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Setting up MultiSite on an addon domain, not primary domain

Hi,

Will this be problematic? I wish to set up a new group of sites as multi, this will be my first attempt at doing this, so please be gentle on me! I have hosting with a dedicated IP and several domains that are running as subs and of course a primary domain, all running wordpress single. None of these will be a part of my network. I wish to setup a new multisite installation and am wondering if I will need to change my current primary to an add on and use the domain for the multisite main site, as primary?

Fri, 8 Jun 2012 14:58:54
  • Emanaku
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    just to clarify, Chris,

    you have a domain – say domain.com with existing subdomains.

    and what you want is a new subdomain – say multi.domain.com – where you want to install WPMU so for the WPMU multi.domain.com is the main domain.

    And then all the subdomains of this multisite installation would be called like d1.multi.domain.com, d2.multi.domain.com etc.

    Is that what you want?

  • Chris
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    > you have a domain – say domain.com with existing subdomains.

    Correct!

    > and what you want is a new subdomain – say multi.domain.com – where you want to install WPMU so for the WPMU multi.domain.com is the main domain.

    Correct, except, I have bought a domain for multi.domain.com that is setup simply as multi.com

    Does that even make sense? lol!

    And then all of my multisite sites will have their own domain names (if I understand correctly I use the MU mapping plugin?) So, it won’t be d1.multi.com, d2.multi.com, rather just d1.com, d2.com etc. Not sure how cpanel handles all that but I assume these would all just be subdomains of my primary domain in cpanel and then I have t use mapping plugin?

    Basically, instead of buying a new hosting package for my multi site project, I just want to use my current hosting package that already has a few domains on it, my provider offers unlimited domains, databases, email, bandwidth etc.

  • Kimberly
    • Champion of Loops

    Chris,

    You can indeed set up a multisite on your subdomain site. You can also use domain mapping on the resulting sub.sub.domain sites, provided that they are indeed subdomains and not subdirectories

    Edit to add: It’s not always recommended to go this route however. Just because it’s possible doesn’t make it best practice, be forewarned that if things go awry then they may be hard to track down where something went wrong in a setup like this as so many things can create a domino effect into your install.

    :slight_smile:

  • Chris
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    So probably, since my current Primary domain is a personal site, and the other two existing add-on domains are personal sites for family, I would be best to switch my primary domain to the new multi-site main domain – or buy a second account and use it for my new empire! :wink:

    This would be the least trouble down the road, yes?

  • Chris
    • The Incredible Code Injector

    There are many reasons that I have enjoyed my membership here – quick access to answers is top notch!

    from domain mapping usage guide….

    For using A Record setups, you also need to ensure you have a dedicated IP. This IP would fall onto your multisite setup. i.e. when you enter the IP you see your multisite.

    So, I have a dedicated IP, cool! But if I read this right, in order to do what I want to do, that is create a network of sites that have their own dedicated domain names, the main multisite site must be Primary domain in CPanel so that when I enter my IP address into a browser, the multisite main site pops up.

  • Kimberly
    • Champion of Loops

    yes, you are on track with that. :slight_smile: you will need a dedicated IP for your main site on your multisite. However, I’m not sure that you won’t need one for your main domain name too, like it said before, it’s tricky when you do a subdomain install of a multisite.

    or buy a second account and use it for my new empire! :wink:

    This would be the least trouble down the road, yes?

    Yeah, this would probably be the better option :slight_smile: