Systems Administrator Role

If you have, or intend to, install and manage a MediaWiki-based website in a hosted environment then you will have all the responsibilities of a Systems Administrator. For this you will need an account with a Hosting Provider, you will need to use a dashboard or interface, usually cPanel, and you will need to use an FTP client to transfer files to the space provided on the Server.

When you login to MediaWiki you should find that you are also an Administrator, an Interface Administrator, a Bureaucrat and, of course, a registered User.

So, as a Systems Administrator, you can do anything and you are responsible for everything. A cautious degree of paranoia is therefore a good thing!

Author's Note

As I trained website administrators and systems administrators for about ten years I had a head start when it came to implementing MediaWiki for my main website mh370wiki.net. And compiling this website to help people starting with a hosted MediaWiki-based website I realise there is a lot to learn just about MediaWiki.

So here are a few thoughts:-

A good systems administrator is careful, thinks before doing anything, considers the risks and how to mitigate (avoid) them, creates a backup of any item before changing it, documents each change with a date and a comment so there is a trail and a reason for the change, and learns from mistakes.
With MediaWiki the easiest way to start is with an automated install using scripts by Softaculous, accessed though cPanel. Or go with a hosting provider with MediaWiki 'farms'.
Learn by doing, and by repetition. Install MediaWiki, test a few things, destroy it and start again. Upgrade a test website before upgrading a significant one.
Learn as you go. Don't get overloaded or overwhelmed. Focus on each task. Break down a process into smaller tasks and complete each one. Write a log-book with planned sequences for each task and record the outcome.
Its your website - do what you want to do and achieve what you set out to achieve.