Topic on Project:Support desk

Hello I was really looking for some help if any one is kind enough. The office's web-server was badly damaged after a aircon failed and it over heated. While I have installed a new server, I have also been able to get most of the old server functioning again, at least to grab documents and files from it. Well everything except the media wiki. I can access the files and folders and I have been able to use mysqlworkbench to export the database.

I have now setup a new server and installed mediawiki software and that is fine and running. However I would like restore the database and documents. As you would expect poor planing and backup hasnt helped the situation the old broken wiki stored documents and procedures that no exist no where else. Also of course the person who setup the old wiki has long since left the company and I have no ide really what im doing. Im like a monkey with a stick.

Here are some important details if it helps - the old mediawiki was version 1.17, the new installed media wiki is 1.22. The OS is Suse Linux Enterprise Server on both old and new. Both php & mysql seem to be operational on old server and definitely working on the new server. I have the wiki folder from the old server and also as mentioned I have the mwiki.sql database backup of around 40mbs

Would anyone be kind enough give me, a lowly windows admin, a simple walk through of the steps I can take to try to recover this server - many thanks

Hi!

What you in fact are doing are a combined server move and upgrade.

If you have the following, you will be able to restore (=move) the wiki: The files from the old wiki. What you must have are the contents of the folders images/. If you use a modified skin (= not one of the default skins), then you will need these files from inside the folder skins/. If you use extensions, you will need these extensions from inside the folder extensions/. Note that MediaWiki 1.22 already does provide some extensions by default; do not overwrite these extensions. Most likely you will have to download newer versions of the other extensions you use; you find them here on mediawiki.org. And you need to copy over the file LocalSettings.php and adjust the database name, user and password and possibly the value of $wgServer.

Now you know, which files from the old installation you need. In a first step I would copy these files of the old wiki into the new installation. Then put the database into the MySQL server. Make sure to keep the DB backup.

After that you will have to run the PHP script maintenance/update.php from the shell. This script will update your database to be compatible with the new MediaWiki version. If this step fails (which I would say is likely) you will still need the backup to restore the DB again.

If all this worked, you should have a working wiki with version 1.22.5.

However, for such a bigger update, expect PHP errors to happen. You will find them in the error log of PHP - solve them before you run your new wiki.

Thank you so much for your advice. I do have all the files/folders you have mentioned. I will be attempting this today.