Suppose I’m already running lew-loos-sewing.org, where I’m selling highly reproduced embroidered clothing. Then somebody wants to handle the subcontracting for me to produce the bespoke short-run or one-off requests. I don’t want to alter the main site, and I also don’t want to manage or limit their way of doing business under my login.
My idea is to make a new CMS named ur-way.lew-loos-sewing.org as a top-level virtual server such that they have their own admin login, eMail, database, website, etc.
Is that an acceptable use of Virtualmin, a stupid hack that will be an endless source of embarrassment and irritation, or something else?
I’m not sure if we have a language gap or not. Correct me if I’m wrong, but…
A top-level virtual server in Virtualmin requires an active domain name and comes with a main administrator account which is in the Linux list of users on the system, typically along with eMail, FTP, and some other things.
A sub-server in Virtualmin requires a top-level virtual server as its parent, uses the full domain from its top-level to prefix the subdomain’s name onto, is owned by the admin of the top-level virtual server, and typically doesn’t have eMail for that subdomain.
So are you implying that if my top-level virtual server is lew-loos-sewing.org, I can create a subserver under it for yoyo.toneys-pizza-and-hooka.uk or even toneys-pizza-and-hooka.uk?
I have. This is just a hypothetical question to better understand the nature of virtual servers on Virtualmin. Right now on one bare metal I have VM pro for many different sites and projects.
On another bare metal, I have VM community that I will only run a complex database. I make it do things that most people don’t know they can do, so it’s a processor hog at times. I installed its phpMyAdmin as a top-level virtual server, but its domain name is a subdomain listed as a top-level virtual server on the bare metal mentioned above.
I’m always sure there is a smarter way to do things than the way my brain thinks of. This post is to see if my ideas are not wise.
A top-level virtual server often referred to as just a virtual server, is the foundational account in Virtualmin. It includes a website, email, and FTP access, all associated with its own unique domain name.
, is any subdomain, or sub-sub-domain, etc, in the set of all “unique domain names”?
Yes, in DNS/domain-name terms, any subdomain or deeper descendant can be a “unique domain name”. But in Virtualmin terminology it means the virtual server has its own distinct domain name string assigned to it.
Names don’t matter to Virtualmin. A subdomain is just a name. It can be a top-level server or a sub-server or an alias.
Similarly, a second-level domain could be a sub-server of a subdomain of that name (virtualmin.com could be a sub-server of sub.virtualmin.com).
And, they do not need to be related in any way. virtualmin.com can be a sub-server of webmin.com or vice versa.
Names do not matter. Top-level vs. sub-server is about ownership. A top-level virtual server gets a user that owns it. A sub-server is owned by an existing virtual server.
That’s everything there is to know: Names don’t matter.
I haven’t done it in awhile but I think if it is the same domain you have to take DNS into consideration. You might have to manually add the sub domain manually to the existing DNS if you make it top level.
there is an option to allow the top-level server to handle the DNS of a sub-server if that sub-server’s domain is a sub-domain of the top-level server’s domain
Yes, if DNS is hosted locally and there is a reasonable hierarchy for it (top-level server is virtualmin.com and sub-servers are sub.virtualmin.com and sub2.virtualmin.com), there is an option to share a single zone for all of them. You aren’t required to organize DNS that way, though. It may be simpler to do so.
From an intuitive standpoint, humans probably would prefer it to be ordered hierarchically in a logical way like this, as well.
I’m just telling you how Virtualmin thinks about it (it doesn’t, names don’t matter to Virtualmin).
The first internet provider I worked for would give customers websites under the main domain such as:
maindomain.whatever
user.maindomain.whatever
user2.etc..
Of no interest to me personally at this point, but having a ‘full access/full permissions’ subdomain doesn’t seem unreasonable. I’d draw the line at email though. But, that’s me.