WordPress MU

http://trac.mu.wordpress.org/wiki/DebuggingWpmu

How I can set Bind/Apache for sub domain?
Can you illustrate in detail steps for installatio?

Thanks

Have you read the install and readme files that come with the download?

yes, but at lauch of index.php:

No WPMU site defined on this host. If you are the owner of this site, please check Debugging WPMU for further assistance.

[Debugging]When you submit a bug report, there are a few rules and guidelines to follow:

Please report problems using Trac and remember to select "WPMU 1.0" as your milestone.

Include the following in the description of the problem:
* Is VHOST true or false
* Is the path to your WordPress MU install "/" or some directory?
* Anything in the error logs? If you didn't get a welcome email, check your mail logs.
* Does the information in wp_blogs, wp_users and wp_site match your blog, user and site?
* Mention the version number, SVN check-in number or the date you downloaded the snapshot.

Other things to do:
* Read the README.txt file. There are important instructions there on how to configure your web server.
* Check the following: wp-config for $base, database tables wp_blogs and wp_site match the URL you're using.
* If your new install doesn't work, you should debug wpmu-settings.php to figure out where it's going wrong. Use print, print_r and error_log to dump variables, especially $blogname.
* If it did work, and then it broke, what did you do last?
* Check if your bug hasn't been already fixed:
* Search [report:6 closed tickets] to see if your bug was reported and fixed.
* Check the forums at http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/ for relevant threads.

If you post a message to the forum saying, "my blog doesn't work! Please help!!!" you will be pointed at this page. Please don't regard this as being unhelpful, we're trying to help you help yourself.[/debugging]

The problem is the creation of a subdomain on localhost

How I create it? How I configure apache?
(on linux)

Configuring Apache is covered in your readme.txt file in your download under the Apache section. You may also wasnt to check the DNS section as well.

Apache
======
Apache must be configured so that mod_rewrite works. Here are
instructions for Apache 2. Apache 1.3 is very similar.

1. Make sure a line like the following appears in your httpd.conf
LoadModule rewrite_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_rewrite.so

2. In the <Directory> directive of your virtual host, look for this
line
"AllowOverride None"
and change it to
"AllowOverride FileInfo Options"

3. In the <VirtualHost> section of the config file for your host there
will be a line defining the hostname. You need to add the following
if you want virtual hosts to work properly:
"ServerAlias *.domain.tld"
Replace domain.tld with whatever your one is, and remove the quotes.

DNS
===
If you want to host blogs of the form http://blog.domain.tld/ where
domain.tld is the domain name of your machine then you must add a
wildcard record to your DNS records.
This usually means adding a "*" hostname record pointing at your
webserver in your DNS configuration tool.
Matt has a more detailed explanation:
http://photomatt.net/2003/10/10/wildcard-dns-and-sub-domains/

I already tryed, but the installation don't run.
Can you illustrate the block of the configuration file and the configuration of che domain with bind?

I already tried all istructions.

Thanks you

The link to photomatt has examples of how it looks.

I don't understand the Apache section though.

How do I find httpd.conf, is this to do with my hosting? Are hostees allowed to edit these things?

What is a virtual host? What if my host does not have these sections?

Sorry if this is all stupid!

It all depends on where you are hosted. At most places, there is no magic button when you log in to your account. If you see Cpanel, then just ask your host's support something like this:

"Can you enable wildcard subdomains on my account for this domian?"

The virtual host directive is what makes the wildcard subdomains. And as long as the host you have has an Apache server, then yeah they DO have them. If they are a good host, doing this will be simple for them.

I rang bluehost about this, and they said they didn't do support for subdomains because it screws up the Apache server.

Wow John... what a CROCK!

Sounds like they either don't have a clue, are too lazy to do it, or perhaps don't have the access to do it?

I'd like to know how they can say a subdomain can mess up apache? If that were the case, can you imagine how many threads there would be here about it?

That's what they said. They said that allowing wildcards on Apache broke a lot of other things, so you can add subdomains manually, and use a redirect from domain.com/blog1 to blog1.domain.com

which totally won't work in MU...

Wow John. I'm speechless. And these people host sites?

Wow. That's just nuts. Maybe that's their excuse to try and "discourage" installing MU, since most (or so it seems) people want to use subdomains.

If that's the case, why not just say so? Sigh...

Especially considering they are a recommended host for regular wordpress. My guess is they don't want to deal with MU. On a shared box, if it gets any size, it becomes quite the resource hog.

At least we're thinking along the same lines Andrea.

IMHO, they should at least have the decency to pipe up and simply say, "Look, WPMU is really going to kill our hosting environment if your site becomes popular. Can we offer you an alternative solution?"

Granted, I'm putting MU on one of my shared boxes, but it's my box. Mainly because (OK, I'll admit it) I'm being cheap at the moment in springing to bring another box online just for this little experiment. If it does well, then I'll move it over to its own special box. But essentially for a trial run at it, I can't justify building another box for this instead of using the resources for another hosting box on the network.

Although it's a serious endeavor with this latest project, it's still one step at a time. If it goes well, then cool. I can justify the extra box allocated to this. But, if not I'm not out much then.

Back on point, personally I don't think MU is really suited to a shared environment. My situation is definitely different, but that's beside the point.

Even on a site that has let's say 1000 users. If each site gets 100 hits an hour, that can put a strain on a lower end dedicated server, let alone if it's a shared environment. As a note, 100 hits/hour is pretty low traffic for a site. Unless it's just sitting there without any activity to generate any interest whatsoever. Of course it's not just humans hitting them either. Spiders and bot galore as well. To clarify, I'm not talking about 100 distinct users an hour. Simply 100 requests an hour. multiplied over 1000 sites gives you a domain (the MU install) that is processing 100,000 requests an hour. It adds up fast. 10 users per hour, each clicking 10 times, and there's the 100 hits an hour for a site.

On a shared server hosting account, it would find your site being pulled most likely. Of course, it depends on your situation too. If registration is by invite only, or what have you, then it may be different. In general though, I can't see a fully open MU install (in terms of registration) being handled on a shared account without being shutdown. Think about it, people are having problems with a fully dedicated box, although it does seem that larger MU owners (say 10k or more users on their "network") are more the exception than the rule.

Wow. Sorry for the long reply. lol

Well, I'm on a shared box because we started not knowing how popular it would become, and we're living on borrowed time. I have to move hosts because my current host, while excellent for a regular ol' site, just doesn't do dedicated or VPS.
And I've shut off signups numerous times, with the last time being off for about a month now. Even then, with a few popular bloggers and being pounded with spam every minute, when you get up over say 250 users (and I cleaned out dead blogs) then Tech Support starts giving you the hairy eyeball. My site uses up 12% of the resources of the box it's on. And I think that's on a good day. ;)

Exactly.

If it takes off, and the response is good, ruh roh!

It's a good thing, but it can also be a sheep in wolves clothing too.

If you know what you're doing on a linux box, it shouldn't be bad for "unmanaged" dedicated. If you need a managed box, I hope your site can cover the bill. :D

As for a VDS/VPS, I don't think it would buy you much more time for growth, and you'd be moving again not too long after. It would be an improvement, yes, but it wouldn't be like a full dedicated box.

I wonder if MT's grid server would be of use for this?

Do you mean wolf in sheep's clothing? :D

Yeah, I know we have to pick between VPS and dedicated and so far the choice between $100 vs. $300 per month looks easy. Nope, no ads either. I'm hoping once I get that one site sorted out, I'll whip up another one with ads all over.

Currently my regular blog has enough ads to cover shared hosting for whatever I want, but this is gonna be a jump for a hobby. Guess it'll have to be hobby-turned-business. ;)

Well, you can get a vps for 50 or less a month, unless it's truly set-up with very few accounts per physical server. Like that, it will run a little more.

Just a self-managed dedicated box can be snagged for about $150, maybe a little less depending on hardware.

Then of course, you get into managed dedicated.

For managed dedicated, if it were myself looking, I'd probably either look at rackspace, or see what media temple could do. Maybe ev1, but I can't say from any experience.

For self-managed, I've dealt with server beach, which was started by the same people who did rackspace.

I'm sure there's others, but those are the ones I can recommend from personal interaction.

And I will definitely agree. An MU based site of any popularity can become an expensive hobby real quick. The current production I'm tinkering with has potential, but then again, so does anything when you first start it. However, I will be putting ads on it. Not too intrusive, and I'll blend them with each theme, etc. It won't be covered, but enough that hopefully it makes it cover itself.

Did I say sheep in wolf? Gosh, guess I did. That'll teach me to reply to things when I'm on the phone. :D

Hi, I'm following along with great interest here. I bought a BlueHost account for two years because it was the first recommended WordPress host. Now I've started with WPMU and I got the same story from the BlueHost support people that I can't use the wild card subdomain option. I was disappointed, but to be honest, I find Blue Host very slow anyway.

Can someone please recommend a mainstream host that will allow for WPMU subdomain blogs and that runs fast?

"A small orange" and MediaTemple seems to be popular.