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Correct. And I just checked: my update script did its job and brought the two in sync again

Note that I set the backup wiki to read-only. If you go to any edit page there is a disclaimer at the top that informs that the wiki is in maintenance mode and that changes will not be saved. This is to make sure we only update the original. Also makes the sync script much easier.

I just updated the first post and changed the thread title to more accurately reflect and summarize the current state:

There is now a backup server for http://wiki.alioth.net. It is located at http://wiki.maikschulz.de. This is an "official" backup with support from Winston, who also gave me the keys to his wiki installation to take care of it. This includes upgrading the MediaWiki software and installing extensions.

The backup is performed automatically every day at 5am CET. It takes around 10 minutes and performs an rsync of the MediaWiki installation, a full dump of the MySQL DB except the "text" table, and an incremental dump of the "text" table. The only difference between the main server and my backup is that I set my backup to read-only mode. When you want to edit a page on the backup server you will see a message that informs you accordingly and your changes cannot be saved. This is to make sure that no one accidentally changes wiki pages there.

Winston also made Ahruman and myself Bureaucrats on the wiki. This means we can change privileges of other wiki users, e.g. to make new Administrators.

Last not least I changed the [wiki]Main Page[/wiki] of the wiki to tell new users to contact me here via PM for an account. In fact, any administrator can create user accounts. It would be good if the other admins would add themselves on the main page while they are frequenting the BB and remove themselves e.g. when they go on vacation and won't have connectivity.

cim continues to have shell access to my server.

In order to test e.g. the MediaWiki version upgrade or extensions, I also setup a separate copy of the wiki at http://sandbox.maikschulz.de. It is not regularly updated from the main server but has a snapshot of the wiki from a few weeks ago. Still, enough to function as a testbed.

Great work, maik... thanks.

maik wrote:

Last not least I changed the [wiki]Main Page[/wiki] of the wiki to tell new users to contact me here via PM for an account.

Suggest a link to the forum in this:

please send a PM via the Oolite Bulletin Board to 'maik'

Maybe this thread should be stickied?

El Viejo wrote:

Great work, maik... thanks.

maik wrote:

Last not least I changed the [wiki]Main Page[/wiki] of the wiki to tell new users to contact me here via PM for an account.

Suggest a link to the forum in this:

please send a PM via the Oolite Bulletin Board to 'maik'

Maybe this thread should be stickied?

Thanks, El Viejo. I linkified Oolite Bulleting Board as per your suggestion.

Thread stickied as requested.

So which wiki should I use? And how do I create an account?

PhilHibbs wrote:

So which wiki should I use? And how do I create an account?

You should use the official wiki at http://wiki.alioth.net. My backup server which is discussed here is set to read-only.

I'll create an account for you on the official one.

In the last days I've cleaned up a bit more on the WIKI.
In that process I've also redirected some of the dead links on the main page to existing pages and restarted the Village Pump page.

I've started working on a page which lists OXP by indicated level, I could use some help!

Zireael wrote:

I've started working on a page which lists OXP by indicated level, I could use some help!

I'm happy to lend a hand, but let's move this out of the wiki backup server thread please

I just fixed a problem with the backup which has not been running well for some months now.

If anyone is interested in the details: The wiki's cache of generated pages is in the database and has been growing too big. Until now I copied it over to my backup wiki, but the backup file size reached a point where my server (which has only 2GB memory) couldn't handle the compression anymore, which made the backup fail. I changed my backup script to not include that particular table anymore. This potentially comes with a performance penalty on the backup wiki, as pages have to be recreated the first time they are accessed, but I think this is acceptable for a mere backup.

I will need to take a look at the main wiki's caching strategy to see if I need to change it.

The backup Wiki has been offline for the last day or two - I get a "Problem loading page" error when I try to access it. Is anyone else seeing this, or is this an issue with my service provider? I can certainly get to other sites.

Down for me also .

I'll investigate tomorrow. Thanks guys.

It is up and running again.