Configuring a basic multisite development environment in Linux

drupal_multisite..md

Basic multisite environment in Linux

Step 1: Download and uncompress Drupal

You can download and uncompress Drupal by following the steps on the Download and uncompress Drupal page of the Installation guide, as this step does not differ from a normal installation.

Step 2: Set up your hosts file

Add the following lines to /etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1    mysite1.localhost
127.0.0.1    mysite2.localhost

Step 3: Set up Virtual Hosts

Add the following code to /etc/apache2/httpd.conf:

<VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /var/www/html ServerName localhost <VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /var/www/drupal ServerName mysite1.localhost <VirtualHost *:80> DocumentRoot /var/www/drupal ServerName mysite2.localhost

After this, restart Apache: sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Step 4: Set up your databases

Create two databases. Name one of them mysite1 and the other mysite2.

Step 5: Set up your sites folders

1. From the command prompt, navigate to /var/www/drupal/sites/ or wherever you have your sites folder installed.

2. The default directory will serve as a template for our other sites. Create a writable files directory in the default directory to make sure every one of your site folders get this directory:

3. Copy the default directory to create your new site directories:

sudo cp -a default/ mysite1.localhost sudo cp -a default/ mysite2.localhost

4. Rename the default.settings.php files to settings.php and change the permissions to make them writable, so that the web server can access them in step 7:

sudo mv mysite1.localhost/default.settings.php mysite1.localhost/settings.php sudo mv mysite2.localhost/default.settings.php mysite2.localhost/settings.php sudo chmod a+w mysite1.localhost/settings.php sudo chmod a+w mysite2.localhost/settings.php

Step 6: Run the installation script for your sites

In a web browser, visit http://mysite1.localhost/install.php and follow the instructions found on the Run the installation script page of the Installation guide. Repeat for http://mysite2.localhost/install.php.

Step 8: Remove write permissions from your sites' settings.php files

You don't really need to do this, since this is only a development environment, so we're not really concerned about security. Nevertheless, it's a good habit to get into: From the command prompt, navigate to /var/www/drupal/sites and remove the write permissions for the settings.php files: sudo chmod a-w mysite1.localhost/settings.php sudo chmod a-w mysite2.localhost/settings.php

Step 9: You're done!

You can visit your sites at: http://mysite1.localhost/index.php http://mysite2.localhost/index.php

Important Points

1. The themes/modules which are under yourproject/all/themes or yourproject/all/modules, will share among all the sites.

2. If you want a theme for the particular site, say

    Example : mysite1.localhost is under yourproject/site/. You need create themes folder inside mysite1.localhost and place all the your custom or contributed themes in THEMES directory.
               
              mysite1.localhost/themes/yourthemes
   
    similarly, for modules
   
              mysite1.localhost/modules/yourmodules.