I'm supporting an old Redhat server that is acting as a host for multiple users and websites, as well as some virtual domains. I've purchased a virtualmin pro site, and am prepping to migrate over the sites, and have some questions I'm not seeing in the documentation
1) what is the best way to handle unique websites that do not have a unique domain name? For example, we have many accounts where the user account gets mail under the main domain name, and can log into only their own www directory to edit web pages etc. Outside users are directed to http://maindomain/accountname/
Can this be replicated in virtualmin if the "maindomain" is set up as a virtual domain? Would the accounts be sub-servers? sub-domains? Would the account owners be able to administer their sub-servers? or am I restricted in having the maindomain owner be the sub-server administer, but allow the account user manage the site's content?
Can I replicate the naming convention, and support http://maindomain/accountname, or am I forced to use http://accountname.maindomain/? Can I do both?
2) can I allow ssh, scp or sftp access for the account owners to their sites to manage/upload content?
Thanks.
<div class='quote'>1) what is the best way to handle unique websites that do not have a unique domain name?</div>
If it were me, I would <i>give</i> them a unique domain name (joe.virtualmin.com, for example), and make it a regular virtual server in Virtualmin.
<div class='quote'>Can this be replicated in virtualmin if the "maindomain" is set up as a virtual domain? Would the accounts be sub-servers? sub-domains? Would the account owners be able to administer their sub-servers? or am I restricted in having the maindomain owner be the sub-server administer, but allow the account user manage the site's content?</div>
For subdirectories, no. Sub-servers live on domain names, just like virtual servers...but they're administered by the owner of the parent server. If you want the user to be able to administer their website in Virtualmin, the user needs to have a virtual server account (it can have a subdomain name, though, as names don't matter to Virtualmin, or Apache, or BIND, etc.).
Pretend like subdomain accounts don't exist. They're just there to confuse you (and are disabled by default if you install using our install script).
<div class='quote'>Can I replicate the naming convention, and support http://maindomain/accountname, or am I forced to use http://accountname.maindomain/? Can I do both?</div>
You can, of course, do both. You'll want to have a look at this FAQ first:
http://www.virtualmin.com/documentation/id,frequently_asked_questions/#h...
<div class='quote'>2) can I allow ssh, scp or sftp access for the account owners to their sites to manage/upload content?</div>
If they have a virtual server, certainly.
--
Check out the forum guidelines!
<div class='quote'>If it were me, I would give them a unique domain name (joe.virtualmin.com, for example), and make it a regular virtual server in Virtualmin.</div>
OK, thanks. So when creating the new top level virtual server, in the domain name field, I need to put in a FQDN? (joe.virtualmin.com) or can I just put in the account name (joe)?
As for the Automatic Virtual Hosts option in apache, when I enabled this, it broke regular access to the domain website, so I must have done something wrong...
So using the above example, with the Automatic Virtual Hosts setting changed to [code:1]/home/%0/public_html[/code:1] both of the following URL's will resolve to the same site?
http://www.joe.virtualmin.com/
http://www.virtualmin.com/joe/
Or do I need set up an alias or redirect for the virtualmin.com domain in apache, or what about the proxy paths feature for the virtualmin.com domain?
Yeah, when you create the Virtual Server, you'd enter:
joe.virtualmin.com
As the domain name.
It doesn't matter if the name "virtualmin.com" is already setup elsewhere within your Virtualmin setup -- from Virtualmin's point of view, joe.virtualmin.com and virtualmin.com are very different.
As far as "automatic virtual hosting" goes -- Joe actually recommends the option all the way at the bottom of the section of the FAQ he linked to :-)
It's a really simple option that enabled an alias for the Virtual Servers you setup. You can find it in System Settings -> Server Templates -> Default -> Virtual Server Creation, and then you can tinker with the options there.
Let us know if that does the trick for you :-)
-Eric