MySQL/migration
There are several techniques for doing this. ==Using phpmyadmin (by Aero)==
Backing up
- Make sure you've got PHPMyAdmin running
and that's all happy. I won't cover this part here as it varies with your set up.
- Login and choose Export from the main page
- Leave most of the default options. Specifically,
- Format: SQL
- Select the database(s) you want in the listbox
- etc.
- Checkmark 'Add DROP TABLE'. This will make sure that when you restore
from a backup, it will delete existing tables before restoring from the backed up ones.
- Checkmark 'Save to file' at the bottom, or it will just dump it to
your browser window, and that's no fun.
- You probably also want to use compression. These won't be huge files,
but a 1.5mb database compresses to about 150kb. So, y'know, whatever. Wiggy recommends BZIP.
- Click Go.
Restoring from backup
I'm writing this from memory, so I might be wrong, but I think it's right.
- Click Databases from the PHPMyAdmin main page
- Click the name of your databse (it should already exist; have you
[re]installed MediaWiki yet? Do that first.)
- Click the SQL tab
- Where it says Location of textfile:, browse to your latest
backup, then click Go. ==Using mysql-admin (by Woozle)==
Backing up
- Choose a place on your hard drive for storing the file; create any
folders needed.
- Run mysql-admin (this can be done from the command line)
- Connect to mysql. You'll need the server address, a username with read
permissions, and the password for that user.
- Note: mysql-admin seems to have trouble actually using passwords
you've stored, so you may have to type in the password each time. Hopefully they will fix this soon.
- Another note: the current version of mysql-admin doesn't like
connecting to mysql versions prior to 4.0, but it did connect and backup my v3.23. It appears prone to sudden crashing on certain operations, so avoid poking around in the menu while backing up or restoring.
- Press the "backup" icon/button on the left.
- Check the 'Add DROP TABLE' box on the "Output File Options" box on the
"Advanced Options" tab, as with the phpmyadmin backup.
- Steps from that point on are pretty intuitive, except for the
scheduler (which still has me confused). Apparently mysql-admin can set itself up to do backups automatically, using the cron scheduler, but I don't yet know if this works or if I did it right.
- The first time through, you will probably want to save the backup
configuration to a Backup Project, for quick reuse later. I had trouble once, however, with the "Backup Now" button greying out after doing this; I'm not sure what caused it.
Restoring
I haven't tried this yet, but there's a "restore backup" button right under the "backup" button, and I presume the process is also fairly intuitive.