Multisite Sub-directories Installation

Hi, if you have 2 servers with different ip-addresses you can install the new site on one server and point the dns to that server so that publicly the new site is displayed.
Now on your machine you can edit the “hosts” file to let the domain point to another ip (server) on this server you have the old site set up.

Under windows the hosts file is located at “C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts
Under Linux the hosts file is located at “C:/etc/hosts”

Hi @benniledl, thanks for responding.
It’s a partly managed hosting arrangement (Odin under Ingram Micro), so a bit limited in functionality. Have created a subdomain, oldsite.mainsite.com, but it only brings up an ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID, as expected.
Would a subdomain IP do? Looking then, for a solution like this for GoDaddy, but might be out of luck.
Thanks.

I’m not entirely sure I understand your question.

If the conditions of sub-directory or sub-domain installations cannot be met…

Well, if you’re using a publicly-routable domain, one of those conditions is surely going to be met… making the premise of your question totally flawed.

In any case, your site has no real content on it. So if you NEED to do a sub-directory Multisite installation but can’t because of WordPress limitations, you can always nuke the site and start over… because, again, it’s a blank site (even though it seems it was installed in February).

But I’m not entirely sure your real goal is to install WordPress multisite. It sounds (to me) like you’re taking the Multisite route as a solution to some other problem.

… is there anyway to access the http pages on Oldsite in a web browser without a multisite install?

I don’t get this either, as I don’t get what multisite has to do with accessing a page (or not).

I’m going to hang in here to help you resolve this, but you need to better describe your issue in detail for someone who has no access to or knowledge of your website, domain or server environment to understand.

What exact problem are you trying to solve? What are you trying to accomplish? And I’m referring to the actual problem you need to solve, not what you have decided must be the solution to the problem. What roadblocks, if any, have you encountered? Can you cite the actual URLs you’re dealing with (or want to have)?

Standing by.

Hi @george:
Perhaps pasting the question at StackExchange here is easier for reference:

==========================================================================
With reference to the (2010) answer to the MultiSite WP install question, there’s the statement:

“You cannot choose Sub-directory Install in the following cases: If your existing WordPress installation has been set up for more than a month, due to issues with existing permalinks. (This problem will be fixed in a future version.)”

Some years have elapsed since the answer was posted, are we close to the future version yet?

Over here, the option never came up in the first attempt of multisite WP installation. So, at this moment the default choice given is a Sub-domain installation that comes with the caveat of the prohibitive cost of a wildcard sub-domain. Not a desirable outcome, when all that is required here is one subdirectory overriding the main site SSL cert with the following code in the .htaccess file:

RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization}]
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index\.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]

Is there a way of prepping a WP Subdirectory install so the existing WP is not completely erased? Perhaps resetting some of the DB items through an admin plugin like WP phpMyAdmin is the way to go, but not sure exactly how to proceed.”

=======================================================================

Right now, according to the above installation guide, the conditions of sub-directory or sub-domain installations have not been met. Question is, can they, with minimal cost and effort?
With the sub-directory option, wiping WordPress is an option, however there are no permalinks yet, and the plugins have to be re-installed and reconfigured. Can we perform some wizardry with phpadmin to allow the subdirectory option to pop up instead?

Yes, this certainly looks as if it can be solved without re-configuring WordPress.
I wish to retain a functional copy of the old (http 90s style) homepage site linked from the WordPress homepage. Created an OldSite sub-directory for that purpose so links to MySite/OldSite worked well.
The problem comes in on the occasion of installing an SSL cert on the site, https fails the linked urls in MySite/OldSite/index.html, along with any other file urls, in a browser.
As to what constitutes resolution, yep, it’s flip this, or tweak that, or ditch the other, to no avail- could it even be the SSL cert itself is causing “unwanted” side-effects? The desired outcome is for the http redirect to only occur in the OldSite sub-directory.
Thanks for your interest by the way.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by lmstearn.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by lmstearn. Reason: Added outcome

You’re just repeating yourself. George, and now I, are seeking further clarification, not a repeat of what is already said or linked.

What are you really wanting to accomplish? Do not presuppose a particular solution like multisite if you do not really want multisite.

You can have multiple single WP installations on one server, even under the same folder branch. Move the old single site to a subfolder. /old-site/.htaccess and all domain URLs in its DB will need to be updated to reflect the new path. See the article on moving WordPress. You can use the Better Search and Replace plugin to update URL paths in the DB. Access the moved site via its folder path, such as new-domain.com/old-site/.

I recommend not messing with sub-domains because it makes SSL compliance more difficult. The SSL for new-domain.com will apply to any sub-folder paths, regardless of how content there is served.

@bcworkz:
Fair enough, consider Mysite.OldSite (or equivalent) as having moved on!
Thanks for the info on moving WordPress, having two copies of WP might have a small performance hit, sounds like it is easier and less problematic than a WP multisite sub-directory install, no?
In that case, the article describes very well how to move the site, It seems though, for to have two copies of WP, there is an article somewhere giving instructions to copy it to another directory location.
Never fear, the beginning of the article does explain it:

If database and URL remain the same, you can move by just copying your files and database.

Fantastic, if that is all that’s required, will give it a whirl, and report back.
Thanks.

two copies of WP might have a small performance hit

Likely no. They just take up more disk space. Roughly the same amount of code per request is parsed either way. Multisite actually has slightly more code to parse. The difference is minuscule, virtually all performance factors will relate to site specific things like DB size, shared hosting, etc.

IMO, multisite has some quirks which causes me to prefer single site installations. I’d personally rather have 2 or 3 single sites than one multisite. Once we’re talking about 4 or more, then multisite starts making more sense.

@bcworkz: Thanks for the info, appreciated.
A question for you or @gappiah.
Copied the files & directories to OldSite, according to instructions, and also this.
Having no direct access to the sql DB file, went ahead and created a new sql DB in the hosting admin panel.
Presumably this DB is pretty much empty on creation, but as it took a little while to initialise in the hosting admin panel, it’s likely to contain the same fields as the original.
In the DB creation, there is a weird length limit on the DB_USER string, where the first nine characters (call them prefix_ids) in the DB_USER name cannot be changed from the original. The length of my user_id (similar to the one on this site) suffix exceeds the max 16 characters allowed in the DB_USER name, so shortened it to accommodate. This may be a problem.
The more pressing issue is not being able to get in at https://MySite.com/OldSite/wp-login.php? at all, a bit like this. The browser shows a “Page Not found” with the same theme as the base site, perhaps because the sql DB in OldSite still points to the base site?
In which case, request the hosting agents to search and update the relevant urls in the new DB?
Thanks again,
Laurie

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by lmstearn. Reason: Added more info

All working, after a chat with the hosting agent, where he kindly populated the empty DB.
An extra complication encountered was that the directory names are all lower case, so https://MySite.com/OldSite/wp-login.php fails whereas https://MySite.com/oldsite/wp-login.php gets in. ??