General test instructions These test instructions can be applied for each of the scenarios below Log into Moodle as an admin user Can use - username: admin and password: test - for a default admin user Navigate to the environment checks page On the "administration" block, expand the "Site administration" list Then expand the "Server" list Select the "Environment" option Note: If you haven't logged in as this admin user before you may be forced to add a username to the profile before you can run the checks, this is normal. Add any email to the profile, save the changes and then repeat the steps above. The environment checks will now be run. Confirm that the correct Moodle version check has been run, if you're on version 2.8 then the 2.8.* checks can be selected in the drop down at the top of the page. Scenario 1 - Supported PHP version This test requires you to have a supported version of PHP installed on your server (>= 5.4.4 and < 7) Go through the general test instructions Confirm the "php" test is status "ok" Scenario 2 - Unsupported PHP version This test is to check that the unsupported PHP version causes the test to fail. The unit tests should cover off this functionality but if you want to test manually then you can try installing the PHP7 beta. Install PHP7 beta Run through the general test instructions Confirm that the "php" test status is "Restricted" (i.e. it failed) Confirm that the report text mentions "PHP version 7 is not supported." Run unit tests I've added unit test coverage for the version check method, please run them to confirm behaviour is as expected. Instructions for running unit tests can be found here . The unit tests are in lib/tests/environment_test.php Versions This change has been backported to Moodle versions 2.7, 2.8 and 2.9, so the instructions above can be followed for each of those versions.