Version 5.7 is required and you are running 5.6.41.84.1 in bluehost

Question

I installed moodle 4.0 in bluehost recently. When I wanted to install any plugin it giving an error

Version 5.7 is required and you are running 5.6.41.84.1

It needs me to update mysql to 5.7. When I spoke with my hosting providers, they said to get dedicated or VPS server to get the update. I cannot afford right now. I tried to upload 3.9 plugin, but no use.

I'm stuck at the movement.

Answer 1

You'll need to install a version of Moodle which uses MySQL 5.6

Moodle 3.8 supports MySQL 5.6

https://docs.moodle.org/dev/Moodle_3.8_release_notes#Database_requirements

Answer 2

It seems Moodle 4.x+ is not using any special feature of MySQL 5.7. I changed the minimum requirements to 5.6 and it works without any issues (Not sure if anything happens in the future though, but all plugins, etc work properly).

Some shared hosings similar to Bluehost are still offering Mysql 5.6.x. The way to get around this limitation is by changing the minimum requirements of Moodle 4.x in its environment settings.

In the "environment.xml" file inside admin directory of Moodle 4.x, change all four occurrences of version="5.7" to version="5.6" as follows:

<DATABASE level="required">
  <VENDOR name="mariadb" version="10.4" />
  <VENDOR name="mysql" version="5.6" />
  <VENDOR name="postgres" version="12" />
  <VENDOR name="mssql" version="14.0" />
  <VENDOR name="oracle" version="19" />
</DATABASE>