How To: Backup Your Wiki - Things to Consider (Part 1 of 2)

When I was learning basic Computer skills in school, I was taught a very simple thing to be applied to almost everything you do on a Computer. "SOS" which apparently stood for "Save Often, Stupid" according to my I.T teacher at the time, he does have a point though, backing up anything and everything that you don't want to or even can't risk losing is an absolute must.



In the case of Wikis, making a good backup of your website on a regular basis should be one of your highest priorities as things can easily go pear-shaped and you could end up losing hours, days, weeks or even months worth of yours and other people's work.

With MediaWiki Wikis there are various methods of backing up but I'm just going to share with you the two simplest and most efficient methods.

Items that require backing up

Before you do jump straight in and copy every single file and folder in your Wiki's web hosting account however, you have to consider the files and folders that actually do need backing up, there's no point in backing up the default Special Pages for example as should something go critically wrong, you'll probably need to re-install your MediaWiki software package and such files would be created by the MediaWiki software during the installation. The files and folders you do need to backup are:

• The LocalSettings.php and AdminSettings.php files.
• The /images folder.
• The current skin in use on your Wiki (Only if you're currently using a skin other than one of the default skins)
• If you have any extensions installed you will need to backup the /extension folder.
• All pages and page histories, user preferences and logs.

On to part 2 of the guide to backing up your Wiki