How-To: Install MediaWiki on Windows Home Server

A while ago, we showed you how to install PHP on your Home Server, and recently we showed you how to install WordPress on your server.  Now, we are going show you how to install MediaWiki onto your server for you very own Wiki pages.  MediaWiki is the software that powers sites like Wikipedia and our very own Wiki, so the software is very solid, and works great.  Also, it a great way to store documents, lists, even recipes that can be easily accessed by friends.  Not to mention, it is a great way to list and organize them too.  And here is how you install it on your server:

Head over to the WGS Wiki for the most up to date version.

What you will need

• Remote access to the server
• MediaWiki Download
• PHP installed on IIS

What to do

First thing’s first, if you haven’t already installed PHP of IIS, you will need to do that FIRST. After that is doen, you are going to want to download MediaWiki and put it on a network share. Then you are going to either use Remote Desktop Connection or Advanced Admin Console to gain access to the server.

Install MediaWiki

Open up the phpbb tar.gz file and extract the MediaWiki files to "C:\inetpub\wiki". It should look something like this:

Now, right click on the wiki folder and select “Properties”. Find and open the security tab. Click the “Advanced” button. Now, click the “Add…” button. Add the user "IUSR_SERVER", replacing "SERVER" with whatever you named your server. For instance, I named my server "UMMON", so I added "IUSR_UMMON". Now give that user Full Control. Enable “Replace permission entries on all child objects with entries shown here that apply to child objects”, and click okay.

• This will reset permissions on the files, and will revert back to being unchecked when it is done.

Now find “Administrative Tools” and open “Internet Information Services.” Under your computer’s name there is three entries. Open “Websites”, and then find “Default Web Site.” Right click on it and open the “New” group and select “Virtual Directory.” Not Virtual Directory from file. Now give the alias “wiki” or whatever you want. This will be the path to your MediaWiki installation. Click “Next” and set the path to “C:\inetpub\wiki”. Click “Next”. It will give you options for the new virtual directory. Tell it to “Read”, and “Run scripts”. Now you are done setting up the web service side of it.

Now we just need configure the database.

Configure Database

Unlike a number of other packages, MediaWiki can not only create the database if you have root access, which we do because it is our server. But it will create a new MySQL account that it will use after installation instead of using the root account. Not only is this awesome, it makes installation that much easier and convenient.

Configure Media

Now navigate to your wiki. It should look something like: "https://yourserver.homeserver.com/wiki/" and you should see a page like this:

Click the “set up the wiki” link to configure it. It will give you a list of information. It won’t find “Turck MMCache, eAccelerator, APC or XCache, because we don’t have those installed, nor GNU diff3. These are not really necessary and I find them to be more of an annoyance than anything else.

Feel free to name your wiki pretty much anything you want. As for the copyright/license, be careful what you chose. I chose none, because I’m not too concerned about theft of data. Most of my wiki ends up on the WGS Wiki anyways. The Admin username is defaulted to “WikiSysop” but again, feel free to use whatever name you choose. This is the main account on the wiki and likely yours.

Now to database config. We are going to use MySQL so make sure that is what is selected. Leave the database host name alone. Changing this will likely make it not work. Set the database name, username and password to whatever your heart desires. Now, select the “Use superuser account.” Use “root” for the superuser name, and the password you specified when you first installed MySQL with. Now click “Install MediaWiki!” It will either tell you it was successful, or take you back to configure everything properly.

Now go to “C:\inetpub\wiki\config\” and copy “LocalSettings.php” to “C:\inetpub\wiki” and you are done and have your very own Wiki!  For more, head over to the We Got Served Wiki.

Stay tuned for more PHP software packages next time!