MediaWiki on MS SQL Server

I had been looking at doing the same thing recently, but decided that I would be better off setting up MySQL just to serve Mediawiki. Consider the advantages of each:

MySQL

  • Is a supported database, so you'll get better answers if something goes wrong.
  • Will definitely be supported by patches and upgrades.
  • Is very well tested through Wikipedia. You're less likely to see "strange" behaviour.
  • Easy setup and widely available documentation - whereas you will probably need to carefully document the tricks you use to get MediaWiki working with MSSQL.

SQL Server

  • Can leverage existing backup methods in a homogeneous environment
  • Can assign permissions based on Active Directory

It took me less than an hour to configure a virtual machine with a LAMP stack, then install and configure MediaWiki. Backup is a crontab that dumps the MySQL database onto the fileserver. Your mileage may vary, but you'll probably end up saving a lot of time by going with the supported solution.


It might be possible.

https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9767

There's a patch, but I have not confirmed it working (or tried it). This might work for a while, just be very careful about patching.