One-Click Mediawiki

This article contains information about the Mediawiki application that can be deployed on Vultr.

App details

Mediawiki runs on the Ubuntu Server LTS operating system. You can log into this system with an SSH client using the root login found on your Vultr control panel. Installations prior to April 2018 were built on the CentOS 6 operating system.

Initially, you will need to access https://[SERVER_IP]/mw-config/ in your web-browser. Substitute the [SERVER_IP] with the IP address of your VPS. The certificate warning can be safely ignored. Login credentials are sent to you in an email, and can also be found in your Vultr control panel. Your will also need the "upgrade key" provided in your Vultr control panel to complete the initial Mediawiki web-based setup process. At the end of the setup wizard, Mediawiki will instruct you to download your LocalSettings.php file. That instruction is handled automatically and can be ignored.

Once you have completed the Mediawiki setup, you can access your Mediawiki site at http://[SERVER_IP]/ or https://[SERVER_IP]/.

You may also want to point the DNS "A record" of your website to your [SERVER_IP]. This will allow you to access Mediawiki by navigating to your website (www.example.com).

There is a MySQL database server running on the VPS. You can connect to the database by executing the following:

mysql -u root

The MySQL root password is saved on the VPS in /root/.my.cnf.

File uploads

By default, uploads are disabled in Mediawiki. To enable them, do the following:

1. Login to your server using ssh as root.
2. Edit the LocalSettings.php file: vim /var/www/html/LocalSettings.php.
3. Change $wgEnableUploads to true.

Nginx Fails to Load

If your instance was deployed after December 1st 2019 we have included a script for your convenience to reset your your Nginx config files back to the default for you.

1. Login to your server using ssh as root.
2. Run the command /opt/vultr/fix-vhost.sh

SSL details

Your Mediawiki server can be accessed with both http:// and https:// URLs. By default, the https:// URL uses a self-signed certificate, which displays a security warning. This can be safely ignored.

To disable https:// support (after initial configuration), do the following:

1. Login to your server using ssh as root.
2. Move the HTTPS vhost file out of the web server conf: mv /etc/nginx/conf.d/mediawiki_https.conf /root/
3. Restart the web server: systemctl restart nginx.service && systemctl restart php7.2-fpm.service ( PHP version may vary )

Depending on your plans for your Mediawiki site, you may want to update the certificate to one provided by an actual certificate authority. This will remove the security warning error. To install a new certificate, do the following:

1. Obtain a certificate from a certificate authority for your domain.
2. Login to your server using ssh as root.
3. Replace the server.crt and server.key files in /etc/nginx/ssl/ with the updated certificate. Details on converting certificate formats are outside of the scope of this article.
4. Restart the web server: systemctl restart nginx.service && systemctl restart php7.2-fpm.service ( PHP version may vary )

Free SSL with Let's Encrypt

Certbot, the software used to obtain, install, and renew Let's Encrypt certificates is included with this One-Click by default. To use it simply login via SSH and run the following command

certbot

About Vultr applications

Vultr applications use modern releases of software packages. Applications are configured to be deployed with specific versions of software. Over time, the Vultr team will update the application offerings to include newer operating systems, package versions, etc. This document only provides up-to-date information about the latest version of this application. Vultr applications are updated without notice. If you plan to build a project or infrastructure based on our application templates, we recommend taking a snapshot of the application used in your initial deployment.