To try out the new, MCR enabled database schema, we want this setting on testwiki:
$wgMultiContentRevisionSchemaMigrationStage = SCHEMA_COMPAT_WRITE_BOTH | SCHEMA_COMPAT_READ_NEW;
This keeps writing to the old schema as well, so we can still easily back out of the migration.
We could also do this on a testwiki dedicated to commons, see T197616: Create a production test wiki in group0 to parallel Wikimedia Commons.