Just came across this interesting mailing list post on profiling memory usage on Linux.

I’ve been trying to ProxyPass from a primary server to a backend (but not firewalled) machine running MediaWiki 1.5.2 with very little luck.

I finally come across the solution. backend.machine.edu is the machine hosting MediaWiki. frontend.machine.edu is the machine acting as a reverse proxy.

1. Proxy machine, httpd.conf

2. On backend.machine.edu edit DefaultSettings.php

This *shouldn’t* be necessary as this variable can also be provided in LocalSettings.php. However, I found the early stages of the request cycle were not correctly resolved to the front end machine.

3. Edit LocalSettings.php

Add the (possibly redundant) $wgServer variable

I also found that the absolute image path for the Wiki Logo was not resolving correctly through the proxy. Correct this (if necessary) by setting $wgLogo. This assumes that your backend machine is not behind a firewall.

4. Edit squid.conf on squid.machine.org to exclude wiki content

I might want to revisit this decision in the future. For now, I’d rather not fill our cache with Wiki material, saving that space for the heavier acedb content.