Attempting to run WP Multi-site on a Windows server and getting 404 not found

  • BigWhiteDog

    (@bigwhitedog)


    9 years, 5 months ago

    I just activated Multi-Site an an existing but newly reinstalled, updated and pretty much empty 4.0 WP site. I followed the instructions here to the letter http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network and everything seemed to go fine. I wanted to use sub-domains anyway so that worked out. I set up the new subdomain and it showed up on the network dashboard as expected but when I tried to go to the dashboard for the now site I get a 404 not found and when I try to go to the subdomain itself RandysReliableUpdates.PrepAndGo.com, I get the default Parallels Plesk page.

    I found this article http://codex.wordpress.org/Configuring_Wildcard_Subdomains_for_multi_site_under_Plesk_Control_Panel but didn’t understand it completely so passed it on to my server support folks.

    Here is their reply

    I have reviewed the functions of MultiSite and it appears that Plesk will perform many of these features. The reason that ‘RandysReliableUpdates.PrepAndGo.com’ is not resolving is because that subdomain does not exist in Plesk. Because Plesk is handling the processing of web content that subdomain would need to be created under the ‘PrepAndGo.com’ domain.

    Although they will not share the same WordPress installation Plesk 12 does integrate with WordPress quite well. If you login to Plesk and click the ‘WordPress’ link on the left you will be able to manage all WordPress installations. You can perform updates of multiple installations and also change themes and plugins on multiple installations at one time. This may be more beneficial than using MultiSite since the configurations will be made directly in Plesk and stay within our scope of support.

    The second link that you provided applies to Plesk installations on Linux servers: http://codex.wordpress.org/Configuring_Wildcard_Subdomains_for_multi_site_under_Plesk_Control_Panel . Although this may be able to be modified for a Windows server it does require configurations made outside of Plesk and would not fall under our scope of support. It is highly recommended that you create the subdomains within Plesk and make all configuration changes there.

    3 questions:
    1) Is he correct and I have to do it via Plesk?
    2) Has anybody managed multiple WP sites via just the Plesk panel (we will have only 3 sites but I need them tied together for brand purposes)?
    3) Is there a better fix that I am missing?

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)
  • Thread Starter BigWhiteDog

    (@bigwhitedog)

    9 years, 5 months ago

    SO they got it to work. Here are the replies form my tech support folks. Let me know if I have to go through Plesk to add the other sites.

    2nd reply
    Hello,

    We have made some progress on this. I was able to use the setup link http://codex.wordpress.org/Create_A_Network on a test environment and get the subdomains to load properly. We ran back through the setup and found that you had both a .htaccess and web.config file. This was causing confliction so we moved the .htaccess to the desktop.

    We also found that the rewrite rules were not as recommended in the setup. We modified the web.config to match the recommended settings and then the Plesk default page was loading instead of a 404 error. Please note that it is recommended to use the web.config on Windows servers.

    We are still troubleshooting this and will update you again when we have more information. If you have any questions please let us know.

    3rd and final

    I am happy to report that we have resolved the issue. The last step in getting ‘RandysReliableUpdates.PrepAndGo.com’ to resolve was to add a binding for it in IIS:

    IIS > Expand Server > Expand Sites > right-click ‘PrepAndGo.com’ > Edit Bindings > Add

    You will not be able to use a wildcard binding as this will create a binding conflict. Therefore, you will need to create a binding for each subdomain that you setup.

    Once again, this is not the recommended course of action and any sites or subdomains configured outside of Plesk will not be covered under our scope of support. If you have any other questions or concerns please let us know.

    Thoughts? Love my tech support folks a lot but also want input from those who know WP inside and out.

    Thanks in advance.

    Moderator Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)

    (@ipstenu)

    🏳️‍🌈 Advisor and Activist

    9 years, 5 months ago

    The second link that you provided applies to Plesk installations on Linux servers: http://codex.wordpress.org/Configuring_Wildcard_Subdomains_for_multi_site_under_Plesk_Control_Panel . Although this may be able to be modified for a Windows server it does require configurations made outside of Plesk and would not fall under our scope of support. It is highly recommended that you create the subdomains within Plesk and make all configuration changes there.

    Normally I’d say “It’s all done in Plesk” but I’m not Windows savvy with this (and frankly, few of us are).

    They’re probably right :/

    WPspider

    (@wpspider)

    8 years, 8 months ago

    In my experience there’s no rhyme or reason as to how Plesk will handle multisite – at least on unix. I have had it working perfectly using several different configurations – and likewise fail (landing on the Plesk default page) using those same configurations.

    Your best bet is to use a dedicated IP number to setup a subscription for yourdomain.com and immediately add “*” (without the quotes) as a subdomain. Next, go set an “A” record in your DNS for yourdomain.com to the dedicated IP address. While you’re there, go ahead and add an * subdomain “A” record for yourdomain.com.

    Then, under Tools & Settings, Tools & Resources, IP Addresses, click said dedicated IP number and in the resulting interface select yourdomain.com as the “Default site.”

    From there, it depends on what plugin or other process you use to map the domains to the subsites. You don’t actually need a plugin, but the method of doing it without one isn’t supported, so all your sites could whack out one day and you’d be faced with coming up with a new method (immediately), so not for the faint of heart.

    Finally, throw the dice and hope that you don’t periodically get a site that simply will not map (even though dozens of other sites are already successfully mapped under the same network using the same settings) and you end up with the dreaded Plesk default page.

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