[Mediawiki-l] Upgrade under heavy traffic

[Jan Steinman]

> From: Tim Starling <tstarling at 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_upgrading.3F 
> >

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> ::::