WikiIndex:Server move 2014

Request for Concerns

Ray King has asked me to help consolidate the wikis that he hosts onto a single well-maintained wiki hosting platform. This includes WikiIndex. Some of the advantages of the new platform include regular upgrades of MediaWiki as well as as better backup procedures. Although I'm starting to work on the migration today (November 14, 2014) I won't be actually switching over to the new server until sometime late next week at the very earliest. I'd like to prune back the extensions to just those that are regularly used in order to reduce the maintenance overhead for upgrades and the like. I may also get a chance to address existing annoyances like the large volume of spam accounts. I ask the community to help me create a prioritized list of the most important aspects of WikiIndex that need to be preserved and addressed during the move. -- BrandonCsSanders (talk) 22:25, 14 November 2014 (UTC)

To Preserve/Address ... a prioritized list of WikiIndex ServerMove concerns

• Semantic MediaWiki extension
• Spam accounts from 20 August 2013 attack (it would be nice to be rid of them, they make for example http://wikiindex.org/Special:ListUsers much less useful)
• Clean urls (no namespace like /wiki, and no index.php in the path)
• See Preventing account creation for the discussed transition from Special:AbuseFilter to mw:Extension:TitleBlacklist (installed recently) Manorainjan (talk) 22:47, 14 November 2014 (UTC)
• Amongst the large number of unused accounts there could be a mentionable amount of accounts which could not be activated due to the recent but now solved e-mail-Verification problem. These should not be deleted: (unused, unblocked, but with email).

• New Name, new Logo I expect with a certainty of >95% that the new name will be '*.wiki'. Who will host it? create.wiki! What do You see on the frontpage? Exclusively "<some name>.wiki". Will our name have to appear there? You bet! Will it be the only *.org there? That would break the design! So, let the new name be index.wiki or wikiindex.wiki or whatever.wiki, There would have to be a new logo anyway. Manorainjan (talk)
• I suggest to preserve wikiindex.org - this domain (and name) is absolutely reasonable. At least better than something.wiki --Wolf | talk 09:38, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

Have no concerns (Just Your name. If that is not enough, You got concerns.)

• TaraS
• Llwy-ar-lawr
• Arcane
• Kghbln
• EarthFurst
• Felix

About the Move

There should be few (if any) visible differences for WikiIndex.org once the move is complete. It is simply moving from one hosting platform to another. Here are the steps I, BrandonCsSanders (talk, plan to follow during the move.

Prior to the move

Note: The only thing that will be changed on the current server before, during, and after the move is to set it to read-only and add a banner during the move itself. Not mucking with the server preserves a working server that we can fail back to if something unforeseen happens.

1. A complete backup of the wiki will be made (done as of November 14, 2014 ... gzipped up without the cache the backup is 517Mb)
2. The backup of WikiIndex will be restored at another temporary domain.
3. MediaWiki will be upgraded to the most recent version (as will the extensions) on the temporary domain.
4. Once I've fixed and tested everything I can think of I'll invite the WikiIndex regulars to come poke around on the temporary domain to make sure everything looks right and is working.
5. Once given the thumbs up from the community the actual move will begin.

The actual move

1. WikiIndex.org will be switched into read-only mode to ensure that the database is in a consistent state and that no accounts or edits are created (and subsequently lost) during the move.
2. A site message banner will be added to the top of the site on every page that indicates the move is in progress.
3. A new complete dump of the database and images will be made.
4. The dump will be restored at the temporary domain.
5. The database will be upgraded to the most recent schema.
6. The DNS for wikiindex.org will be pointed to the new server's IP address.
7. As the DNS propagates visitors will start to go to the new server.
8. For most people the DNS will propagate within a couple of hours and within 24hrs it will have propagated for everyone.
9. The new server is not in read-only mode and does not have the banner on it telling about the move.

I expect the move to take 1-2 hours, with the site in read-only mode and displaying the banner for most visitors for 2-3 hours.

I think a period of 24 hours is perfectly acceptable. Priority should lay on optimal result, not on shortest time of move. Manorainjan (talk)

Burn-in

1. Once DNS has propagated for you you will see WikiIndex.org looking and acting like it did before (no longer read-only, no longer having a banner).
2. Use it just like you normally would and report any issues to me, BrandonCsSanders (talk.
3. Once we feel good that all is as it should be the original server will be decommissioned. Until that time it is available as a failsafe backup server that we can revert to (unlikely that we'll need to do that).

Post move

1. If the community wants to switch canonical domains from wikiindex.org to index.wiki that can be arranged.
2. On the new platform backups of all wikis are made every hour and the last 12 hours of backups are retained on the server itself. Every 24hrs a backup of the wiki is uploaded to s3 (an offsite backup) and these backups are slowly pruned over time in a manner similar to how Apple's Time Machine works.

Tasks not to be done before or during the move

In order to keep the move as simple as possible for minimizing the risk of failure, as well as preventing this planing from becoming one of our "endless discussions", I suggest to separate concerns and keep the following tasks or decisions out of the way for now: Manorainjan (talk)

• Cleaning up the userlist (only consider what extensions should be installed, not actually try to clean the list)
• Change of domain or name
• Change of logo

FAQs

Is this move to another server, another farm, or also another domain?

The move is to a new server on a different mediawiki hosting platform. A different domain (e.g., index.wiki) can be adopted after the move if desired but the domain will remain unchanged during the move. (See WikiIndex:ServerName)

The mediawiki hosting platform we are moving to is owned by Top Level Design. Top Level Design is Ray King's company and is the .wiki registry operator.

How does it relate to Create.Wiki?

Top Level Design is hosting some friendly wikis on their create.wiki farm for free. The Create.Wiki site is just the landing page for the hosting platform (i.e., wiki farm). There is no reason why Create.Wiki would be visible to any visitors to WikiIndex.

• Can I see an example?

See http://IcannWiki.com for an example of a friendly wiki that has been moved to the create.wiki hosting platform. Notice that there are no references to the fact that it is hosted on the Create.Wiki farm anywhere on ICANNWiki.

Can we move to Index.Wiki or another domain name?

Yes. after the move is complete. See WikiIndex:ServerName for that discussion.