Internet Site Documents
Hosting more than one website can be a bit of a headache. In the past I've always used Easily.co.uk to register domain names and host my PHP sites. For hosting Domino sites I've always used and never had any problems with the guys at Prominic.NET (I've even "kicked alien butt" with them on the MiB ride!). I hit a snag this week though that's making me think twice about using Easily in the future.
Obviously Easily want to make as much money as possible and so sell as many LAMP hosting packages as they can. If you register two domains you need to buy two hosting packages to have them both run a LAMP site. There's no way of pointing more than one domain to one LAMP package. What if I want to host a site for a friend without having to tell them to fork out for the cost?
Until I find a better host than Easily I am going to start hosting sites for friends using my Prominic.NET account. Using my Easily DNS settings I can use ANAME to point new domains to the IP address of this server. I can then use Internet Site documents to point the domain to the right database. This all works in theory but something is bothering me.
Last week I was talking a client through setting up Internet Sites on their Domino server. During the conversation I told them to be remain wary of their use. If anything strange starts to happen, they should start by suspecting the Internet Site documents. Beyond that vague warning I couldn't elaborate on why. This server once used Internet Sites and the documents are still there as proof, but they're disabled in the Server document. Why did I end up disabling them? I can't remember.
Later on tonight I will be going back to using Internet Site documents to control this server so that I can host other sites. I've just got a funny feeling there's a serious reason why I shouldn't. Anybody?
Skip to the 
You can subscribe to an individual
We have been using Internet Site Documents for a while and have not had any issues with them. They have actually worked very well. We even run different dsapi extensions on the different sites.
When we first set it up the only issue we had (probably wouldn't have it if we had read the documentation better) was that once you switch a domain to internet site documents you have to move all the tasks for that domain over to internet site documents (like smtp, pop3, imap, & iiop) setup. So we changed over our http (and it worked fine) but that broke our smtp since we didn't setup a internet site document for that.
Good luck Jake!!!
Have you considered renting a Linux virtual machine? A VM gives you total control of all the aspects of the server for only a fraction of the cost of a dedicated server and you can host as many sites as you like (or the server can handle).
I use {Link} and have been very happy with their service but I've also heard good things about {Link} in the US.
I'm not sure, but I remember that there were two or three cases where you cannot use Internet Site documents, and one of them was related with the type of authentication you choose for your users.
I'll try to find this question again in the Admin Help.
In any case, my experience with Internet Site documents has been always satisfactory.
G'day Jake,
Using internet site documents for a number of sites (on a server owned by yours truly), and I think it works a treat. One thing to keep in mind:
1. Site specific SSL (i.e. https://abc.com.au and https://xyz.com.au hosted on 1 box/ 1 ip address) only works per IP address (not per domain name as it gets encrypted in HTTP headers and IP addresses don't), so you need a new/additional IP address (to which you can bind specific DNS names) allocated to the same box either through a 2nd or subsequent NIC in the box or having a new IP address allocated to the existing NIC if the OS allows you to do so.
Funny enough, just read your post and I've just hit a problem myself, where I'm about to do the above, and it seems that the 2nd IP addresses (for port 80/443) is not recognised by the Domino server (mail and other ports seem to work fine, but no HTTP/S is working). Ideas / suggestions / links anyone?
Anyway, thanks in advance and keep up the good work :-)
Thanks guys. You've put my mind at rest. It was probably something stupid I was doing anyway. I seem to have a knack of finding obscure bugs in Domino ;o)
Jake,
I have been hosting my sites at home in the past, using internet site docs. I'm hosting at BillBuchan now, he has a prominic dedicated machine and has dozens of internet site docs for many people, never have I experienced a problem with them.
I do recall that in R5 there were some problems, but luckily those days are long gone for me.
No problem with internet sites except a minor annoyance
domain 1 pointing to
www.domain1.co.uk/path/db1.nsf
domain 2 pointing to
www.domain2.co.uk/path/db2.nsf
great but typing directly to your browser
www.domain1.co.uk/path/db2.nsf
will also work as will
www.domain2.co.uk/path/db1.nsf
Jim. I'd actually side with Lotus and say that's how I'd expect it to "work". Each domain should only point to that file when no other path information is provided. If an explicit DB is requested it shouldn't matter which domain it's requested from.
Steve,
I have three IIS domains and one SSL domino domain running on a Win2003 server. All of the HTTP stuff works great. I've been fiddling with this for awhile, and even though I have an SMTP Internet document (tried domain name and IP address), SMTP conflicts with one of the IIS SMTP addresses. My solution, which is kind of hokey, was to disable the IIS SMTP. That causes the Domino SMTP to no longer have a conflict AND it allows SMTP mail from the IIS sites to be routed through the Domino SMTP.
Win2003 has an HTTPCFG utility that allows you to configure http so that it doesn't conflict with domino, but not so with SMTP.
I would love to hear a better way to get around this.
Hi
I have run several sites over a long period of time using Internet Site Documents and it has run without any problems.
It is actually pretty neat that it is so simple to add a new site.
Only one bad thing ..need http restart
best regards
Jesper Kiaer
{Link}
I have over 40 sites hanging off my server. All of them are controlled by Internet Site Documents.
I've also done some tweaking where you can do allsorts of remapping and some funky things with the site and rules documents. I've re-done one of my old articles from my old blog (about 2 years ago) which shows some of the tricks. You can find it at {Link}
I use the wildard trick to give clients special previews of work in progress. Such as {Link} - which is the new United Publications site. (Please be gentle with it)
(Hans, you're right about https requiring a unique address. www.up1.co.uk has SSL enabled, but most of my other domains all point to the same IP address because it doesn't need SSL. As to why your second IP addresses aren't working, you need to make sure that all necessary IP addresses are enabled in your Windows Network configuration. You also need to make sure that BIND TO HOST NAME is set to disabled (it's in the Server Configuration document))
(Jim, the Substitution rules stop all cross references on domains. It also stops users directly attacking known databases - names.nsf, log.nsf, webadmin.nsf etc.)
(Jesper, you don't need to restart the http task. Under 6.5 it recognises the changes and does it itself. Under 6 if you wait until the indexer runs, then that will also reset the domains. R5 does need a restart though.)
Jake,
Website rules can also speed up your site and diminish your server load through setting response header rules for image files, css, js etc.
{Link}
Jake,
I have about thirty sites I manage at Prominic using a single Domino server which works weel and it is a very easy admin. Han's is very correct about the IP for https because of the certif needing to be to a unique IP, but Prominic can deal with that.
Dragon's comments are quite complete and his article is very interesting, something I wish I had come across earlier. By the way, stopping and restarting the http service is no real bigger, heck if your customer sites are are so busy that they can not be off-line for 3 minutes during off peck, maybe they should be on their own server.
This is another example of the power and ease of domino - I'm just amazed that IBM does not leverage this product more.
Try www.dreamhost.com for a good multi-domain LAMP package. Their admin panel is very comprehensive. I've yet to find something I can't do with it.
I use ourinternet.us and I have no problem with them and their customer support is excellent and quick - and I really like their web interface for management.
While I'm with them for the Coldfusion hosting they do LAMP packages as well.
Waaay-back in beta v6 days, they were quite clunky - somethings dont work.
But - I host a prominic.net server with 60+ domains using internet site documents. Work a treat, allowing different authentication schema, SSL keys, etc.
Run a test first obviously so you understand whats going on. And get used to dropping the HTTP task and restarting it to kick in the new rules quickly.
But no - no difficulty. Go for it.
---* Bill
I stand corrected on the http restart, based on Dragons' comments above. Learn something new every day!
---* Bill
Jake
a handy command for when that auto refresh just isn't quick enough:
tell http refresh
Keeps user sessions open, too.
Ben
FYI: This site is now governed by an Internet Site document. All is well so far.
I use eapps.com hosting and have done so for five continuous years...they are very responsive and the pricing is reasonable.
Jack
I don't know why you would have ill thoughts of Internet Site doc's.... I have MANY of them on my server... and all function great... I host MANY domains... each having their own doc... can you get any closer to what is bugging you about them?
Ruth. I'm starting to think maybe I was imagining it all. I'm sure there was some quirk that made me abandon them though. It's been four days now since I starting using them again and all seems ok.
Don't do it with ND7.. Internet site for HTTP works fine, but if you use pop3 or smtp site documents, there are problems (well, it is a beta!)