Re: [cobalt-users] Domains pointing at subdirectories of virtual site

[flash22@xxxxxxx]

On Fri, 25 Jan 2002, Phil Beynon wrote:

> Hi,
> Following on from what I was asking the other day really;
> 
> Is this easily possible?

Define easily ;P

> If I have a virtual site which has a number ( probably 12 ) of
> subdirectories is there a way I can point another domain name to each of
> these directories?
> 
> So I then have the www.mainsite.com and this has its pages plus
> subdirectories which are the branch sites, but each of those can be accessed
> directly via www.branchsite1.com ..... www.branchsite12.com as well.
> 
> The branch sites do not need any mail capability, but I do run primary DNS
> for the virtual sites.
> 
> Would I be correct in thinking that I can get the sites working as aliases
> in the GUI and then alter a .conf to move the entry point of the directory?

Yes, since you have a Raq4 it's a lot easier, you can let the GUI handle
most of it, basiclly you need DocumentRoot in the server cconfig to point
into your subdirectory...

> Do I just set up the DNS as normal or will anything need editing here as
> well?

DNS for those names will be exactly the same as for the site they are in,
same IP, 1 A record, since you don't expect mail, you don't need MX, tho
you can...(don't duplicate the NS records , they are associated with the
zone if your 'sub-sites' are domain relative, if they are different names,
then of course, you need the NS records)

Of course, if you are talking about completly different domain names, then
thay aren't sub domains ;P

> 
> Since the 12 branches will be micro sites I don't want to use up 12 of the
> 250 site capability of the Raq4 on what are in essence single page sites.

And there's the gotcha....they ARE sites, where they point to on the disk
doesn't change that, to handle the http request , apache has to listen for
that name, and generate logs, and do all the normal site type stuff 
So, you aren't really saving anything here...tho, the URL's may be
prettier., or the site may be easier to manage, or it may not, with
seperate sites, you have more access control, if you merge them all
together into one directory/site, you will also probably have to grane the
site admin users cross site access privileges

ps: You almost certainly DON'T want to do this if you are trying to also
support frontpage, you will confuse it to no end ;P

pps: sub domain setup stuff is actualy documented reasonably well in the
manual for the raq4 , for a change, the manuals all seem to have moved to
docs.sun.com (Cobalt appliance documentation) etc...

gsh