Multisite Subdomain Dashboard 404 Error

  • Resolved ddawkins

    (@ddawkins)


    11 years, 6 months ago

    I know my topic looks similar to others but . . . I have tried everything I have found on this forum and other sites and still no go.

    I have a fresh multisite install, so no real data or sites yet. Everything seemed fine on install of both WordPress and updating to Multisite. I used the code provided by WordPress to update wp-config and web-config. There was no mention of a need for .htaccess. The main site is working. I have created a test site/subdomain and it shows up on the Sites page but when I try to open the Dashboard or Edit the site, I get a 404 Error.

    I have deleted and recreated test sites/subdomains many times and I always get the 404 Error.

    I have seen other posts where the DNS has been the culprit (specifically setting up a subdomain wildcard properly) but I don’t think that is my problem.

    This install is NOT on a hosted server. It is a Windows Server 2012 and WordPress is in the root directory (wwwroot). Bluehost is the registrar for my domain, so I have used their DNS Zone Manager panel to add a wildcard (*) CNAME record that points to the parent domain. I have also added a CNAME record for subdomain.domain.com, just to make sure.

    All of the DNS seems to be working. I can ping anything.domain.com and I get a ping back from the correct IP address of the WordPress server. So it looks like requests are being sent properly.

    I can go to domain.com and get to the site and domain.com/wp-admin/ takes me to the main dashboard, no problem.

    I just can’t seem to figure out why I am getting a 404 Error when I try to get to a subdomain site’s dashboard from WordPress or when I just try to get to the site subdomain.domain.com.

    I really need help. Please let me know if you have any ideas. Thank you.

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  • Thread Starter ddawkins

    (@ddawkins)

    11 years, 6 months ago

    I figured it out . . .

    The following information is for a Multisite Subdomain install on your own IIS server, NOT for a hosted install.

    If you don’t add a binding for the subdomain in IIS, IIS doesn’t send it to WordPress, it just gives you a 404 Error.

    I had to fix the IIS server bindings to include the subdomain. It turns out that to get to your Subdomain Site on an IIS WordPress Multisite installation, you have to:

    1) Install WordPress correctly (this is done on/from your IIS server)

    2) Upgrade to Multisite correctly (this is done by editing a few WordPress files that were installed on your IIS server). See the note below about trying to upgrade to Multisite when you installed WordPress with Microsoft Web Platform Installer or your WordPress install ended up in its own folder instead of the IIS root directory, or your don’t get the Subdomain option when you try to do Network Setup.

    3) Configure DNS correctly (this is usually done through your domain registrar, or whomever controls the DNS zone file for your domain). For instance, if GoDaddy is your registrar, then you would log into GoDaddy and open their DNS management tool for your domain to add a wildcard CNAME entry that points to your WordPress server. It could look like, * points to domain.com, where domain.com points to your WordPress server. Or you could add a discrete entry for each new subdomain like subdomain points to domain.com. It might take DNS a while to propagate (minutes or several hours). Once it does, you shold be able to ping subdomain.domain.com and get a response. If you do, then the DNS should be OK.

    4) Set up IIS to know what to do with a request for the subdomain. You have to go into the IIS control panel, select your site, the go to the Bindings option (in the upper left of the screen) to add a binding for subdomain.domain.com. Now when DNS forwards your request to the IIS server, it will know to send it to the WordPress site and WordPress should then figure out how to send the request to the correct subdomain pages.

    That should do it if you have an internal IIS install of WordPress Multisite using Subdomains.

    NOTE:
    The Subdomain option will not show up if you don’t have WordPress installed in the root directory of the IIS server. On a hosted system, it is usually in a directory like /public_html/. On IIS, it should be in the inetpub\wwwroot folder. The path to it, from the Web server’s point of view, is simply /, because wwwroot is the root folder for IIS.

    If you used Microsoft Web Platform Installer to install WordPress onto your Windows server, it puts everything into inetpub\wwwroot\wordpress, and that will not give you the option to use Subdomains when you upgrade to Multisite. To get the Subdomain option when you click Network Setup, you have to move all the files from the wordpress folder up one level into the wwwroot folder. Now, when you click on Network Setup, you should see the Subdomain option.

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