https issue with subdomains

  • Resolved Andrew

    (@snd26)


    11 years, 4 months ago

    I recently posted a question about https, but I have a problem and my host says they are unable to get it to work how I would like that surely can’t be right.

    I have bought a wildcard SSL certificate thinking that it should work nicely with subdomain multisite, but it doesn’t. Every time a sub-domain is created I have to contact my host to setup a symlink for each subdomain. Any sub-domain where my host hasn’t setup a symlink, they have a 500 internal error when adding https.

    So how do other popular wordpress multisites work well with https such as at wordpress.com?

    I have the same problem as this person (also uses siteground host):

    https://wordpress.org/support/topic/subdomain-on-multisite-inaccessible-through-ssl?replies=6

    But he seemed happy with siteground creating symlinks, probably because only he creates sites on his multisite, but my multisite is for everyone to create a website. So this is a big problem.

    Does anyone have a solution for this. I really like siteground but will have to leave just for this if another hosting provider can setup wildcard SSL to work with wildcard subdomains (where symlinks don’t have to be manually created each time).

    Would rackspace cloud sites be able to set it up like this? Or Dreamhost that specialise with wordpress be able to set it up?

    Thanks in advance

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years, 4 months ago

    Every time a sub-domain is created I have to contact my host to setup a symlink for each subdomain.

    That has nothing to do with your SSL cert or (technically) WordPress.

    You did this, right? http://kb.siteground.com/how_to_enable_wildcard_subdomains/

    Thread Starter Andrew

    (@snd26)

    11 years, 4 months ago

    Yes, I have the appendix in cpanel >sub domains, without it I think subdomains would cause a lot of problems. Basically everything works fine with just http and I never have any issues, all sub domains work. only when using https in the url the internal errors display (unless I ask my host to create a symlink for that sub-domain). My host says the symlinks are required for the sub domain to work properly via SSL connection, so I have to contact them everytime I need a sub-domain to use SSL.

    I spoke to three people in the support team one said – “I believe that cPanel uses only symlinks for the Wildcard SSL certificates. “

    I was forwarded to a tech support supervisor who said –
    ” Unfortunately with the current WildCard SSL setup not creating the sym link for the new sub domain name will cause the sub domain not to work properly via SSL connection. The symlink is required for the sub domain to work properly via SSL connection.

    What we can suggest is to contact a local developer on your end who can create a shell script that would automatically be called by a PHP script and will automatically create the symlink of the sub domain that the user is considering to register.”

    – So I am confused.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    11 years, 4 months ago

    Just so everyone knows, this was an issue with SiteGround. From StackExchange:

    my name is Daniel Kanchev and I work for SiteGround as a Senior Web Apps Engineer.

    The described issue is pretty strange and I just configured a test WordPress Network on one SiteGround shared server. I did not face any similar issues and I used sub-domain names with a wildcard SSL certificate. Usually such issues are caused by Apache VHost misconfiguration problems. People often use the following setup (the default cPanel setup):

    <VirtualHost 109.73.236.14:443>
    ServerName *.lumenco.ca
    ServerAlias *.lumenco.ca
    VirtualDocumentRoot /home/lumenco0/public_html/%1
    ServerAdmin webmaster@lumenco.ca
    UseCanonicalName Off

    The problem is usually caused by the fact that both ServerName and UseCanonicalName are not properly set. The correct configuration that works with WordPress is:

    <VirtualHost 109.73.236.14:443>
    ServerName lumenco.ca
    ServerAlias *.lumenco.ca
    VirtualDocumentRoot /home/lumenco0/public_html/%1
    ServerAdmin webmaster@lumenco.ca
    UseCanonicalName On

    @rarst, the issue is strange but this is something that is supported on shared servers and I’ve personally configured many WordPress apps on our shared hosting plans to use the same setup 🙂

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

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