parked domains

[parawing742]

What is the difference between using the Parked Domain feature in the DNS manager or just adding an additional domain to an existing account with the account manager?

[defunctiam]

The logical difference is that the parked domain feature adds a dns entry without adding an account.

You said that you used cpanel in another thread. I'm almost posetive that cpanel has a parked domains feature. Hell what control panel doesn't.

Looks like you are going for the high score in posts. :)


Mark

[parawing742]

Originally posted by defunctiam
The logical difference is that the parked domain feature adds a dns entry without adding an account.

Adding a domain via the account manager doesn't create a second account. It just adds it on to an existing account. That is why I am confused. Should I use Add Domain or Park Domain?

Originally posted by defunctiam
Looks like you are going for the high score in posts. :)

I've just gotten DSM on my dedicated server and am just starting to play around with it some. You'll probably see a few more posts from me in the next little bit. I don't care about post counts, look at my WHT profile; only 70 some posts in over a year.

[LeeJ]

If you would like email accounts, stats, a web root etc for the domain name you will need to add it via the account manager.

The parked domain functionality only sets up the domain within DNS.

As an example, you would use park domain if you had a client that wanted you to host their dns but didn't want an account with you. In other words they have their site hosted on a box at home per say.

I hope that this explains things for you.

[parawing742]

So if I add the domain via account manager, that domain will have it's own seperate public website within that account?

What I am trying to do is to have multiple domains all go to the same website. In CPanel, when a domain is parked, e-mail could also be used for that domain? Is this possible with DSM?

[LeeJ]

So if I add the domain via account manager, that domain will have it's own seperate public website within that account?

Yes, the domain will have its own seperate public website.

The way you would accomplish this is that you would click the "+" next to the account that you would like to add the domain to. Once you add the additional domain you can then modify the /usr/local/apache/conf/vhosts.conf file to change the DocumentRoot for the domain name that you just added.

Or you can use the redirect functionality to point to the other domain. This method does not maintain the url though.

[parawing742]

OK, but what about the Park Domain feature. If I were to simply park a domain on the same IP as a account, would that domain go to the same website? Would e-mail work on it?

[LeeJ]

Yes, if you park a domain and point it to the ip address of the primary domain name. Be sure that the domain is on a unique ip.

Email will not work because all that park domain does is adds a zone file to the dns server that is it.

To have email for that domain you need to add an additional domain to the account (using add domain or "+") via the account manager.

If you are still having problems understanding this you can call our support (if you purchased a license directly from us) or you can contact your hosting company.

[cpwhiz]

parawing, cpanel achieves the email function for a parked domain by a combination of aliasing it to the main domain in httpd.conf, using an email valias file for the parked domain and multiple DNS entries in the user's config file.

It would be nice to see this in DSM soon though. ;)

I agree that if you want to offer email and web redirection at the same time, adding a domain to the user's account is probably a more sensible way of doing things.

Having said that, how about an option to point the added domain to the main user domain's www directory instead of having to tweak the vhosts file manually? then you have a real parked domain automation with email. :)

[parawing742]

There new system with "linked domains" does mostly what I want as far as allowing e-mail use and points to the correct directory without editing the conf file.

The difference with it and CPanel is that it seperates out the domain as it's own website so it has it own stats which are different from the main domain. It would be much nicer to see these combined.

[cpwhiz]

Ahh, I didn't about that new system...

Wouldn't you rather have the stats for the parked domain separately...? Unless you didn't want to know about the traffic passing for the parked domain?

[parawing742]

Originally posted by cpwhiz
Wouldn't you rather have the stats for the parked domain separately...? Unless you didn't want to know about the traffic passing for the parked domain?

Look at it this way: I have one website on the DSM server than has 12 "linked" domains. In order to determine the stats for that website, I have to add up the stats for each domain. That takes a lot of time.

[LeeJ]

Originally posted by parawing742
Look at it this way: I have one website on the DSM server than has 12 "linked" domains. In order to determine the stats for that website, I have to add up the stats for each domain. That takes a lot of time.

In the vhosts.conf file why don't you change the
CustomLog directive to point to the top level domain name for all of the secondary domain names.

This will allow you to acheive what you are looking. We will take a look at making this an option available via the apache manager "Web" soon.

[cpwhiz]

> In order to determine the stats for that website, I have to add up the stats for each domain. That takes a lot of time.

I can see your point. I would want to have seen the stats for the linked domain too. The ideal solution would probably be writing to a double log... one for the linked domain and the other added on to the primary domain's log. This is achievable with Apache 1.3+ ;)