Hi,
I hope this is the right place to post, I have read several similar posts but none seem to get at exactly what I want to do.
I have a multisite setup at http://southeastsolarenergy.co.uk/
with lots of other domains parked on top of it
and I have developed http://cap.southeastsolarenergy.co.uk/
which the client would now like to make live
but they want to keep their DNS and make an A record to point to my server's IP address
Can domains be handled in this way for multisites?
What would be the process for testing the A record and making sure the site will work before making the www. A record point to my server?
for example, the client has setup test.bidnacaporiera.org and pointed it to 208.76.82.26 (the IP of the main multisite - the solar website) but when i add test.bidnacaporiera.org as a folder in my multisite and park it on southeastsolarenergy.co.uk I get a "server not found" error when visiting http://test.bidnacapoeria.org/
I do not have a great understanding of A records and DNS
Any help would be really appreciated
Thanks
Oli
Comments
DNS propagation
If you're on cPanel, you may need to use an addon domain instead of a parked domain (see this comment). Just point the addon (sub)domain to the same document root that you are using for southeastsolarenergy.co.uk.
But to me it seems that they have not yet added an A-record for test.bidnacaporiera.org pointing to your IP, or it hasn't propagated yet and you may need to wait a couple more hours. You'd at least expect to see a page like this: http://208.76.82.26/cgi-sys/defaultwebpage.cgi on the subdomain, once the DNS has propagated.
Once you have that you only need to make your server listen for that (sub)domain with the parked / addon domain.
So yes it's possible to use multi-site like this, but if it's shared hosting and you can use an addon domain, you may want to use a separate code base. With multi-site you need to be careful with module and core upgrades (e.g. a module used on only one of the multi-sites coudl be incompatible with another module used on multiple sites, etc), and also be careful with security. See Security concerns on the multi-site docs.
Hi ArjanLikesDrupal, Thanks
Hi ArjanLikesDrupal,
Thanks for your reply.
It has propagated in that i can now get to http://test.bidnacapoeira.org/cgi-sys/defaultwebpage.cgi
as you suggest
but I can not seem to get to the admin or install pages...?
I tried "unparking" test.bidnacapoeira.org and using add on domains as you suggest but I get the following error
Using nameservers with the following IPs: 208.109.255.50,216.69.185.50 Sorry, the domain is already pointed to an IP address that does not appear to use DNS servers associated with this server. Please transfer the domain to this servers nameservers or have your administrator add one of its nameservers to /etc/ips.remotedns and make the proper A entries on that remote nameserver.
Any ideas how I should progress?
Thanks
Oli
Remote domains
OK, so it seems your hosting provider does not allow remote domains. It is possible, if they enable this option. Or your client could change the domain name to use your hosting provider's nameservers. But this is probably not optimal, you would need the possibility the administer the domain's DNS via your cPanel (not sure if this works by default). Best talk to your hosting provider what they recommend.
DNS - multisite HELP!?
Hello again,
I asked my host:
I have a client who wants a new website and I have set up the dev site at http://cap.southeastsolarenergy.co.uk/
which is part of a multi drupal
they have now made an A record to point http://test.bidnacapoeira.org/ at 208.76.82.26
so that I can test picking up the url before they point http://www.bidnacapoeira.org/ at 208.76.82.26
How should I configure my setting to catch this A record?
I would normally park a full domain on http://southeastsolarenergy.co.uk/
but since they do not want to point their full DNS at TCH I am stuck
and they replied:
The easiest way to pull http://cap.southeastsolarenergy.co.uk/ on accessing http://test.bidnacapoeira.org/ - by setting a CNAME for test.bidnacapoeira.org to cap.southeastsolarenergy.co.uk where the DNS of bidnacapoeira.org is currently hosted.
So I asked the client to set up the CNAME record as described above, which they have done
but now when I visit
http://test.bidnacapoeira.org/
it defaults to http://test.bidnacapoeira.org/cgi-sys/defaultwebpage.cgi
I have asked them again if they can help and they dumped me with the standard line:
You'll need to contact the remote host where the DNS of bidnacapoeira.org is currently hosted for resolving this issue.
not much help :(
So I am still wondering, and this is my question:
What is the best way to set up the domain and directories for a Drupal instance, which is part of a multisite, for which the DNS is not hosted on the same server. i.e. the domain can not be "parked" on the main multisite URL?
Any help would be most appreciated
Thanks
The redirect to
The redirect to cgi-sys/defaultwebpage.cgi means that the domain is pointing at your (cPanel) hosting, but there isn't yet a vhost pointing to a document root, so it loads a default page. The vhost is added by creating a cPanel addon or parked domain. But I already see your southeastsolarenergy.co.uk site at the subdomain address, so it's probably a browser cache issue, just clear caches. If you create a folder with /sites/test.bidnacapoeira.org/settings.php it'll work.
so close - yet so far...
Hi ArjanLikesDrupal
many thanks for your help so far.
My host parked test.bidnacapoeira.org on southeastsolarenergy.co.uk
which made test.bidnacapoeira.org show the solar site at southeastsolarenergy.co.uk
I have also set up /sites/test.bidnacapoeira.org/settings.php (copied from cap.southeastsolarenergy.co.uk) as you suggest but I still get the solar site rather than the capoeria site...
I feel I am very close to making this work now! But am not quite sure what to do?
Any more advice you have would be very helpful..?
Thanks again
Yes, you're close. You should
Yes, you're close. You should either place a default settings.php file there (copy from default.settings.php) if you want to run the installer on the subdomain, or modify settings.php to use your bidnacapoeira database and database user.
thanks again - still not quite there
Hi,
I have copied default.settings.php to the folder /sites/test.bindacapoeria.org
and made sure that seetings.php (in /sites/test.bindacapoeria.org/) contains the correct info pointing to the capoeria user and database
I have left the base_url as I had it in the cap.southeastsolarenergy.co.uk folder:
$base_url = 'http://test.bidnacapoeira.org';
but I still get the solar site when I visit http://test.bidnacapoeira.org/ in FF
and I get the appache page in chrome, despite having cleared cache in both browsers.
:(
Any more ideas
Thanks
Multisite with A record
Now fixed:
If you want to run an instance on a multisite without parking the full domain (DNS) on the multisite:
1. set and A record for a subdomain (e.g. dev.newsite.com) from the place the hosts the new domain's DNS, pointing to the IP address of the multisite
2. park the subdomain (dev.newsite.com) on the main (multisite) domain (using WHM or similar on a VPS)
3. Set up a folder in /sites called dev.newsite.com so that settings.php is at /sites/dev.newsite.com/settings.php
run instal.php