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Posted by:
Will Strohl
9/1/2010 8:29 AM
One of the great strengths of DotNetNuke is the fact that you can host as many sites as you’d like, from a single installation of DNN. Did I confused you? Imagine that you are currently managing 5 or more websites, each with its own web hosting plan. If they are each DNN, or otherwise a .Net and database enabled website, you’re easily spending over $7,000.00 just in hosting fees. Imagine being able to spend a fraction of that amount by consolidating all of your websites into a single instance of DotNetNuke – leaving you to manage just a single hosting plan. You can! Just so you know, I am just going to talk about how to add new sites to an existing DNN site in this post. The Web Host The first thing to consider when planning to host all of your sites into a single installation of DNN, is your web host. While DNN places no restriction on you in terms of how many sites you can host, and the number of domain names that those sites have, your web host may. Check with your web host immediately to see what limitations you might have. For example, your web host might tell you that you’re only able to have up to 5 domain names associated to a single site in your account. There are ways around this, but it’s a common and real-world example. The Steps There are three (3) basic steps to adding a new site to your instance of DNN. They are outlined below: - Update DNS
- Update IIS
- Add a New Portal in DNN
Update DNS When you have a new or existing domain name, you need to point that domain name to a server. This is what the Domain Name System (DNS) does for you. It allows you to have a domain name that people can easily remember, but point it to an actual address on the internet. The exact method of how to do this varies, as web hosts use a variety of different methods to add or edit a DNS entry to your domain name. In general though, you want to make sure that you have an Host or A record in your DNS settings. Simply specify the IP address of your web server to tell the DNS where to point requests to that domain to. 
Update IIS Internet Information Server (IIS) is the web server that allows websites to work on the Microsoft platform. It accepts requests from the internet for a website, and then responds with the requested web page and files. In the world of DNN, it also is the final link to allow you to host multiple websites in DNN, before adding a new portal. In order to add your new setting in IIS to accept requests for new domain names, you need to add an entry for the website called a Host Header. This tells IIS all of the domain names that a single site will respond to. Once again, if you’re doing this through a web host, there could be any number of ways that they have you do this. In IIS 7 though, it’s easier than ever. - Select your website in the list of websites.
- Click on Bindings in the right pane.
- Click the Add button.
- Add the new domain name into the new window that appears.
- Click OK to save the new domain name.
- Click Close to exit the Bindings dialog.
That’s it! IIS is now all configured. Add a New Portal Most of you already know, but the word “portal” and “site” or “website” are interchangeable in DotNetNuke. When we speak of adding a new portal to DNN, we’re also saying that we’re adding a new site. It’s easy to do this in DNN. - Login using a Host or Superuser account.
- Go to the Portals page in the Host menu.
- Click the Add New Portal link at the bottom of the module, or in the actions menu.
- Fill in all of the information in the form on the next page.
- The Portal Alias is your new domain name.
- Click Create Portal to create your portal.
- Visit your new website!
It’s really that simple to add a new portal to your site. At this point, you technically should be able to see, access, and log into your new site. However, you should note that DNS settings take time to spread across the internet. For this reason, you and other may not be able to get to the site using it’s URL for up to 24 hours. People in different regions of the country and world will also be able to use the URL at different times. For example, you might be in Orlando, FL, and be able to see the site immediately. In contrast, someone in the state of Washington might not be able to see the site for two more hours. Additionally, someone in the UK might not see the site for 6 hours after that. It really does vary.
14 comment(s) so far...
Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
You also have to be careful with 3rd party modules (if you use any) and how their licensing is written. Some of them are only valid for one domain, others are good for as many portals as you want but only one DNN install.
I also ran into an issue where I made a portal using a test portal alias and then later wanted to turn it live and I could not replace the original portal alias but could only add a second one. It wasn't a big problem but I didn't really like having that test alias still associated with the portal.
Also If this is a completely separate site you need to select a Parent portal type (the default) . I believe that if you select a child portal type then the portal alias is the parent portal alias / your subportal. This is handy if you want to make a related site that has different logo, look and site settings. This will still allow SEO stuff to see them as one site. They still have a separate set of users but I believe that can be made to synch.
That is how I understand things in my simplified version of reality.
Mike j
By michael jackson on
9/1/2010 10:08 PM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
Could you please advise, how to restrict access to the pages on PortalB for some users, which have access to PortalA (user have access to the default.aspx in the root folder of the DNN instance (IIS - anonymous access)). How to restrict access to the same default.aspx in the PortalB (via IIS authority).
Example:
IIS
Virtual directory Physical path for IIS Domain Authorized UserGroup
PortalA c:\www\dotnetnuke\ www.portalA.com UserGroupA, UserGroupB
PortalB c:\www\dotnetnuke\ www.portalB.com UserGroupA
DotNetNuke
Portals Alias
1 www.portalA.com
2 www.portalB.com
By Evgeny Grigoryev on
9/1/2010 10:09 PM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
Will,
Great post. We've been hosting multiple portals on DNN for years. One trick to remove some admin steps is to setup a wildcard A record in your main (Portal 0)'s DNS record. Then you can remove the IIS setup steps entirely.
By Steven Webster on
9/1/2010 10:09 PM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
Will - a useful post - something that many people don't have the basics for.
One thing I would add is to check/test the SMTP server settings before adding a new portal. That way your new user and portal notifications will get sent when you create the portal.
By Bruce Chapman on
9/1/2010 10:09 PM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
$7,000? Maybe $700/year with a very good host...
Most hosts you won't need the IIS Settings.. if someone doesn't know this, asking them to do this is giving them more than they should know.
By brian cumberledge on
9/2/2010 6:45 AM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
@Michael: You're absolutely right. I address this in my next post (to be released by this evening).
@Evgeny: Please seek support through the DNN Forums. The blog comments don't allow me to effectively help you.
@Steven: That will certainly work, as long as there aren't other site entries that might effect that schema, which may also introduce a performance issue on more taxed web servers.
@Bruce: Thanks. That notification is not always a concern for everyone, but SMTP should be properly configured anyway. :)
By Will Strohl on
9/2/2010 6:44 AM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
@Brian: That's not completely true. But thanks for the comment.
By Will Strohl on
9/2/2010 6:46 AM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
I used to have one DNN installation for severalcustomer websites. But now I moved to have one DNN installation for each customer. Only because for the content restore problems from the database.
If DNN can find out to restore some of the database, and not the whole database, then multiple sites in one installation is great idea.
By Ulrik Motzfeldt on
9/2/2010 5:12 PM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
You said,
"... your web host might tell you that you’re only able to have up to 5 domain names associated to a single site in your account. There are ways around this ..."
Can you throw some more light on this ? :P
By Jaydeep Bhatt on
9/3/2010 6:51 AM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
@Jaydeep: Some web hosts realize that dynamic sites like DNN are able to host multiple sites from a single hosting plan. For shared hosting plans, this presents a potential problem as your consumption of server resources can potentially be 5 times or more than another site on the same server.
By Will Strohl on
9/3/2010 6:53 AM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
well, I actually wanted to know, HOW TO ADD MORE DOMAINS, THAN ALLOWED BY THE HOSTER
My Hosting company limits the domains to 3, how do add more than 3 domains to single DNN installation ?
By Jaydeep Bhatt on
9/7/2010 8:28 AM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
Sorry, Jaydeep. The ways around it depends on the specific scenario, and how your hosting environment is set-up by the web host. Regardless, your web host will be able to find out if you're using more than one domain, and can block the additional domain requests. That being said, some hosting environments block unknown domains by default. If you're using a shared hosting plan, you're best playing within their rules, otherwise, you're constantly going to be patching up or reacting to a URL not being responded to.
By Will Strohl on
9/7/2010 8:31 AM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
What if you are set up namebased as opposed to ip based?
By Art Cummings on
7/12/2011 12:34 PM
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Re: Hosting Multiple Sites on a Single Instance of DotNetNuke
@Art: Then you wouldn't change or manage the IP address. You'd only need to worry about the "Host Name" (domain name) in IIS. In DNS, you would point to the shared IP address.
By Will Strohl on
7/12/2011 12:35 PM
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