Web Solutions: Multi-Site Configurations & Setup

1. Multi-site configurations for windows & ubuntu

1.1. Configurations on windows

1.1.1. Configure Hosts file: C:\windows\system32\Drivers\etc\

Following are configurations in hosts file…

 127.0.0.1    localhost

 127.0.0.1    your-sub-site

1.1.2. Configure httpd-vhosts file: D:\xampp\apache\conf\extra

Following are configurations…

 NameVirtualHost your-site: 80

 NameVirtualHost your-sub-site: 80

<VirtualHost *:80>

 DocumentRoot DIRECTORY: /xampp/htdocs

ServerName localhost

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost localhost: 80>

         DocumentRoot DIRECTORY: /xampp/htdocs

          ServerName localhost

</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost your-sub-site: 80>

           DocumentRoot DIRECTORY: /xampp/htdocs/your-site

          ServerName your-sub-site

</VirtualHost>

1.1.3. Restart Servers

1.1.4. Database Settings

Create new database and setup settings.php for your-sub-site.

  Move settings.php in /sites/your-sub-site/

1.2. Configurations on Ubuntu server

1.2.1. Configure Hosts file: /etc/ ONLY FOR LOCAL SYSTEM

Following are configurations in hosts file…

 127.0.0.1    localhost

 127.0.0.1    your-sub-site

1.2.2. Create the New Virtual Host File

The next step is to set up the apache configuration. Go to sites-available directory and make a copy of the file “default” (naming it after your domain name) in the same directory:

sudo cp /etc/apache2/sites-available/default /etc/apache2/sites-available/your-sub-site

1.2.3. Turn on Virtual Hosts

Open up the new config file:

 sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/your-sub-site

1.2.4. Set Server Name

We are going to set up a virtual host in this file.
The first step is to insert a line for the ServerName under the ServerAdmin line.

  ServerName your-sub-site

1.2.5. Create Site Folder and Assign Proper Permissions

Create site folder in /site/sites/your-sub-site

1.2.6. Activate the Site

Now activate the host, with the built in apache shortcut:

sudo a2ensite your-sub-site

1.2.7. Restart Apache

We’ve made a lot of the changes to the configuration, and the virtual host is set up. However none of the changes that we made will take effect until Apache is restarted. Use following commands to reload settings and restart apache:

sudo service apache2 reload

sudo service apache2 restart

1.2.8. Database Settings

Create new database and setup settings.php for your-sub-site.

 Move settings.php in /sites/your-sub-site/

1.2.9. Symlinks

Remove source (dsmstg.tchadv.com) directory

ln -s destination-directory simlink-name

2. Steps to start a new site

Following are the steps to follow to launch a new site.

2.1.Create new site folder in sites module

2.1.1. Building out the home site folder

The home folder of the site contains

§ the settings.php file for the site

any custom themes for the site
any custom modules required for the site
the files folder for the site

In multi-site the sites are all subfolders of the "sites" directory.

Example:

{cloudmlm_home}/sites/mysite.com

On the development environment this ends up being:

/var/www/cloudmlm/sites/mysite.com

2.2.Create a database dump (Core database)

2.2.1. Import database and create settings.php for site

2.2.2. Configuring settings.php

Make sure the database line looks like:

$databases = array (

  'default' =>

  array (

    'default' =>

    array (

      'database' => 'database_name',

      'username' => 'database_user_name',

      'password' => 'database_password',

      'host' => 'host_server_ip',

      'port' => '',

      'driver' => 'mysql',

      'prefix' => '',

),

),

);

2.3.Themes required for the site

As database of site is totally separate so it will be possible to use different theme for sites. To change theme of a site follow these steps

2.3.1. Copy core theme in site’s themes folder

/sites/{mysite.com}/themes/mytheme

2.3.2. Rename the theme with site name

2.3.3. Open admin interface and change the theme

2.3.4. Do changes/designing in theme

2.4.Modules required for the site

In case a site needs some functionality in a different way will have to change the particular module or write new module for that site. Following are steps to change a theme

2.4.1. Move/create module in site’s modules folder

/sites/{mysite.com}/modules/mymodule

Web Solutions

Thursday, 13 June 2013

Multi-Site Configurations & Setup