Re: [cobalt-users] Previewing a name-based virtual site

[Kevin Murphy <kevin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks, Will, but you missed my quandry by a hair.

I see what you're doing, and it's a great solution - if it's my site I'm
posting, and reviewing for internal use only, since I have control over
my local DNS setting.

But these are client sites, and we all know how goofy they can get
sometimes about seeing things "in process".  So I need a way to get them
to the 'in process' site, without having to move it around in the
directory structure on the RaQ.  Heaven knows it's difficult enough
sometimes to get them to send me email - I hate to think what I would
have to go through to get them to change their DNS settings!

I did find a "solution", but it feels REALLY insecure to me...

In httpd.conf, I set things up as follows (Note: IP addresses have been
changed to protect the innocent):

NameVirtualHost my.ip.add.res
<VirtualHost my.ip.add.res >
ServerName my.ip.add.res
DocumentRoot /home/sites
ServerAdmin admin
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost my.ip.add.res >
ServerName my.cobalt.raq
DocumentRoot /home/sites/home/web   
etc...

So, now, when someone accesses
http://my.ip.add.res/theirsitenumber/web/index.html - they get their
site, in progress.  If someone hits http://my.cobalt.raq, they get the
regular server stuff.

But as I say - this seems somewhat insecure - if you have my.ip.add.res,
you can get to anything on there you want to see.  Not that anything in
there is "private" - and you have to know the cobalt structure of
site1,site2, etc (the symlinks don't seem to work here, but I think
that's because of the owner status on them). But you can get to the
cgi-bin, or anything else you want to, as well.  Scary.

And again, I'm afraid of what happens to my httpd.conf file when the
cobalt interface gets ahold of it again.

So, that's where I got, but if anyone has a better way that is easily
communicated to the average client, I'm all ears.

I'm beginning to wonder if there's some way to wrap it up in PHP, so
that httpd.conf doesn't have to get involved...

Thanks!

-Kevin

Will DeHaan wrote:
> 
> The best way to test a name-based web site before your DNS domain
> registrations are complete is to take control of your own DNS service.
> Every RaQ and Qube out there has a DNS server built-in.  Simply add a
> forward (A) record in your DNS from your
> www.namebasedbutnotyetregistered.com to the IP address used by that
> site.  Save Changes.  Set the RaQ to your primary DNS server on your
> local PC.  Now pull up that site on your web browser, test away.
> 
> The public can never access a name-based site without correctly
> configured public DNS service.  Register those domains if you haven't
> already.  www.123domains.com is running a sale, $28 for two years
> service.
> 
>         -- Will
> 
> Kevin Murphy wrote:
> >
> > Hello.
> >
> > We have been using a Coblat RaQ2 for quite some time for a single
> > client, and are beginning now to host multiple sites on it.  We are
> > planning to use name-based hosting to accomplish this.
> >
> > My question is deceptively simple.  When a virtual site is added to the
> > primary IP address on the server, how do I access that site in order to
> > test it?
> >
> > Currently, we "stage" all our sites as users in the home directory.
> > This allows us to send clients to 'our.cobalt.server/users/theirsite',
> > and works well.  But I don't want to be forced to move their sites when
> > they go "live" because of the limits of this server.  There's got to be
> > a better way!
> >
> > >From what I can tell, the directory structure of the server prevents you
> > from accessing a new  site directly by IP, as the IP-based hosting
> > points at a specific web directory, and not the "root" of all web directories.
> >
> > I have tried adding a symlink to the directory created by the new domain
> > in /home/sites/home/users, but I always get "file not found" when I try
> > to access it in the browser.
> >
> > I also tried adding a second entry in the ServerAlias line in
> > httpd.conf, and that didn't seem to work, either - it just redirected
> > the site over to the existing domain!  Not useful for my purposes.
> >
> > So, I'm stuck.
> >
> > Do I need to change the DocumentRoot for the IP I'm going to host all
> > the sites under so it  points at a higer level directory, and then put
> > in a new ServerName line for the existing machine on that IP?  But won't
> > that screw up the Cobalt Interface?  Or is httpd.conf written
> > separately, and only re-written when it's asked to?
> >
> > Any hints are greatly appreciated.  I'm sure I'm not the first person to
> > encounter this problem.
> >
> > Thanks!
> >
> > -Kevin
> >
> > --
> > Kevin Murphy
> > Director of Technology
> >
> > Glen Group
> > Marketing and Advertising Design
> > P.O. Box 2838, 170 Kearsarge Street
> > North Conway, New Hampshire 03860
> > http://www.glengroup.com
> >
> > Voice: 603-356-3030 * FAX: 603-356-3991
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > cobalt-users mailing list
> > cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > http://list.cobalt.com/mailman/listinfo/cobalt-users
> 
> _______________________________________________
> cobalt-users mailing list
> cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://list.cobalt.com/mailman/listinfo/cobalt-users

-- 
Kevin Murphy
Director of Technology

Glen Group
Marketing and Advertising Design
P.O. Box 2838, 170 Kearsarge Street
North Conway, New Hampshire 03860
http://www.glengroup.com

Voice: 603-356-3030 ? FAX: 603-356-3991