WordPress MU Subdomains on Plesk
I've been setting up WordPress MU on a Plesk server and I have to tell you that getting the subdomains (e.g. blog2.domain.com) to work was driving me crazy. It took a combination of multiple sites before I got it working, so I wanted to post what I did here hoping that it might help someone else.
First and foremost, you need to create the vhost.conf file for the domain itself. The vhost.conf and vhost_ssl.conf file needs to be created in the conf directory of the domain. On Plesk it should be similar to: /var/www/vhosts/domain.com/conf/vhost.conf.
You can create the file from within the Plesk panel itself or using an SSH client like Putty (my preference).
Within the vhost.conf file you need to include the following line:
ServerAlias *.domain.com
Replacing "domain.com" with your domain.
Once you've done that you'll need to run the following from your SSH client (there's other ways to do this but this worked fine for me):
-
/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/websrvmng --reconfigure-vhost --vhost-name=domain.com
Then restart apache and go try it out. Guess what? It's supposed to work but it still doesn't!
This is where the final magical step comes in. Log in to your Plesk panel, go to domains, and select the domain that you are trying to set this up on. Once the page loads, select DNS Settings.
From there, click the Add Record button from the top.
The Record Type should be CNAME. In the "Enter domain name" field enter a *. Then in the canonical name field enter your domain (without a www, just a plain domain.com).
Click Ok to save the record and try again. You should now see your WordPress MU Subdomains on Plesk working!
Tags: plesk, wordpress mu subdomains, plesk wordpress mu
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This is what happened to me and I’m still struggling with it. I think I’ll try the solution you provided.
http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/topic.php?id=9706
Hey Marko - Thanks for the comment. It was definitely a crazy process. Let me know if you don’t figure it out.
I’m having the same issue … however I tried your steps and still the same issue.
Hey Darin… What’s the URL where your MU install is at?
I’m using Tuxtools and had a somewhat like problem. Worst of all, on my server I can’t access or configure the vhost. But, lucky enough, by just adding the cname for my subdomain e.g.: wordpress.ralfengel.com, then creating the new blog, it worked perfectly.
Hi Vernon,
Thanks for sharing your tip.
I have used the following approach and also had to create the ‘*’ as a CNAME:
http://kb.parallels.com/en/2239
Im having the same problem, was going to try your solution but plesk wont let me access the conf folder, or like me change its premissions, its driving me crazy!! any ideas? many thanks
oh and this may sound silly, but what is the cname? and where does it go?
Thanks for the tip. The DNS setting changes in plesk don’t appear to be necessary… at least I do all my domain hosting elsewhere and added the CNAME there and it works fine.
Combined with the excellent Domain Mapping plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wordpress-mu-domain-mapping/) I can now have any domain pointed at any MU blog
@Darren - Sorry for such a long delay. I’ve been bogged down with work and haven’t been able to attend to the blog as much as wanted to. The CNAME record is a DNS entry and you can make the addition in Plesk by going into the panel and under the domain. You should see an icon for DNS entries if you’re on an older version of Plesk. If you’re on a newer version, you’ll need to click on the “Web Site” title that’s above the hosting settings, subdomains, etc.
@Darren - About the conf folder… You’ll need to do that on command line with a tool like Putty or something similar. If you don’t have control over the server, you’ll need to talk to your host and see if they can help you get things set up.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing… I was already on the road to insanity.