-railway
- **Health check:** /healthz
- **Public domain:** Yes

### Postgres https://devicons.railway.com/i/postgresql.svg

- **Image:** ghcr.io/railwayapp-templates/postgres-ssl:17

## Buckets

- **Backups**

## Documentation

# Deploy and Host Moodle on Railway

[![Deploy on Railway](https://railway.com/button.svg)](https://railway.com/new/template/moodle-5?utm_medium=integration&utm_source=button&utm_campaign=moodle-5)

[Moodle](https://moodle.org) is the open-source learning platform used by schools, universities and companies worldwide: courses, assignments, quizzes, gradebook, forums, badges and certificates, with more than 2,000 plugins. This template runs the current official Moodle 5.2 release (5.2.3) on PostgreSQL.

## About Hosting Moodle

Two services and a bucket:

- **Moodle** runs PHP 8.4 and Apache with the official release package. The code is in the image; uploaded files, the site secret and caches live on the volume at `/var/moodledata`. Cron runs in the same service every minute, so scheduled tasks, emails and course backups work without extra setup.
- **Postgres** 17, reachable only over Railway's private network.
- **Backups** is a Railway bucket that gets a nightly copy of the database and the data directory.

Moodle is installed from the command line on first boot, with an admin password generated at deploy. The web installer is never reachable: until the install finishes, the site shows a "Moodle is starting" page.

## Common Use Cases

- An online school or course platform with enrolments, assignments, quizzes and grades
- Staff training and onboarding with completion tracking and certificates
- A course site for a single teacher, a tutoring business or a community

## Dependencies for Moodle Hosting

- A PostgreSQL database (included)
- An SMTP server for email (optional; see below)

### Deployment Dependencies

- [Moodle documentation](https://docs.moodle.org/502/en/Main_page)
- [Moodle plugins directory](https://moodle.org/plugins/)
- [Template source on GitHub](https://github.com/nomideusz/moodle-railway)

### Implementation Details

**After deploying:** the first deploy takes about five minutes: about four to build the image and one to install Moodle. Then open the Moodle domain and log in as `admin` with `MOODLE_ADMIN_PASSWORD` from the Moodle service's Variables tab. Change the site name under Site administration → General → Site home settings, and the admin email in the admin's profile.

**Email.** Set up SMTP under Site administration → Server → Email → Outgoing mail configuration. Railway allows outbound SMTP only on the Pro plan and above; on Trial and Hobby, Moodle can't send email (Moodle has no HTTP-API mail option).

**Custom domain.** Add it in the service's Networking settings, then set `MOODLE_URL` to `https://your.domain`. Links already stored in course content still point to the old address; the "Search and replace" tool under Site administration → Development fixes those.

**Plugins.** The code is part of the image, so plugins are added there too and survive every redeploy. Fork the [template repository](https://github.com/nomideusz/moodle-railway), put each plugin under `plugins/` at the path Moodle expects (for example `plugins/mod/attendance`), point the service at your fork and redeploy. The next start installs the plugin. Installing plugins from the admin page is turned off because the image is read-only.

**Updates.** Bump `MOODLE_VERSION` and its checksum in the `Dockerfile` and redeploy. The start script runs Moodle's command-line upgrade before serving the new release, and visitors see the "starting" page while it runs. Take a backup first (below).

**Backups.** Every night at 03:00 UTC the database dump and the data directory (without caches) go to the Backups bucket as `moodle-.tar.gz`, so the last seven days are kept. Run `moodle-backup` from `railway ssh` for an extra one before a risky change, and `moodle-restore Mon` to restore the backup of that day. Clear `S3_BUCKET` to turn nightly backups off.

**Command line.** `moodle 

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