Meza: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 10:16, 24 October 2025

Meza is MediaWiki EZ Administration

For the past couple years, we've been the primary maintainer and have successfully pushed our contributions upstream to NASA.

Why Meza is More Valuable Than Simply Downloading MediaWiki

Enterprise-Grade Deployment Automation[edit]

MediaWiki alone: Manual installation, configuration files to edit by hand, extension management is manual and error-prone.

Meza: Single meza deploy monolith command that orchestrates:

MediaWiki core installation with proper versions
100+ pre-configured, battle-tested extensions
Automated database setup and updates
Web server configuration (Apache/PHP-FPM)
Search integration (Elasticsearch/CirrusSearch)
Automatic TLS security certificate provisioning
Full logs and audit trails for change management

Production-Ready Extension Stack[edit]

Meza automatically installs and configures:

VisualEditor with proper Parsoid integration
Semantic MediaWiki with property rebuild capabilities
CirrusSearch for enterprise search
Flow for modern discussions
50+ other extensions with tested configurations

See more on the features page.

MediaWiki alone: You'd spend weeks researching, installing, and configuring each extension individually.

Multi-Environment Management[edit]

# Meza supports multiple environments out-of-the-box
meza deploy production
meza deploy staging  
meza deploy development

Each environment has separate:

Configuration hierarchies (/opt/conf-meza/public/<env>/ and /opt/conf-meza/secret/<env>/) making it so simple to have development tools and settings for your 'development' environment while your 'production' environment is configured separately. Meza configuration operates with inheritance and overrides.
Database backups (automated before updates)
Deploy locks to prevent conflicts

Operational Excellence[edit]

Automated maintenance (logged):

Database backups before each deployment
update.php runs for all wikis automatically
Search index rebuilding
Semantic data rebuilding
Log rotation and cleanup for all services

MediaWiki alone: All maintenance is manual scripting.

Multi-site Architecture[edit]

Meza supports multiple sites in one deployment:

sites: meta, biz, demo, policy

Each gets:

Separate databases
Individual configuration
Shared extension stack
Unified management

Infrastructure as Code through Ansible[edit]

Meza uses Ansible playbooks and role-based configuration to manage complex MediaWiki deployments, rather than manual LocalSettings.php editing.

The actual complexity Meza manages includes:

40+ Ansible roles for different components
Dynamic path resolution and configuration hierarchies
Per-wiki configuration directories (/opt/conf-meza/public/wikis/<wikiId>/) with inheritance
Jinja2 templating for generating MediaWiki configuration

vs. MediaWiki: Manual LocalSettings.php editing (on each node?) possibly with no version control integration.

Enterprise Security & Scalability[edit]

Multi-server deployments: Load balancers, database clustering, GlusterFS
SSL automation: Let's Encrypt integration
Access controls: Fine-grained permission management
Backup strategies: Automated, tested restore procedures

Time to Value[edit]

MediaWiki download: Days/weeks to get a production-ready wiki
Meza: Minutes to deploy, hours to customize

Meza offers a complete enterprise MediaWiki deployment with search, visual editing, semantic capabilities, and operational tooling - all from a single command. That's the Meza value proposition.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 [[mw:Meza|Meza]] is '''MediaWiki EZ Administration'''
-See our fork at https://github.com/freephile/meza
+For the past couple years, we've been the primary maintainer and have successfully pushed [https://github.com/freephile/meza our contributions] upstream to NASA.
+[[File:Meza component logos.png|alt=Meza components|948x948px|link=https://github.com/freephile/meza]]
+{{Messagebox
+| text = Why Meza is More Valuable Than Simply Downloading MediaWiki
+}}
+== Enterprise-Grade Deployment Automation ==
+'''MediaWiki alone''': Manual installation, configuration files to edit by hand, extension management is manual and error-prone.
+'''Meza''': Single <code>meza deploy monolith</code> command that orchestrates:
+* MediaWiki core installation with proper versions
+* 100+ pre-configured, battle-tested extensions
+* Automated database setup and updates
+* Web server configuration (Apache/PHP-FPM)
+* Search integration (Elasticsearch/CirrusSearch)
+* Automatic TLS security certificate provisioning
+* Full logs and audit trails for change management
+== Production-Ready Extension Stack ==
+Meza automatically installs and configures:
+* '''VisualEditor''' with proper Parsoid integration
+* '''Semantic MediaWiki''' with property rebuild capabilities
+* '''CirrusSearch''' for enterprise search
+* '''Flow''' for modern discussions
+* '''50+ other extensions''' with tested configurations
+See more on the [[features]] page.
+'''MediaWiki alone''': You'd spend weeks researching, installing, and configuring each extension individually.
+== Multi-Environment Management ==
+<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">
+# Meza supports multiple environments out-of-the-box
+meza deploy production
+meza deploy staging
+meza deploy development
+</syntaxhighlight>Each environment has separate:
+* Configuration hierarchies (<code>/opt/conf-meza/public/<env>/</code> and <code>/opt/conf-meza/secret/<env>/</code>) making it so simple to have development tools and settings for your 'development' environment while your 'production' environment is configured separately. Meza configuration operates with inheritance and overrides.
+* Database backups (automated before updates)
+* Deploy locks to prevent conflicts
+== Operational Excellence ==
+'''Automated maintenance''' (logged):
+* Database backups before each deployment
+* <code>update.php</code> runs for all wikis automatically
+* Search index rebuilding
+* Semantic data rebuilding
+* [https://github.com/freephile/meza/blob/dev/src/roles/logrotate/README.md Log rotation and cleanup] for all services
+'''MediaWiki alone''': All maintenance is manual scripting.
+== Multi-site Architecture ==
+Meza supports multiple sites in one deployment:
+ sites: meta, biz, demo, policy
+Each gets:
+* Separate databases
+* Individual configuration
+* Shared extension stack
+* Unified management
+== Infrastructure as Code through Ansible ==
+Meza uses [[Ansible]] playbooks and role-based configuration to manage complex MediaWiki deployments, rather than manual LocalSettings.php editing.
+The actual complexity Meza manages includes:
+* 40+ Ansible '''roles''' for different components
+* Dynamic path resolution and configuration hierarchies
+* Per-wiki configuration directories (/opt/conf-meza/public/wikis/<wikiId>/) with inheritance
+* Jinja2 templating for generating MediaWiki configuration
+'''vs. MediaWiki''': Manual <code>LocalSettings.php</code> editing (on each node?) possibly with no version control integration.
+== Enterprise Security & Scalability ==
+* '''Multi-server deployments''': Load balancers, database clustering, GlusterFS
+* '''SSL automation''': Let's Encrypt integration
+* '''Access controls''': Fine-grained permission management
+* '''Backup strategies''': Automated, tested restore procedures
+== Time to Value ==
+* '''MediaWiki download''': Days/weeks to get a production-ready wiki
+* '''Meza''': Minutes to deploy, hours to customize
+Meza offers a complete enterprise MediaWiki deployment with search, visual editing, semantic capabilities, and operational tooling - all from a single command. That's the Meza value proposition.
 [[Category:Meza]]
 [[Category:MediaWiki]]