Multisite on Dreamhost Domain Mapping Issues

Hmmm. If someone could actually address my question, it’d be great. As I said, I’ve installed MS successfully, the only problem is domain mapping (which I’ve done without problem on blueshost). Someone familiar with Dreamhost would be most helpful. Thanks!

If you could hang tight for a while, someone from Dreamhost should be along shortly. One of their support team do monitor the forums regularly and this topic has already been tagged for their attention.

In the meantime, you could try contacting customer support at Dreamhost yourself. They should also be able to help you with this.

Sorry about that, I had the long weekend off (usually I’m way more on the spot about this).

Hello. Is there a tutorial on domain mapping for dreamhost?

It’s surprisingly easy ??

I wrote up how to map subdomains (if you don’t or can’t use WildCards) – https://elftest.net/multisite-subdomains-wildcards/ – and the process for a mapped domain is pretty much the same.

1. Register the domain
2. Point it to us (ns1.dreamhost.com etc etc)
3. Go to manage domains on your Panel and click on ‘Add New Domain / Sub-Domain’
4. Add the new domain in (I suggest turning off the www part)
5. Set the Web Directory to where you have your main domain installed (normally this will be /home/username/yourdomain.com )
6. Scroll down and press Fully Host This Domain and wait till it’s provisioned.

That’s it! ??

Okay, so I had tried it parked, and so I just changed it to fully hosted and am waiting for it to be provisioned.

I have it set it up as subdirectories, not subfolders, as it basically says (and I was told by support) that you can’t do subdomains because of the wildcard issue. Will this work with sub-directories?

I have my other network up at bluehost (and it literally just took the site 2 minutes to load, no exaggeration) as subdomains. Read in forums it doesn’t matter which (subdomain or subdir) as far as mapping goes. This is all a totally fresh install, too.

Thanks so much!! I didn’t contact support directly as they are pretty clear that they don’t support multisite.

I have it set it up as subdirectories, not subfolders, as it basically says (and I was told by support) that you can’t do subdomains because of the wildcard issue. Will this work with sub-directories?

Sure will ??

WordPress doesn’t care if you map a subdomain or a subfolder instance. Though you -CAN- use Subdomains, if you’re willing to manually map them. It’s a hassle, IMO, and Subfolders are easier if you plan to map the domains latter.

The problem with our parked domains is that they don’t point to where I want them to. The blurb says: “A placeholder web site with a generic DreamHost “coming soon” message.” So unless you can tell that to point to where the main install is, it won’t work. (Different hosts use ‘parked’ in different ways so the terminology will give you a headache).

If you still have trouble after this, feel free to toss me your domain and I can take a look for you ??

Thanks! Okay, yeah, I thought I tried this setup yesterday. The site itself is at kirtiklis.info/vndc. That works.

But the mapped domain doesn’t: kirtiklis.com

It says:
Site Temporarily Unavailable
We apologize for the inconvenience. Please contact the webmaster/ tech support immediately to have them rectify this.

error id: “bad_httpd_conf”

If it is mapped as primary domain, it goes to this page as well. At the moment I don’t have it is primary so you can see that the root site does work.

Thanks!

I wonder if the way we set up mirroring would work (I’ll play with that later, since it’d be easier).

Interesting. Your .info domain points to a different IP. 67.205.27.237 (which is correct). However .com points to 67.205.26.181

I ran a refresh on your DNS, and now the panel info is correct, so it’ll be a little while before DNS catches up, but I think that should fix it ??

Yayyyy! It works! I noticed the IP and thought it might be the issue, hence the Q at the very beginning. Awesomeville. Thanks!!

Very welcome ??

Hello! I’m adding another domain and have the same issue–it’s pointing to a different DNS. To make it match the root site’s DNS, do I just refresh the new domain’s DNS or do I have to add a custom DNS record?

Thanks!

You should be able to just refresh, though I’d open a ticket to ask our smart DNS guys why the IP keeps being wrong!

Well, I got this very unhelpful response. Annoying to be told something isn’t a problem, when you’ve stated it is. I fwded the 2nd domain and am, of course, getting the same error I was before because it’s going to the wrong DNS. Does this mean I just can’t use dreamhost? (My free trial expires tomorrow.)

Hello,

Here at DreamHost, we don’t place additional domains on the same IP by default. Having multiple IPs is no problem as your domains have been placed on different apache instances. However each domain listed on this account is on the same server, just using various apache instances (different IP).

There’s no problem at all with your account, but let us know if there’s another question.

Sincerely,
Kacy S

That seems very very odd and I wonder if maybe we’ve (meaning me) overcomplicated this for no good reason.

What happens if you change your new domain to mirror the ‘parent’ domain instead?

I believe I tried that the first time (a week ago) with the first domain I mapped and it didn’t work. I just tried it now for this. We’ll see.

I will be really really really irritated if I can’t make this work. I’ve spent *hours* recreating the site on dreamhost, relinking images that didn’t import properly, etc, based on the fact that the domain mapping was worked the first time around. That’s why I tested it on a dummy site–so that this wouldn’t happen. Now, because both domains are needed for that site, neither site is working. Not pleased.

Hello,

I seem to have similar issue with domain mapping..

I have setup a wordpress MU at https://www.arkthermal.co.in/, and another domain https://www.arkacoustics.co.in/ is pointed to dreamhost to use as one of the multisites..

So I have setup domain mapping plugin on the site, both domains are fully hosted at dreamhost. Since the second domain has A record 173.236.165.7 than the first has A record as 64.111.124.52, I have added A record 64.111.124.52 for the second domain as well.. But still when I access the second domain, it shows me dreamhost screen rather than the wordpress multisite..

Can you please guide me to set this correctly?