DirectAdmin - Subdomain structure

Ympker · December 2020

So, about 2 weeks ago I moved my personal domain from HM to Mike's DA plans and he imported the CPMOVE file from me.

The main domain (wp install) and emails worked right off the bat. The subdomains however (another wp install and some domains with redirects to e.g. uptimerobot) seem to not be working. If I browse to the subdomain with the wp install I only get the blank Litespeed page. The redirects won't work either. As I know Mike is a bit busy these days (baby and all) and we have lots of DA users here, I thought I'd ask here: What is the default subdomain public_html path in DA? I am a bit confused after checking my files in the DA panel:

While there appear to be files in "My Files --> domains --> nicolas-loew.de --> subdomain.nicolas-loew.de" I only get a blank page when visiting the URL. There also seem to be empty directories with subdomain names in "My files --> domains --> nicolas-loew.de --> public_html --> empty folders with subdomain names".

The redirects I will probably just check in DNS manager. Databases for the subdomain's wp install seem to have been migrated, so that's likely not the issue here.

Any ideas? The subdomain with the wp install isn't anything I need to access 24/7 and I can still work on it on my HM plan by changing my hosts file, but I'd like to sort this out so any help/ideas is appreciated

Kind regards,
Ympker

vyas · December 2020

@Ympker said:

Any ideas?

Kind regards,
Ympker

Experiencing similar problem with Litespeed + DA based installations. Also when using subdomains. Thought it was me losing my mind..
Has happened across three hosts.

Edit: Mine were clean WP Installs. (or any other CMS for that matter). Even uploading images gives same error when I type the URL to the image.

Screenshot

Ympker · December 2020

@vyas said:

@Ympker said:

Any ideas?

Kind regards,
Ympker

Experiencing similar problem with Litespeed + DA based installations. Also when using subcomains.
Has happened across three hosts.

Ouch. That's good to know. Thanks for chiming in

The Screenshot is exactly what I am seeing.

Francisco · December 2020

Go to the subdomains page and click the pencil.

You can then confirm what directory its loading from.

Francisco

bikegremlin · December 2020

I configure subdomains as domains in DirectAdmin. And then it all works fine.
Not sure about automatic migrations though - suppose you might have to do migrations manually.
Also - think it makes sense to create a separate account for each website (each domain and each subdomain) - would expect that to make any further transfers easier - you would have each one on a separate "account" (if using reseller hosting).

Ympker · December 2020

@Francisco said:
Go to the subdomains page and click the pencil.

You can then confirm what directory its loading from.

Francisco

It says default path for public html there. If I click on custom it appears the subdomain is pointing to the main domain's path. But in the directory /domains/nicolas-loew.de there is also a folder with the subdomain's wp files. So I guess I need to change the path to that folder so /domains/nicolas-loew.de/subdomainfolder , or would DA normally detect the subdomain automatically in the main domain's folder?

Ympker · December 2020

@bikegremlin said:
I configure subdomains as domains in DirectAdmin. And then it all works fine.
Not sure about automatic migrations though - suppose you might have to do migrations manually.
Also - think it makes sense to create a separate account for each website (each domain and each subdomain) - would expect that to make any further transfers easier - you would have each one on a separate "account" (if using reseller hosting).

Yeah, initially I was re-creating the subdomains manually and planned to use AIO WP MIGRATION to import the wp install but since emails and all was missing, too Mike suggested we could use a cpmove file but seems like DA+LS seems to cause problems here? I could also delete every folder and thing that reseambles a subdomain and just re-create and import wp backup from scratch. Maybe that's faster than finding the error. Still weird.

Like you mentioned on the DA Forum in your post, I also found DA's approach to not really "seperate" Domain and subdomain folders a bit odd. But then again, I am new-ish to DA soo.

bikegremlin · December 2020

@Ympker said:

@bikegremlin said:
I configure subdomains as domains in DirectAdmin. And then it all works fine.
Not sure about automatic migrations though - suppose you might have to do migrations manually.
Also - think it makes sense to create a separate account for each website (each domain and each subdomain) - would expect that to make any further transfers easier - you would have each one on a separate "account" (if using reseller hosting).

Yeah, initially I was re-creating the subdomains manually and planned to use AIO WP MIGRATION to import the wp install but since emails and all was missing, too Mike suggested we could use a cpmove file but seems like DA+LS seems to cause problems here? I could also delete every folder and thing that reseambles a subdomain and just re-create and import wp backup from scratch. Maybe that's faster than finding the error. Still weird.

I use MXroute for all the emails - makes migrations a lot simpler.
With a spearate DNS (Cloudflare for now) service.

While I've had problems with using Softaculous WP migration/cloning tool migrating from Myw.pt servers, migration to Myw.pt have worked OK.

Ympker · December 2020

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:

@bikegremlin said:
I configure subdomains as domains in DirectAdmin. And then it all works fine.
Not sure about automatic migrations though - suppose you might have to do migrations manually.
Also - think it makes sense to create a separate account for each website (each domain and each subdomain) - would expect that to make any further transfers easier - you would have each one on a separate "account" (if using reseller hosting).

Yeah, initially I was re-creating the subdomains manually and planned to use AIO WP MIGRATION to import the wp install but since emails and all was missing, too Mike suggested we could use a cpmove file but seems like DA+LS seems to cause problems here? I could also delete every folder and thing that reseambles a subdomain and just re-create and import wp backup from scratch. Maybe that's faster than finding the error. Still weird.

I use MXroute for all the emails - makes migrations a lot simpler.
With a spearate DNS (Cloudflare for now) service.

While I've had problems with using Softaculous WP migration/cloning tool migrating from Myw.pt servers, migration to Myw.pt have worked OK.

Fair enough. I'll wait for some more replies but worst case I'll just trash all the subs with wp installs and their directories and re-create them and use a wp backup to restore

I often used Softaculous for staging sites with HM but never to Export then import. Might try, but AIO WP Migration is actually doing a good job.

Adding subdomains as domains is smth I might try for that extra separation. Anything to watch out for, when doing that? Thanks!

bikegremlin · December 2020

@Ympker said:

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:

@bikegremlin said:
I configure subdomains as domains in DirectAdmin. And then it all works fine.
Not sure about automatic migrations though - suppose you might have to do migrations manually.
Also - think it makes sense to create a separate account for each website (each domain and each subdomain) - would expect that to make any further transfers easier - you would have each one on a separate "account" (if using reseller hosting).

Yeah, initially I was re-creating the subdomains manually and planned to use AIO WP MIGRATION to import the wp install but since emails and all was missing, too Mike suggested we could use a cpmove file but seems like DA+LS seems to cause problems here? I could also delete every folder and thing that reseambles a subdomain and just re-create and import wp backup from scratch. Maybe that's faster than finding the error. Still weird.

I use MXroute for all the emails - makes migrations a lot simpler.
With a spearate DNS (Cloudflare for now) service.

While I've had problems with using Softaculous WP migration/cloning tool migrating from Myw.pt servers, migration to Myw.pt have worked OK.

Fair enough. I'll wait for some more replies but worst case I'll just trash all the subs with wp installs and their directories and re-create them and use a wp backup to restore

I often used Softaculous for staging sites with HM but never to Export then import. Might try, but AIO WP Migration is actually doing a good job.

Adding subdomains as domains is smth I might try for that extra separation. Anything to watch out for, when doing that? Thanks!

What to watch out for?
Considering the craziest stuff that can pop to mind:

having more than 2 levels, with Cloudlfare DNS, will create TLS problems. Like: dev01.subdomain.example.com, instead of dev01.example.com. The first one will not work properly.
Likewise, ftp.dev01.example.com is not likely to work (with a reseller account, you can use your main domain to work on all the other domains, like ftp.maindomain.com - then just use username and login password of any subdomain you wish to work with).

Softaculous is able to "recognize" any WP installation within an account, and transfer it to your account (the one you are running the Softaculous import/cloning from). I suppose AIO plugin can do that as well.

P.S. just for laughs:
I've got all the backups ready (as always) and waiting to see how things turn out. Still well over a year of HM subscription left. Will they get sold? Will they deadpool? Will service quality go down? Think it's still too early to start moving (might regret that, but time will tell). Waiting to see what the pricing will look like. One of my top picks for production stuff is @Francisco - based solely on the feedback I got from this community.

vyas · December 2020

@bikegremlin said:
I configure subdomains as domains in DirectAdmin. And then it all works fine.
Not sure about automatic migrations though - suppose you might have to do migrations manually.
Also - think it makes sense to create a separate account for each website (each domain and each subdomain) - would expect that to make any further transfers easier - you would have each one on a separate "account" (if using reseller hosting).

Not in my case. Did not try Myw.pt but for HM and other LS based same problem.
a. Creating domain works, no problem encountered
Even with free top level domains (.tk, etc) and with or without CF. In fact for one domain I changed DNS to quic.cloud (for a WIP blog post). It took a few hours but all worked out well.
b. Works with TLD and WP installed in a folder
c. Does not work with sub domain. With or without CF.

Ympker · December 2020

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:

@bikegremlin said:

@Ympker said:

@bikegremlin said:
I configure subdomains as domains in DirectAdmin. And then it all works fine.
Not sure about automatic migrations though - suppose you might have to do migrations manually.
Also - think it makes sense to create a separate account for each website (each domain and each subdomain) - would expect that to make any further transfers easier - you would have each one on a separate "account" (if using reseller hosting).

Yeah, initially I was re-creating the subdomains manually and planned to use AIO WP MIGRATION to import the wp install but since emails and all was missing, too Mike suggested we could use a cpmove file but seems like DA+LS seems to cause problems here? I could also delete every folder and thing that reseambles a subdomain and just re-create and import wp backup from scratch. Maybe that's faster than finding the error. Still weird.

I use MXroute for all the emails - makes migrations a lot simpler.
With a spearate DNS (Cloudflare for now) service.

While I've had problems with using Softaculous WP migration/cloning tool migrating from Myw.pt servers, migration to Myw.pt have worked OK.

Fair enough. I'll wait for some more replies but worst case I'll just trash all the subs with wp installs and their directories and re-create them and use a wp backup to restore

I often used Softaculous for staging sites with HM but never to Export then import. Might try, but AIO WP Migration is actually doing a good job.

Adding subdomains as domains is smth I might try for that extra separation. Anything to watch out for, when doing that? Thanks!

What to watch out for?
Considering the craziest stuff that can pop to mind:

having more than 2 levels, with Cloudlfare DNS, will create TLS problems. Like: dev01.subdomain.example.com, instead of dev01.example.com. The first one will not work properly.

Likewise, ftp.dev01.example.com is not likely to work (with a reseller account, you can use your main domain to work on all the other domains, like ftp.maindomain.com - then just use username and login password of any subdomain you wish to work with).

Softaculous is able to "recognize" any WP installation within an account, and transfer it to your account (the one you are running the Softaculous import/cloning from). I suppose AIO plugin can do that as well.

P.S. just for laughs:
I've got all the backups ready (as always) and waiting to see how things turn out. Still well over a year of HM subscription left. Will they get sold? Will they deadpool? Will service quality go down? Think it's still too early to start moving (might regret that, but time will tell). Waiting to see what the pricing will look like. One of my top picks for production stuff is @Francisco - based solely on the feedback I got from this community.

I am not moving from HM entirely. Just my own site to Europe jurisdiction as my lawyer advised me

Harambe · December 2020

I'd double check what Fran pointed out, make sure the DA directory matches up with where the restore put the files. Default path in DA for subdomain would be: /domains/yourdomain.com/public_html/yoursubdomainfolder

Second option would be to delete and re-add the subdomains to make sure everything's good with the web server conf (make sure the vhosts actually were configured properly), then just move the files over to the folders that get created.

Ympker · December 2020

@Harambe said:
I'd double check what Fran pointed out, make sure the DA directory matches up with where the restore put the files. Default path in DA for subdomain would be: /domains/yourdomain.com/public_html/yoursubdomainfolder

Second option would be to delete and re-add the subdomains to make sure everything's good with the web server conf (make sure the vhosts actually were configured properly), then just move the files over to the folders that get created.

Thanks mate! I'll look into it

Yeah, plan B was to delete all subdomains and directories supposedly belonging to them, then re-add them manually.

Ympker · December 2020

Thanks for all the help guys. Managed to fix it all now by removing all subdomains and re-adding them manually
Everything works now. Went ahead and added "subdomains" as domains now, to have that seperate folder structure like @bikegremlin suggested and works like a charm. Only downside is automatic LE Certs seem not to work that way. I can only issue them for subdomains if they are indeed added as subdomains.

DirectAdmin - Subdomain structure

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