---

How to Install MediaWiki on CentOS 7

---

MediaWiki is a free and open-source wiki application. It runs on many websites, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary and Wikimedia Commons. It is written in the PHP programming language and uses a backend database.

Pre-requisites

---

MediaWiki depends on a few prerequisites such as Apache (httpd), PHP, MariaDB/mySQL which we'll need to install first,

yum install httpd php php-mysql php-gd mariadb-server php-xml php-intl mysql

output:

[root@vps ~]# yum install httpd php php-mysql php-gd mariadb-server php-xml php-intl mysql
Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, langpacks
base                                                     | 3.6 kB     00:00     
extras                                                   | 3.4 kB     00:00     
updates                                                  | 3.4 kB     00:00     
(1/4): base/7/x86_64/group_gz                              | 166 kB   00:00     
(2/4): extras/7/x86_64/primary_db                          | 156 kB   00:00     
(3/4): updates/7/x86_64/primary_db                         | 1.3 MB   00:00     

Starting the Web Server

---

Let's start the Apache (httpd) web server and enable it to start automatically on system boot,

systemctl restart httpd.service ; systemctl enable httpd.service

output:

[root@vps ~]# systemctl restart httpd.service ; systemctl enable httpd.service
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/httpd.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service.

Starting Database Service

---

Next, Start the MariaDB database and enable it to start automatically on system boot as well,

systemctl restart mariadb.service ; systemctl enable mariadb.service

output:

[root@vps ~]# systemctl start mariadb.service ;systemctl enable mariadb.service 
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/mariadb.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/mariadb.service.

Create Database

---

Now lets create a database for MediaWiki, first login to MySQL/MariaDB,

mysql -u root -p

output:

[root@vps ~]# mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MariaDB monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MariaDB connection id is 5
Server version: 5.5.60-MariaDB MariaDB Server

Create the database, here we use the name "mediawiki_db" for our database,

CREATE DATABASE mediawiki_db;

output:

MariaDB [(none)]> CREATE DATABASE mediawiki_db;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Now, create a user named "wiki_user" with an unique passsword to access the database created above,

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mediawiki_db.* TO 'wiki_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'P@ssWord@123#' WITH GRANT OPTION;

output:

MariaDB [(none)]> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON mediawiki_db.* TO 'wiki_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'P@ssWord@123#' WITH GRANT OPTION;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Last but not least, run the command below to enable the privileges setup above,

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

output:

MariaDB [(none)]> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Download MediaWiki release

---

At the time of this article, MediaWiki 1.24.2 was the latest release, you can download the latest release from MediaWiki when installing it,

Download (via wget) the release archive,

wget https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.24/mediawiki-1.24.2.tar.gz

output:

[root@vps ~]# wget https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.24/mediawiki-1.24.2.tar.gz
--2019-01-12 09:05:48--  https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.24/mediawiki-1.24.2.tar.gz
Resolving releases.wikimedia.org (releases.wikimedia.org)... 91.198.174.192, 2620:0:862:ed1a::1
Connecting to releases.wikimedia.org (releases.wikimedia.org)|91.198.174.192|:443... connected.

Untar the downloaded file using below tar command.

tar -zxpvf mediawiki-1.24.2.tar.gz

output:

[root@vps ~]# tar -zxpvf mediawiki-1.24.2.tar.gz
mediawiki-1.24.2/
mediawiki-1.24.2/opensearch_desc.php5
mediawiki-1.24.2/index.php5
mediawiki-1.24.2/extensions/

Move mediawiki-1.24.2 to its document root (/var/www/html/mediawiki/)

mv mediawiki-1.24.2 /var/www/html/mediawiki

output:

[root@vps ~]# mv mediawiki-1.24.2 /var/www/html/mediawiki
You have mail in /var/spool/mail/root

Setup permissions

---

chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/mediawiki/

output:

[root@vps html]# chown -R apache:apache /var/www/html/mediawiki/

chmod 755 /var/www/html/mediawiki/

output:

[root@vps html]# chmod 755 /var/www/html/mediawiki/

output:

[root@vps html]# chmod 755 /var/www/html/mediawiki/

Enable ports 80/443

---

Allow HTTP/HTTPS ports under firewalld:

firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=80/tcp --permanent
firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=443/tcp --permanent

output:

[root@vps html]# firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=80/tcp --permanent
success
[root@vps html]# firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-port=443/tcp --permanent
success

Reload the firewall so the rules applied above are enabled,

firewall-cmd --reload

output:

[root@vps html]# firewall-cmd --reload
success

(Optionally) If your system runs iptables instead of firewalld, allow HTTP/HTTPS ports under iptables:

iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT 
iptables -I INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 443 -j ACCEPT 
service iptables save
service iptables reload

SELinux Rules (Optional)

---

If Selinux is enabled on your server, then set the following Selinux rules on the MediaWiki folder,

restorecon -FR /var/www/html/mediawiki/

output:

[root@vps html]# restorecon -FR /var/www/html/mediawiki/

Restart the Apache (httpd) service,

systemctl restart httpd

Accessing mediawiki

---

Now open your web browser and head over to, your MediaWiki installation,

Replace "IP_Address_of_System" with the actual IP of your system/server,

http://IP_Address_of_System/mediawiki