Support » Networking WordPress » MS Domain mapping vs multiple MS

  • Hi there,

    We are currently debating wether to have one huge multisite installation with all sites, or multiple multisites with each site separate (though with multiple blogs).

    One installation (option A):

    • Site A
    • Site A, blog 1
    • Site A, blog 2
    • Site A, blog 3
    • Site A, blog 4
    • Site B
    • Site B, blog 1
    • Site B, blog 3
    • Site B, blog 4
    • Site C
    • etc

    Multiple installations (option B):

    • Ins1: Site A
    • Ins1: Site A, blog 1
    • Ins1: Site A, blog 2
    • Ins1: Site A, blog 3
    • Ins1: Site A, blog 4
    • Ins2: Site B
    • Ins2: Site B, blog 1
    • Ins2: Site B, blog 3
    • Ins2: Site B, blog 4
    • Ins3: Site C
    • etc

    To use one huge installation we have to use Domain mapping (or similar).

    Trying to explain the situation here. We currently have about 10-ish major websites. Most of them have a couple of blogs, some of them only have a few. There are more than 100 blogs in total. Sites have pretty high traffic.

    Option A:
    + Less databases and files to keep track on. Update one installation and you are done. Easier to copy to dev and stage environment.
    – Before you can update, you need to make sure that all themes are compatible, as well as plugins etc.
    – If something breaks, everything breaks.
    – Domain mapping slows things down.
    – More data in WordPress usually slow things down as well.
    – Security, all eggs in same pocket. (refering to db)
    – Have to create methods to see which blogs belongs to which sites.

    Option B:
    + Check compatibility for one theme (with child themes) and you are done.
    + If something breaks, it’s isolated to current major site.
    + Faster as domain mapping etc is not needed.
    + No need to create homebrewed methods to find which blogs belongs to which sites as database only contain each sites blogs.
    – More databases and more files. More time spend on upgrading when you are upgrading (have to update on multiple places). Also more to copy to dev and stage environment.

    So a long time ago, each site was running on one installation. People working thought it was pretty much hell to work with this, and things never got updated. Please notice that this isn’t really option B, as blogs were separate installations as well.

    Currently things are running under option A. People working haven’t had the time to check all themes and plugins for compatibility, so things aren’t upgraded since they moved sites to multiinstallation. Actually there are two different multiinstallations…

    Right now there are a pretty hot debate about this. So how do you guys think? Why?

    Mostly we are interested in how different option will affect time spend on maintaining as well as performance.

    I will try to keep my personal opinion out of it, I’m just interested in why one way is better than the other.

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • You need to be looking for a multiple network plugin, which allows blogs under mapped blogs. it handle the domain as well.

    the only catch you’ll have is users management, which would be the same with any multisite install. as long as you’re fine with users signing up for the main network in each, you’re good.

    Thread Starter Zahak

    (@zahak)

    That sounds like a pretty useful plugin.

    How does it affect performance?
    Any thoughts about maintenance?

    There are a number of plugins to do multiple networks. 4 that I can think of.

    I’m using one because we wrote one. 😛

    My only thoughts on maintenance are.. well you still only have one install.

    We’ve been debating a similar equation:

    http://wordpress.org/support/topic/scaling-strategy

    I think our situation is a bit different in that we don’t know how big the whole conglomeration will be, whereas it sounds as if you might have a more finite number of sites.

    Of the plugins Andrea mentioned, I’d highly recommend hers. She and her husband are WordPress/multisite gurus, in case you didn’t know already. 🙂

    Thread Starter Zahak

    (@zahak)

    Thank you for taking interest in the matter. Also quite interesting to read other topic.

    So I did a bit of testing yesterday (or maybe more like 7 hours ago 🙂 , so this morning…). Tried a plugin called Networks for WordPress. It worked pretty well, and I believe that it is faster than WordPress MU Domain Mapping (or wathever it is called). It also handles multiple networks, so it certanly does far more than domain mapping. I’ll try multiple network plugin as well later on.

    My tests were run on a slightly different environment. Biggest difference is that it is smaller, a lot smaller actually. But it should still be representative for performance tests.
    (We are in the middle of moving our servers etc etc, so right now our test-environment is very incomplete. Should be able to test on complete environment in a week or two.)

    You only get one install to maintain, and that is of course pretty nice. But I’m still a bit concerned about upgrading all themes at once. Right now that would be about 12 themes, plus child themes, that has to be prepared before being able to upgrade.
    Also, have to say that a lot of these themes are old dragons from the past with a lot of scary code…

    Some information about our current traffic status:
    Total number of active blogs*: 91
    Unique browsers in aug 2011: 1 280 659
    Page views in aug 2011: 11 577 520

    August is not a high traffic period, and the reason for using one month instead of one week (which is more common I think?), is simply that I have this data on a paper on my desk 🙂
    Google analytics is good, but as they choosed to split analytics accounts sometime very long ago, there are about 91 accounts to check 🙂

    * There are “archived” inactive blogs, that is still visible if you have the proper url.

    But I’m still a bit concerned about upgrading all themes at once. Right now that would be about 12 themes, plus child themes, that has to be prepared before being able to upgrade.
    Also, have to say that a lot of these themes are old dragons from the past with a lot of scary code…

    There are very little themes changes made in the past 2-4 years. They are unlikely to break in spectacular fashions.

    Ours is Networks+ if you’re looking for it.

    Thread Starter Zahak

    (@zahak)

    Okey thanks a lot. This networks+ -> http://wpebooks.com/networks/ ?

    @zahak – Yes, that’s the one.

    Thread Starter Zahak

    (@zahak)

    A couple of more reasons to run one installation:

    + Opcode cache

    + Configuration of web server
    (well, that depends on other things as well, but to put it simple we could just push all traffic directly to wordpress if we use only one installation, while we have to use config to divide traffic if we have multiple installations).

    Just thought that it would be a good idea to update with some things that we’ve been thinking of 🙂

Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total)
  • The topic ‘MS Domain mapping vs multiple MS’ is closed to new replies.