DNN subdomains

[RFH Reseller: Rappie]

I am trying to create a portal on a subdomain with DNN. But some how i don't seem to be able to get things working.

I've created a Parent portal to lets say; bigworld.my-second-domain.com. But a 404 shows up

Do need to add the "bigworld" subdomain to HELM aswell, or do i need to alter the DNS settings?

Any clues?

[Tanzy]

This is not very easy due to the way that sub domains work in RFH. As when you create a sub domain it creates a new folder. And I assume that you have DNN installed at the root of the domain. If you are planning to have more than one portal on your DNN install and you want them as sub domains then you sould try the following. (Note that I have not tried it myself)

Create an Alias for the sub domain as a full domain alias. Then use that. As I say not tried it myself.

This is a quick post, I will try to have a think about it and let you know.

[RFH Reseller: Hollywood]

This is not very easy due to the way that sub domains work in RFH. As when you create a sub domain it creates a new folder. And I assume that you have DNN installed at the root of the domain. If you are planning to have more than one portal on your DNN install and you want them as sub domains then you sould try the following. (Note that I have not tried it myself)

Create an Alias for the sub domain as a full domain alias. Then use that. As I say not tried it myself.

This is a quick post, I will try to have a think about it and let you know.

Definitely agree with Tanzy - do not try to do this using sub-domains in Helm, but rather just set up the alias - then it work (worked for me on DNN 4.3.6 when we first moved to RFH)

[RFH Reseller: Sol]

I don't know exactly how Helm works and how exactly it configures the servers, but I do know the workings of IIS on Windows along with several other web serving software.

When you create a sub-domain you are in effect creating an entirely new entry, from creating the IP Address configuration in DNS to adding the sub-domain to the web server configuration.

With a domain alias you are in effect copying the existing settings to the new entry (yes, it's a bit more complex than this, but for the purposes of explaining aliases it should do).

Another way of looking at this is that it is possible to configure a sub-domain on one server with the domain on another server. Of course, this would cause real problems if you wanted to run the same application as you would need to keep both copies of the source concurrent. To be honest I 'm not sure exactly how Helm creates the sub-domain, but it could follow the same distributed system as when adding domains and hence a sub-domain may appear on a different server.

Therefore, in agreement with the others, a Domain Alias would be the right way to go.

[Staff: Warren Ashcroft]

Technically for sub domains Helm creates a new site in IIS - no DNS changes required as the * record handles it;

for domain aliases Helm simply add it as a new host header on the original site in IIS (and same sort of thing in the mail server) - the DNS zone is cloned.

[RFH Reseller: Sol]

Technically for sub domains Helm creates a new site in IIS - no DNS changes required as the * record handles it;

Thanks for clearing things up Warren.

I'm a little suprised at not adding a sub-domain to DNS and using the * record to handle things, but understand that it would work almost identically.

[RFH Reseller: Rappie]

Create an Alias for the sub domain as a full domain alias. Then use that. As I say not tried it myself.

Definitely agree with Tanzy - do not try to do this using sub-domains in Helm, but rather just set up the alias - then it work (worked for me on DNN 4.3.6 when we first moved to RFH)

Therefore, in agreement with the others, a Domain Alias would be the right way to go.

I haven't had the time to play with this before . So i'll have to bring this back on top again. Thanks for your replys so far, highly appreciated

A few more questions though:
- If i create a parent portal in DNN as sub domain (let say bigworld.mydomain.com) this doesn't work. In order to get it to work i'll need to add a alias domain. I assume i'll have to add the alias to the parent portal in DNN. Right?

But what kind of alias do i need to use? Do need to use "bigworld.mydomain.com" as an alias aswell? (the same url of the parent portal)?