A fresh LocalSettings.php contains $wgDBTableOptions = "ENGINE=InnoDB, DEFAULT CHARSET=binary"; $wgDBmysql5 = true;

Can I convert the other databases of my http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Wiki_family to be able to use those settings too, or must I forever wrap those settings in a switch($wgSitename){}?

If found the structure, (mysqldump --no-data) of my old vs. new databases is vastly different, despite update.php. Different so much that the old data (mysqldump --no-create-info) could not be inserted into the new structure without errors.