Meza: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively

← Older edit

VisualWikitext

@@ 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]]
+[[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]]