Forum OpenACS Q&A: Please help! Urgent!

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1: Please help! Urgent!
Posted by Ravi Gadad on 12/16/00 03:08 AM
I have a client who basically needs name-based virtual hosting,
and IMMEDIATELY.  The situation is:  this client will have a
message board and user registration on his site, but nothing
else.  We have to share OpenACS installations, because of the
way we're monitoring and administering users and data.  The
problem is this:  Our client wants it to be transparent.  Which
means name-based virtual hosting.

I have my machine set up at www.nameofmymachine.com, and
www.hisdomainname.com is also pointing to my machine.  I do
have access to more IP addresses, if they are necessary to
solve this problem - realize, though, that I can't run two
completely separate OpenACS installations.  Also, I've never set
up multiple IP addresses on the same interface, but that's a
different problem that I'll tackle if I have to.

I've been following threads on related issues for a long time, but
haven't found a solution to my problem.  PLEASE, someone at
least point me to a source of help - or brainstorm with me!

Thank you very much.

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2: Response to Please help! Urgent! (response to 1)
Posted by Don Baccus on 12/16/00 03:16 AM
If you have two IPs, you can set up two instances of AOLserver for
each site and have their main and subquery pools point at the same
datasource.  The two AOLserver instances will each have their own db
pool, that is, but share database tables because you'll be using the
same datasource to open handles in those two separate pools.

Then one AOLserver/ACS instance only has user registration and
bboards, your other installation has whatever else you plan to run.

As far as hosting more than one IP on a single network interface, if
you're running RH Linux check out the script
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifup-aliases.  It's very easy to use
and lets you set up ranges of IPs that each network interface on your
system will service.

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3: Response to Please help! Urgent! (response to 1)
Posted by Krzysztof Kowalczyk on 12/16/00 04:19 AM
You don't ned multiple IP addresses to do name-based virtual hosting (that's why it's called name-based as opposed to ip-based virtual hosting).

You might find the following pages useful: page 1, page 2 and page 3. You should start with apache docs, they explain the difference between ip-based and name-based virtual hosts which applies to every web server.

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4: Response to Please help! Urgent! (response to 1)
Posted by Don Baccus on 12/16/00 05:49 AM
Unfortunately, multi-hosting was removed from AOLserver in the past,
as AOL's interests lie mainly in the mega-site sphere.  I assumed
Ravi was running AOLserver, not Apache (and private e-mail from Ravi
seems to substantiate that belief).

I'm not certain of the state of name-based multi-hosting in AOLserver
at the moment, if it's not here now it will be once again in the future.

But Ravi needs something that works tonight...or tomorrow morning.
And my admittedly gross suggestion fulfills that need.

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5: Response to Please help! Urgent! (response to 1)
Posted by Ravi Gadad on 12/17/00 08:46 PM
I used Don's suggestion, and everything is working just as it's supposed to.. I now have two domain names, at two different IP addresses, with two AOLservers that use the same database. This is perfect. Thank you, Don.

Now, my only problem is a hanging AOLserver. Sigh. Step by step, I guess.