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How To : Setup a domain alias on Plesk servers

Google #1! for "Plesk domain alias"

Author: Ryan Sutherland

Publication Date: March 1st, 2005

Written for: EV1 Servers Forum

Intended Audience: Server Administrators

Reading Level: Advanced Technical

As far as I'm concerned, Plesk is by far the best and most advanced Control Panel out there. However, it has always been lacking one essential feature: the ability to easily create domain aliases. Due to this severe shortcoming, I sometimes use Ensim instead. But reliable as it is, Ensim is not nearly as feature-rich and user-friendly as Plesk. So, I have struggled for some time to come up with the best way to create domain aliases, and finally have a solution that I've tested thoroughly to meet my expectations of a domain alias, which includes HTTP, HTTPS, FTP and also Mail.

// In each of the following steps, be sure replace [domain.com] with your alias domain (eg. mydomain.com) and [parentdomain] with the domain to be aliased (eg. mydomain.net). Be sure to remove the square brackets, of course.

// In each of the following steps, be sure replace ###.###.###.### with your IP address for the parent domain.

// In each of the following steps, be sure replace [NS1.NAMESERVER.NET] with your Primary Nameserver and [NS2.NAMESERVER.NET] with your Secondary Nameserver. Be sure to remove the square brackets, of course.

// Note: I use Plesk 7 Reloaded with authoritative Nameservers.

1. login via SSH and #cd /etc/httpd/conf/

2. create or modify the file "httpd.domainalias.conf" (you will have to create this file for the first alias, but just modify it for subsequent ones) by adding code like the following:

Code:

ServerName [domain.com]

ServerAlias *.[domain.com]

DocumentRoot /home/httpd/vhosts/[parentdomain.com]/httpdocs

AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .php4 .php3 .phtml

php_admin_flag engine on

</Directory>

</VirtualHost>

(Optional) If you want to alias HTTPS requests, also add code like this:

Code:

<VirtualHost ###.###.###.###:443>
ServerName [domain.com]
ServerAlias *.[domain.com]
DocumentRoot /home/httpd/vhosts/[parentdomain.com]/httpsdocs
    <Directory /home/httpd/vhosts/[parentdomain.com]/httpsdocs>
        AddType application/x-httpd-php .php .php4 .php3 .phtml
        php_admin_flag engine on
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

3. When you first create the file "http.domainalias.conf" you must put an include line in the "http.conf" file like this:

Code:

Include /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.domainalias.conf

I put mine at the bottom of the file, but just above this line:

Code:

Include /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.include

4. go to /var/named/run-root/etc/

5. modify the file "named.conf" by adding the following code:

Code:

zone "[domain.com]" {
type master;
file "[domain.com]";

;

6. go to /var/named/run-root/var/

7. add a file called "[domain.com]" which contains the following code:

Code:

$TTL 86400
@ IN SOA [NS1.NAMESERVER.NET]. admin.localhost.localdomain. (
    1016902773 ; Serial
    10800 ; Refresh
    3600 ; Retry
    604800 ; Expire
    86400 ) ; Minimum

[domain.com]. IN NS [NS1.NAMESERVER.NET].
[domain.com]. IN NS [NS2.NAMESERVER.NET].
[domain.com]. IN A ###.###.###.###
www.[domain.com]. IN CNAME [domain.com].
ftp.[domain.com]. IN CNAME [domain.com].
[domain.com]. IN MX 10 mail.[domain.com].
mail.[domain.com]. IN A ###.###.###.###
webmail.[domain.com]. IN A ###.###.###.###

.[domain.com]. IN A ###.###.###.###

// Steps 8 through 10 are for Mail...

8. go to /var/qmail/control/

9. modify "rcpthosts" by adding the following code:

Code:

[domain.com]

10. modify "virtualdomains" by adding the following code:

Code:

[domain.com]:[virtual#id]

where "virtual#id" corresponds to the integer of the virtual domain that this domain is aliasing (this id is already specified in the same file).

11. Restart your services:

#service named restart
#service httpd restart
#service qmail restart

12. Repeat this process for however many Domain Aliases you want to create.

// Note: This process does NOT rack up domains against your Plesk licence, and making changes to the parent domain in Plesk will NOT adversely affect any of the above steps.

Enjoy!