Thread:Project:Support desk/Need Advice/Help with a MediaWiki transfer

How would one "copy" a MediaWiki installation on one platform to an existing newer MediaWiki Installation on another platform?

I will describe the "to" andf "from" issues in more detail and explain whay I *think* I should do, but I am new to MediaWiki and not at all sure (I have read the FAQ, How-Tos, etc. but I am still not sure I know what I am doing here. Thus the cry for help).

Node-1: A RHEL 4.3 x86 platform. It has MediaWiki 1.6.12 installed and is running MySQL 4.1.12 and PHP 4.3.9.

Node-2: A RHEL 5.0 x64 platform. It has a brand new MediaWiki 1.16.5 installation and is running MySQL 5.0.22 and PHP 5.1.6.

On Node-1, I have run /maintenance/dumpBackup.php (to the XML backup of MediaWiki pages, etc...). I have also run 'mysqldump wikidb' to get the SQL state of the wikidb database.

Lastly, on Node-2, I notice that the /images directory is empty (except for a README file)

Here is what I would do until advised otherwise:

1. Copy the contents of Node-1: /images to  Node-2:/ /images 2. On Node-2, under /maintenance run: "importDump.php Node1ExportDump.xml" 3. Hope that this suffices

I do not dare "source" the Node-1 SQL file into the Node-2 MySQL DB for fear it will totally break the newer version of MediaWiki. I have no idea what to do with Node-1's SQL dump b/c I notice that the DB schema has changed greatly between MediaWiki 1.6.12 and 1.16.5.

One other thought I had was to attempt to upgrade Node-1's MediWiki installation from 1.6.12 to 1.16.5. Then, dump the resulting MySQL wiki DB. I would then copy the entire upgraded MediaWiki directory to Node-2 and use the SQL dump to create a new MediaWiki database.

What's the best way to perform this kind of "port"?

thanks

racoco@racoco.net