Editing MediaWiki Development Services (section)

=== Phase 1: Server Setup and Configuration ===

A professional MediaWiki deployment begins with server provisioning. The recommended stack — commonly referred to as '''LAMP''' (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) or '''LEMP''' (Linux, Nginx, MySQL, PHP) — requires:

* A Linux server running Ubuntu Server LTS or AlmaLinux
* PHP 8.1 or later with required extensions (<code>mbstring</code>, <code>xml</code>, <code>intl</code>, <code>curl</code>)
* A MySQL or MariaDB database server
* Apache with <code>mod_rewrite</code> or Nginx with appropriate rewrite rules

The standard installation process follows these steps:

# Provision Linux server (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS recommended).
# Install and configure Apache/Nginx with PHP-FPM (PHP 8.1+).
# Install MySQL/MariaDB and create a dedicated database and user.
# Download and extract the latest stable MediaWiki release from mediawiki.org.
# Run the web installer at <code>/mw-config/</code> to generate <code>LocalSettings.php</code>.
# Configure short URLs by editing <code>.htaccess</code> or Nginx rewrite rules.
# Enable HTTPS (SSL/TLS) and configure HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect.
# Set file upload directory permissions and configure <code>$wgUploadPath</code>.
# Configure email (SMTP or sendmail) for user notifications.
# Install and configure a reverse proxy cache (Varnish) or CDN if required.