Server Requirements

Before installing Chamilo 2.0, verify that your server meets the following requirements.

Software Requirements

PHP

Requirement	Minimum	Recommended
PHP version	8.2	8.3 or later

Required PHP Extensions

Extension	Purpose
curl	HTTP requests (API integrations, external services)
fileinfo	MIME type detection for uploaded files
gd	Image processing (thumbnails, CAPTCHA)
intl	Internationalization (date, number, and string formatting)
json	JSON encoding/decoding
ldap	LDAP connector. Although you will probably not use LDAP, Chamilo requires it
mbstring	Multibyte string handling (UTF-8 support)
openssl	Cryptographic operations (HTTPS, password hashing, tokens)
pdo_mysql or pdo_pgsql	Database connectivity (install the one matching your database)
xml	XML parsing (SCORM, RSS, SOAP)
zip	Handling ZIP archives (SCORM packages, bulk imports/exports)
apcu	User-level caching (recommended)
opcache	Opcode caching (strongly recommended for performance)
xapian	Full-text search (optional, only if you use search)

Database

Database	Minimum Version
MySQL	8.0
MariaDB	10.4

Web Server

Server	Notes
Apache	Requires mod_rewrite enabled.
Nginx	Requires manual configuration for URL rewriting. See the Symfony Nginx documentation for a reference configuration.

Build Tools

Tool	Purpose
Composer	PHP dependency management. Required to install Chamilo's PHP libraries.
Node.js (18+)	JavaScript runtime. Required to build frontend assets.
npm	JavaScript package manager. Installed with Node.js.

Hardware Requirements

Resource	Minimum	Recommended
RAM	2 GB	4 GB or more
CPU	1 core	2+ cores
Disk space	2 GB (application only)	20+ GB (including uploaded content)
Disk type	HDD	SSD (significantly improves database and cache performance)

These are baseline figures. Actual requirements depend on the number of concurrent users and the volume of content hosted.

Operating System

OS	Notes
Linux	Recommended. Ubuntu 22.04+, Debian 12+, AlmaLinux 9+, or equivalent.
Windows	Possible but not thoroughly tested. Use WSL2 for development.
macOS	Development only / untested.

Network Requirements

• A domain name pointing to your server.

• An SSL/TLS certificate for HTTPS (Let's Encrypt provides free certificates).

• Outbound SMTP access if sending emails directly (or use a third-party email service).

• Port 443 (HTTPS) and optionally port 80 (HTTP, for redirect to HTTPS).

Checking Requirements

After placing the Chamilo source on your server, you can check your PHP configuration directly:

php -m          # List installed extensions
php -i          # Full PHP info

Tips

• Use PHP-FPM with Apache or Nginx for better performance than mod_php.

• Separate your database onto a dedicated server for platforms expecting more than 500 concurrent users.

• Use SSD storage -- Database-heavy applications like Chamilo benefit significantly from fast disk I/O.