[cobalt-users] Combining name.based and IP based hosting - long

[Diana Brake <diana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<snipped> stuff about httpd.conf file configs </snip>

From Jeff Lasman
>The RaQs use name-based hosting, but they use the IP# as the name <wry
>grin>. I never saw this before. Very nonstandard. They do it this way
>so that you can host a site today, and it works as IP# based, but add
>another site tomorrow at the same IP# and they both work as name.based.

WHoa....:) I've been trying to figure out the best way to set up my machine 
so that it will do both..IP hosting and name based. I'll try to explain my 
confusion..:) I used to resell at AIT where I had full control of the 
httpd.conf file. I "understood" what to touch and what to leave alone there 
because they often didn't do the set ups for my new domains correctly and I 
had to go fix them. But, when I got the raq2, the techy at the coloc I use 
now said that AIT's version was VERY hacked and that Cobalt's use of 
httpd.conf was more standard. So, now I'm afraid to touch it, not knowing 
exactly what to do. (Coloc techy person doesn't know what to do either - 
they're against named based hosting because they want to sell more IP 
numbers..:)and so far, I'm the only Raq owner they coloc.)

I'm trying to learn what the cname function actually is used for, what it 
does to the file(s) and if it is what is used to set up name based 
vhosts...and then do I have to edit the httpd.conf file to set a specific 
directory for the new domain name to call home? Do I have this close yet 
then? If I can set up a name based vhost by just assigning it an IP that is 
already in use by another domain, then what do I do in the parameter setup 
area for DNS to make it point to a separate web site over the first one on 
that IP? or is that why the httpd.conf file must be edited by hand?

ex) I have set up...girlposse.com - 209.212.150.39  This has been up and 
running for quite some time now as a functioning web site. I have A records 
and PTR records for both girlposse.com and www.girlposse.com. This same 
client would like to have a new domain (grrlposse.com) so I figured this 
was the perfect situation for a name based vhost situation. (There is no 
work being done at grrlposse.com as of yet so I didn't set up a new virtual 
host in the admin control panel, but I created the A record that points a 
name to a specific IP...and didn't do one (PTR) for the IP back to the 
name.) at this moment, the URL grrlposse.com resolves to girlposse.com.
When we want to migrate the grrlposse.com name so that it will host 
separate pages than the girlposse site, do I take out the DNS A record that 
is there now and replace it with a cname record?
Do I create the site in the admin control panel and assign it the same IP 
as the original girlposse.com?
What would the directory structure then become at girlposse.com?  and 
what/where would it be for grrlposse? <? /home/sites/site39/web/grrlposse/ 
?> OR something like /home/sites/site83/web ? for the new 
grrlposse.com  (site39 = girlposse - site 83 = grrlposse)
Maybe I should NOT create the new site through MY admin control panel and 
just set some DNS record somehow to make the new site show up in a browser 
as a separate site from the first?...then create by hand the directories 
for the new domain?  <? /home/sites/grrlposse/web ?> putting it in the tree 
on the same level as the site# for all other sites? (guessing then that I 
would have to edit group and other unknown files by hand also to add this 
new user?)

at AIT, to view a new site that was a vhost just set up ...before the name 
was propagated...we used a URL like 
this..  http://myaccountatait.com/newaccountjustsetup/  I can see how this 
wouldn't work though if the Cobalt machine sets the new site in a 
completely different directory from the first one on the IP#. If I set 
things up the way AIT did, it would seem that the new site would NOT have a 
siteadmin control panel...something this client may or may not need. But, 
doing it by creating the site through my admin control would give the 
client her own siteadmin panel for grrlposse...just as she has for 
girlposse. And, would any of the changes I'm asking to make affect the 
current girlposse web site in a negative way at all?..since it was said 
above that they would BOTH become name.based?

so, right now, my httpd.conf file is just as cobalt meant for it to be if 
all is done through the web interface using separate IP#s. It works...hence 
my apprehension about touching it..:) Could someone who is doing combined 
IP and name based hosting show me a portion of their httpd.conf file so 
that I could see its structure? Can anyone make sense of my questions here 
and offer advice?...:) I would greatly appreciate it, and I do plead that 
my ignorance not be held against me..:)

Diana
Crest Communications, Inc.		diana@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Beautiful Sunny Florida		http://crestcommunications.com/
352-495-9359