# mediawiki admin guide
This post will document some common procedures that an admin will need
to maintain a media wiki installation.
## What version of MediaWiki are we running?
View the source of any wiki page. Locate the generator meta tag inside
the head tag.
Example:
::: {#cb1}
Main Page - mywiki
:::
In the example above our generator is *MediaWiki 1.16.2*.
## Migrating and upgrading a MediaWiki install
This documents the steps I took to migrate MediaWiki to a new server and
then upgrade to the latest version. RHEL4 to Ubuntu.
Install the webserver stack on new server:
::: {#cb2}
sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 php5-mysql php5-cli php-apc graphviz graphviz-dev
sudo cp -p /etc/apache2/sites-available/default /etc/apache2/sites-available/001-wiki
sudo vim /etc/apache2/sites-available/001-wiki
:::
Basic MediaWiki configuration:
::: {#cb3}
ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
ServerName wiki.foxhop.net
LogLevel warn
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error-wiki.log
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access-wiki.log combined
DocumentRoot /www/wiki/mediawiki
Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride None
Order allow,deny
allow from all
:::
Create directories and download sourcecode:
::: {#cb4}
sudo mkdir /www
sudo mkdir /www/wiki
cd /www/wiki
# copy mediawiki installation to new server and untar it
sudo tar -zxvf mediawiki-backup.tar.gz
sudo chown -R root:www-data /www
chmod 775 mediawiki/config/ -R
:::
import MySQL dump into new server
::: {#cb5}
mysql -u root -p wikidb < wikidb-dump-2012-11-26.sql
:::
Enable Virtual Host and restart Apache
::: {#cb6}
sudo a2ensite 001-wiki
sudo a2dissite default
sudo apache2 restart
:::
Navigate to the new servers IP address or domain name and verify
migration.
---
**Source:** [https://foxhop.net/f3c4d71b-2f95-11f1-83d8-e86a64d24d78/mediawiki-admin-guide](https://foxhop.net/f3c4d71b-2f95-11f1-83d8-e86a64d24d78/mediawiki-admin-guide)
**Snapshot:** 2026-10-16T05:48:50Z
**Generator:** Remarkbox `d747782`