From: Tim Starling tstarling@wikimedia.org
Philip Beach wrote:
Hey all,
Is it safe to upgrade my wiki using the script while the site is under heavy use? Should I disable access first?
You can follow the suggested procedure in the FAQ:
<http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ#Can_my_wiki_stay_online_while_it_is...
While it may say so in the fine print, it sure seems scary to me!
Personally, I do the following: 1) post an announcement of scheduled system maintenance, 2) take the site down, 3) backup the database, 4) upgrade, 5) test, 6) bring it back on-line.
Perhaps that's excessively conservative. I'm guessing if the MediaWiki FAQ says you can do it, Wikipedia probably gets away with it, but it still seems scary to me!
:::: The old normal is that life will go on just like before. The new normal is that nothing will ever be the same. -- Dmitry Orlov :::: :::: Jan Steinman, EcoReality http://www.EcoReality.org ::::