Setting up a dev enviroment

[Joer.]

ebs = made up domain

I have a domain ebs.com and its alive site. I want to create a dev environment at dev.ebs.com. I want the domain dev.ebs.com to point to the main httpdocs/dev/ folder where a copy of the site will be.

So I go and try to do this blindly and I create the subdomain vps.ebs.com. All good but I thought there might be an option to point the sub.domain at a certain folder.

An I going about this all wrong? If not how would I do as I described?

[jason]

Are you using a control panel? If so, which one?

The easiest way to do this would be to create a new account for dev.ebs.com. Most control panels have no problem with you creating top-level accounts using non-second-level domains and this gives you two completely identical accounts for your live and dev sites.

I use Interworx on my VPS and I can add a secondary domain (as opposed to creating a normal subdomain) to an account using the dev subdomain and this creates a new directory alongside the root of the main site for the dev site:

/home/USER/main.com <-- main site's home dir
/home/USER/dev.main.com <-- dev site's home dir

I don't think you can do this same thing with cPanel, at least not easily. I'm not sure about other panels. You can, of course, always set it up manually within httpd.conf or a conf.d file, but you run the risk of your control panel interfering with these manual edits.

--Jason

[Joer.]

I am using Plesk.

It makes sense to have a differnet domain, which means different passwords for the ftp, so no confusion.

[EuroNut]

I have a domain ebs.com and its alive site. I want to create a dev environment at dev.ebs.com. I want the domain dev.ebs.com to point to the main httpdocs/dev/ folder where a copy of the site will be.

I don't think you can do this same thing with cPanel, at least not easily.

Sure you can

In the cPanel for ebs.com, simply create a subdomain called dev. That will create a sub-folder dev under your public_html folder for ebs.com (with its own cgi-bin if you have that enabled), which will resolve to dev.ebs.com and www.dev.ebs.com

Take a look at the DNS zone under WHM and it's already created the 2 entries needed.

[Joer.]

Sure you can

In the cPanel for ebs.com, simply create a subdomain called dev. That will create a sub-folder dev under your public_html folder for ebs.com (with its own cgi-bin if you have that enabled), which will resolve to dev.ebs.com and www.dev.ebs.com

Take a look at the DNS zone under WHM and it's already created the 2 entries needed.

Can I do this in Plesk?

[EuroNut]

Can I do this in Plesk?

I don't profess to know anything about Plesk (other than how to spell it) but I'm sure it will be a similar, simple operation. Sub-domains are used day-in day-out, and all control panels will have a similar easy way of creating one.

Maybe one of the Pleskies here will jump in and confirm?

[Joer.]

Ah I figured it out on Plesk, it is easy!

Just create the subdomain, and it makes the new domain folder in the subdomain folder.

[EuroNut]

Ah I figured it out on Plesk, it is easy!

Just create the subdomain, and it makes the new domain folder in the subdomain folder.

There ya go!

A word of advice for you though - You really don't want to combine stuff like "I figured it out", "easy" and "Plesk" in the same sentence. You just self-appointed yourself the resident forum Plesk support-guru. The pay's lousy, but you can throw your weight about a little, once in a while.

Enjoy your new role!!!

[Daniel_DBS]

There ya go!

A word of advice for you though - You really don't want to combine stuff like "I figured it out", "easy" and "Plesk" in the same sentence. You just self-appointed yourself the resident forum Plesk support-guru. The pay's lousy, but you can throw your weight about a little, once in a while.

Enjoy your new role!!!

hahaha never put the words easy and plesk in the same sentence EVER... i personally highly dislike plesk and never want to have to use it.. i am using cpanel right now and love it.. but interworx has intrigued me some.. i've been playing with the demo and i requested a copy of the free license they offer for my home testing machine...

but glad you got that figured out

[EuroNut]

i am using cpanel right now and love it..

I love it even more after playing with it some more this last week.

I've got boxes here at Jag, and other places too (other countries) and just recently found I needed to set up a kind of branch network for a domain. So the USA hosted site for domain.com will be usa.domain.com, and other countries would have the same site but hosted locally, so I needed uk.domain.com, de.domain.com, au.domain.com, etc, etc.

It was either that or register about 14 domain names with different country-level TLDs.

But!!! Instead of just creating a whole raft of subdomains off domain.com in one server's WHM, and then messing around for ever with DNS etc, etc, I found I can create (on whatever box I like) an individual account for each! So usa.domain.com is created on a Jag box, uk.domain.com I created on my box in London, etc, etc. They all end up with "full" account facilities - their own control panels, their own zone files, etc, etc. And becuase I'm running a DNS cluster across the boxes involved, one set of nameservers looks after the entire job without any editing at all!

Loving it!!

[Daniel_DBS]

that is quite clever... currently i have no need for clustering... but hopefully eventually some of my sites will grow enough to have the need for it

[EuroNut]

that is quite clever... currently i have no need for clustering... but hopefully eventually some of my sites will grow enough to have the need for it

This is DNS clustering I'm using - rather than hosting the same site on multiple boxes. It's something that WHM/cPanel is really good at - You put each VPS or server into the cluster and any DNS update you make on one updates (binds) immediately onto the others.

cPanel also have a free DNS-only tool - You can rent the smallest VPS possible in some remote place a zillion miles away, load that, and you've got another DNS server running