[PAYH] Multiple domains to one site (Tutorial)

[#1]

I have been keeping an eye on this forum and have not seen anyone post anything about this and thought that the following may be of use to people.
DO NOT MOVE YOUR DOMAIN(S) TO THE PLESK SERVER.
If you point a domain to the PAYH server the plesk system sets up a defined area of your web space for that domain (with a minimum of 10mb useage per domain, thus reducing the amount of webspace for your site). You then have to work out how to point the domain name to your site at username.plushost.co.uk .
Here is how to point multiple domains to your username.plushost.co.uk website without moving them to the PAYH server.

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SET UP A DOMAIN ALIAS FOR THE DOMAIN....
In the plesk control panel select "Domain > Domain Alias > Add Domain Alias >".
Enter the 'Domain alias name'. e.g. birdwellfirstresponders.org.uk (This is my domain. it does exist). DO NOT put 'www.' or anything else before the domain name. Click 'OK' plesk will set up all the domain records that you need.

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SETTING UP DNS FOR THE DOMAIN....
1 )  On the +net portal select 'Domain names' from the left hand column.
2 )  Select 'CONFIGURE' for the domain you wish to point to your site on the PAYH server.
3 )  In the 'Domain Hosting Settings' section make sure that you have selected 'Other'.
4 )  In the 'Additional DNS records' section select 'CONFIGURE DNS SETTINGS'.
5 )  In the'Create a new DNS record for' section enter details as shown below.
      LEFT_FIELD________TYPE_____RIGHT_FIELD
      domainname.com._____A_______212.56.83.230

      Dont forget the trailing'.' in the left field.
      The right field should contain the IP address of the plesk server (check what yours is via
      the DNS section of the plesk control panel)
6 )  Click 'ADD'
      You will be returned to the previous page.
      Leave all the other DNS records alone for now. e.g. If you have 'www' pointing to the 'cgi'
      server for your existing site, leave it pointing there.
7 )  Click 'SUBMIT' at the bottom of the page.
Wait until DNS has propogated (Up to 24 hours).

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Once DNS has propogated you will be able to access your site via 'http://domainname.com' BUT NOT via 'http://www.domainname.com', This is still pointing to your existing site on the 'homepages' or 'cgi' server and will still be available to the public.
By using http://domainname.com you can check that everything on the site works correctly with the domain before it goes live to the public.

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DNS AGAIN....
Once your site is ready for public access you will need to set up DNS to allow this.
Follow steps 1 to 4 as above.
5 )  In the'Create a new DNS record for' section enter details as shown below.
      LEFT FIELD___ TYPE____ RIGHT FIELD
      www_________ cname____domainname.com.
      Dont forget the trailing '.' in the right field.
6 )  Click 'ADD'
      You will be returned to the previous page.
7 )  Again in the 'Additional DNS records' section select 'CONFIGURE DNS SETTINGS'.
8 )  Click the 'REMOVE' button next to the OLD 'www' record.
      You will again be returned to the previous page.
      If you remove the wrong 'www' record, don't panic. Just repeat this section to re-add it.
9 )  Click 'SUBMIT' at the bottom of the page.
Wait until DNS has propogated (Up to 24 hours) you will then be able to access your new site via 'http://www.domainname.com and also http://domainname.com .

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Hope this is of use.

[#2]

Quote from: Devonports

Hope this is of use.

Thank you for taking the trouble to write this guide.  I'm still finding the PAYH set-up very unwieldy (working my way through bits of it, in stages) and it's notably helpful when people take the time to write instructions that are really clearly spelled out.
It's all (still) a bit of a minefield for the unitiated at present, but help guides like this make a real difference.
Best regards,
Penny.

[#3]

Thanks for posting this.
Might I suggest to the Mods that this be put up on the Tutorials page http://users.plus.net/tutorials ?

[#4]

Thanks for the suggestion, I'll add it to the PAYH section later.
David
Edit: The article is now published as Pointing multiple domains to your PAYH webspace.

[#5]

Thanks for the article, but I can't get it working.  When I go to my domain alias, I get the Plesk default server page.  If I go to http://myusername.plushost.co.uk/ I get my Joomla site.
Any ideas?

[#6]

Ah, it's working now.  Must have needed a bit of time to propogate or summet like that.

[#7]

Is there any benefit having multiple domains on the same plesk control panel?
I was told in my post earlier today Here that each domain would have its own control panel login.

[#8]

There are many benefits to having multiple domains on the one control panel but it all depends on circumstances.
If you only have 1 database available to you, as far as I know, it can only be accessed from the domain space in which it has been created.  e.g. if you have dom1.com, dom2.co.uk and dom3.org all hosted on the plesk server and you create the database within dom1.com then you cannot access it from dom2.co.uk or dom3.org.
There are 2 major advantages in using domain aliases to point the domain to a single space.
1) You can have several sites, each with individual content, and using one set of codebase scripts and 1 database. e.g. Drupal and Joomla
2) The single database can be shared by several different applications from several domains.

One quick point with regards to your other thread. At the moment some of the apps that are listed as being available will not install due to "safe mode ON" being the default setting, Drupal and Joomla being 2 cases in point. also any additional apps on a domain space would have to be installed manually as well.

[#9]

I have followed the instructions above to point my domain adiosmusic.com to the PAYH server.  After 48 hours it is still pointing to the default homepage server.  I deleted the DNS settings and re-entered them again however it is still not pointing to the PAYH server.  I have also added the domain alias on the PAYH server.
I have attached a screenshot of my DNS settings so if anybody sees anything wrong, I would appreciate it if you could let me know.

[#10]

Just received the following reply to my ticket.  Note that they say there should not be a trailing . after the www field.
=============
Dear Mr Drover,
Thanks for your ticket. The http://adiosmusic.com address should forward correctly once the DNS updates, however the http://www.adiosmusic.com address is entered incorrectly - the http://www in the Left field should be entered without the trailing full-stop.
If there's anything further we can help with, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Kind regards,
Customer service guy
adie:red Removed Customer Service Agents name as per forum rules]

[#11]

How can I configure multiple domains to point at separate systems within PAYH.
i.e. personal.org to a Wordpress Blog, and business.co.uk to a html & helpdesk app?
Can I do this within one PAYH site?

[#12]

If you are only using 2 domains you could install 1 application i.e. the business site into the "HTTPSDOCS" folder and the personall wordpress blog into the "HTTPDOCS" folder.
You would then access the business site via 'https://business.co.uk' and the blog via 'http://personal.org'.
If both apps require a database and you only have a single database then you will have to manually install one or both apps in order for them to share the db.
If one (or both) of the apps requires 'safe mode OFF' then that app will have to be installed manually as the plesk system will not auto install them at the moment.
A second method is the use of htaccess fles. but I do not know enough about htaccess to be able to assist with that. Maybe someone else can help with that.
As an alternative have you considered installing something like Drupal ( www.drupal.org ) or Joomla ( www.joomla.org ) as you could have both sites running off just one set of codebase files, but each having totally seperate looks and functionality to each other. but both using the same database without the need to manually install a second app.

[#13]

One way to do it would be to create aliases for 2 or more domains, as above. Point all these domains at the same IP address, as above. Put each of your sites in a separete folder in httpdocs. Then create or edit the .htaccess file in httpdocs to contain:

rewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^(www.)?yourdomain.co.uk$
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/yourfolder/.*
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /yourfolder/$1

Replace "yourdomain.co.uk" and "yourfolder", as appropriate. Repeat the last three lines for each domain-folder combination.
(This is compatible with the phpwrapper redirect. Put this first.)
Gabe