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I have a MySQL installation of MediaWiki, hosted with ThrustVPS. Something has become corrupted on the server, and it is in a non-bootable state. I don't have physical access to the machine, but their techs offered to back up any folders I need to to recover my site and then rebuild my machine. The problem is, I don't know what folders I need to save to restore my wiki. All the backup instructions I have seen require console access to the machine. Clearly, I should have done that before (and was planning on it so I could move hosting providers), but didn't. If anyone knows what I need to recover, I'd appreciate it. (I installed everything with the defaults whenever possible)

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Data; All the data input into MediaWiki will be in the database (which by default is MySQL) so you'll need to get the admins to give you a MySQL dump of the database.

App; The application itself is most likely all within one directory called "Wiki" or "Mediawiki" inside your Web Folder.. The most important single file to get is the LocalSettings.php file which is the file that contains all your configuration options.

As long as you have the data however, rebuilding all the other files to get mediawiki working again is reasonably trivial as they're all available on the Mediawiki site for download. (Just make sure your grabbing the correct version.. or if not ensure you follow the upgrade instructions to get the database into the right shape)

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  • Thanks . . . where would the MySQL data be located in the filesystem? They will only provide me with a backup of folder, and then only ones I specify, so I can't do real db backup/restore.
    – Feasoron
    Apr 27, 2012 at 16:47
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    That's really not very good on their part. If they're offering to retrieve anything, then to me the database should be the first thing? What kind of hosting was this? As for, where the database file is located.. Any number of places depending on what OS the system is running and how the hosting was set up.. as we're in a ubuntu Q&A, I believe it's usually in /var/lib/mysql as for how you can then use that file to restore from.. I have no idea.
    – Ashimema
    Apr 28, 2012 at 16:40

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