Using a Backup Archive to Recover from Loss of the Virtual MachineΒΆ

These instructions describe how to recover the wiki if the virtual machine is lost but backups are retained. The instructions are untested and possibly incomplete. Additional breathing may be required. The wiki backups should contain everything needed to run the server except for the Apache configuration settings, which are contained in this document.

  1. Breathe.
  2. Create a replica virtual machine.
  3. Configure the web server.
  4. Install the prerequisite packages for MediaWiki, the MediaWiki extensions, and Django.
  5. Install the web server (Apache) configuration files for MediaWiki and Django.
  6. Restore the machine from an archived backup. The restore script backup-wiki is included in the archive.
  7. Activate bridged networking. The wiki should be accessible now.
  8. Go through the instruction set for building the wiki from scratch carefully and complete any minor steps that have been skipped, such as placing scripts in /usr/local/sbin (e.g., one is needed for automatic backups to work).
  9. Verify that automatic backups are working.