initial network domain is an IP address: mapped domains are intermittently worki

  • I set up a network on multisite and have domain mapping plugin in with three domains mapped. I used bitnami stack install on an AWS ec2.

    I use subdomains and not subdirectories for networking.

    The Server IP Address was added and it does not have a CNAME, I know what a Cname is but it is not clear what the Cname field is looking for here. And that might be the root of my issues.

    I am hosting in AWS and route53 (DNS) is pointing all the mapped domains to that IP address, “Server IP Address” with the following options checked:
    – Permanent redirect
    – User domain mapping page
    – Redirect administration pages

    I have a sites like:
    xyz.54.90.13.145.xip.io
    eddf.54.90.13.145.xip.io
    abc.54.90.13.145.xip.io

    Domains are like:
    xyz.com -> xyz.54.90.13.145.xip.io
    eddf.com -> eddf.54.90.13.145.xip.io
    abc.com -> abc.54.90.13.145.xip.io

    The issues I have are intermittent so I know it’s difficult to diagnose but here’s an attempt to explain the issue(s):
    From the sites page (/wp-admin/network/sites.php) I see:
    xyz.54.90.13.145.xip.io
    eddf.54.90.13.145.xip.io
    abc.54.90.13.145.xip.io

    On the sites page, if I click to “visit” xyz.54.90.13.145.xip.io, it takes me to that site’s first page. Later in the day, I can click on the same link and it errors out, “can not connect”. And when I get that error, the domain, xyz.com, has the same error. When I have seen this, I can go to the server and restart apache/wp/mysql/php and those licks work again.

    I’ve been using this for testing before I move production sites but this experience gives me little confidence in moving prod sites to the MU install. I have lots of software and SaaS experience but am new to multisite WP.

    Any hints or help is much appreciated!

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  • I would have taken a look but you didn’t provide the actual domains… issues like this are tough to fix while talking in generalities.

    This ‘xip.io’ doesn’t make any sense appended to an IP address except where you might want to create a sub-domain of a domain called xip.io and I can’t think of a real good reason for that IP address to be included there. That’s kind of ‘kludgy’ unless the IP address tells part of the address’ story as in a reverse address pointer.

    I would just point a domain name to my multisite’s IP address with an ‘A Record’ and do what I needed to get that to reach my multisite’s main page. Once that worked consistently I’d then move on to my sub-domain records starting with the first one.

    Point that subdomain to the IP address of the multisite via an ‘A record’ and then ‘do what I needed to get that working’. Note that I said, ‘IP address of the multisite’ there. That’s the same address. You may need to tweak vhosts or use your control panel to make the server itself recognize the sub-domain as ‘belonging to the site’.

    You’ll also need to map that simpler subdomain to the WordPress itself using the built-in domain mapping capabilities.

    Forget the ‘Cnames’ for now. Get it working instead.

    Thread Starter webdevguy23

    (@webdevguy23)

    Thanks. The ‘xip.io’ was added automatically by the bitnami install. It was there after I started setting up the network. I have access to the server and am comfortable making changes to wp-config if necessary. It does not appear the vhost is applicable though it might be – this was a stack one-step install from bitnami. Like, I could change the site url in wp-config if you think it makes sense. Right not, it points to an IP.

    All the domains’ A record point to he one IP address that is the server. For example, xyz.com A record points to the IP address and so do all the other domains I have.

    I use “WordPress MU Domain Mapping” plugin for domain mapping. Is there a better way?

    A records can point to an IP address OR a URL (as an Alias). Are you saying to alias the A record of a domain to the subdomain of the original/base domain?

    Thanks.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
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