Advice on multisite setup wanted

Same question here. I've been waiting for Packt Publishing to release their Drush and Multisite books (due in April). Unfortunately, judging from experience they may not be released for months.

Here's hoping that someone provides a more timely answer.

Thanks

I think you should seriously consider moving over to an Aegir / drush make / platform based approach.

If you want to manage the server end you would need to move to a VPS - if you do this I recommend looking at the Barracuda Script and companion Octopus Script as it makes setting up a secure high performance multi-Aegir server a lot easier. If you decide you do not want the overhead of managing the VPS then you could take a look at the service provided by the maintainers of the script over at http://www.omega8.cc.

HTH,

JamieT

Looks interesting

Not sure why you cant update the sites on the shared hosting server directly without the whole database export/import/export/import routine..

Some shared hosts can give you ssh access which may be an option..

With 35+ Drupal sites there is a lot to be said for a VPS specifically configured to run Drupal..

Personally I don't believe Aegir is the way to do that but I haven't tried Omega8's aegir/nginx setup which may be better than I found the standard aegir/apache setup to be..

Drupal's multisite functionality can be put to VERY good use in this scenario and can be setup to make very efficient use of resources with a shared code base for both core and modules..

Yes, you can pay people to do this for you if you don't want to do it yourself..

So I guess the answer is there are LOTS of options available to you and how you structure you architecture and platform moving forward, you just have to work out what's best for you.. :)

Localhost

If you have no SSH access on a shared hosting, there's very little chance that Aegir will be able to help.
You don't necessarily need to go to a full VPS to get a good multisite setup. The issues you mentioned are all separate questions that deserve individual responses

I would suggest against the one database to rule them all approach. Each site does well with an individual database and the size of a combined database will be problematic, especially if you want to only update a single site. You might look at the Backup and Migrate module. It is a fairly complete module for backing up individual sites. It's not the lightest module in terms of processing and efficiency, but it has a lot of benefits like AWS S3 integration.

There are many shared hosting providers that do have SSH access, so a change of hosting might be in order, but it might be something that you want to investigate.

There are hosts that will tune for Drupal and manage the rest of the stack. Acquia and HotDrupal are just two (at different $ and pros/cons).

The key if you want to be able to do it yourself is to have access to be able to use Drush on the server. Managing multisites with drush site aliases is much easier than trying to do it by hand. If you're pulling databases down, etc. being able to run "drush sql-sync" which does it all in one step will be quite worth it.

Hope some of that is helpful.

Backup and migrate

Something to consider if you have any command line access--or perhaps hosting service provides an alternative to run scripts. Don't think that VPS is necessary. Also would caution you about one big DB. Would need to know more details about your specific situation to say any more on your question.

What we do: we have about 30 sites under 4 separate Drupal instances (will soon have 50) and use drush commands in a shell script that cd's to a base Drupal install, does a main pm-update and then visits each site under that install, running updatedb. Drush can do DB backups as well. (Obviously we do this on devel first, check sites, then move to production. Don't even have to put sites in maintenance mode.) Man, my life just got easier! Note: Drush 5 now out has even more valuable commands.

Even if you have 30+ sites under a single instance, this should not be difficult to implement (and the script may take 30 sec- 1 min to run!). Will share details upon request.

Drush may have a bit of a learning curve initially, but the time it will save you in just a short while is well worth it.

Thanks to everyone for their input. Some months later, I think I've settled on a set up and thought I'd share it with you.

I initially took up Jamiet's suggestion and went to omega8.cc for their hosted Aegir solution. It was a bit of a learning curve but when I got the hang of it, I loved it. Their support was pretty good, too.

However, I found I could only host about four websites per their standard core (which is how they price things). I can't remember the cost per core but it was prohibitively expensive for me.

I talked things over with them and they suggested I get a VPS at Linode (allowing me to use Linode's UK servers) and use Omega8's paid installation service to install Aegir. I've now done that and couldn't be happier with the result. I've got 50+ sites and counting on the server, all running like lightning and easy to update.

As Omega8 set it up, they still offer support for the Aegir side of things which helped a lot as I was still working things out.

I still haven't got around to learning Drush but suspect that when I do it will make things even easier. However, just using ftp and the Aegir contrrol panel has transformed my working life - What a relief.

And no, I'm not on commission! Just thought it might help someone else in my position.

Glad to hear I helped a

Care to share the cost? Do you have any reservations about not knowing how to handle problems, yourself, with "things" under the hood? I'm someone who likes to know the broad workings of my auto engine so I am not at the mercy of unscrupulous auto mechanics. Similarly I find that mastering an apache install was a steep learning process but once mastered, the mystery is gone and it's a comfortable feeling. Kinda like going from being fearful about knocking out and replacing drywall.... it's easy once you do it. But that's just me. Interested in hearing the pro's of your decision..

Check out their Aegir on Your

Jamie, I chose the 2048mb Linode at 80ドル a month and their backup for 20ドル a month. My plan, as far as it goes, is to keep loading sites onto it until it shows the first signs of creaking and then upgrade. If that is a bad idea, please let me know. I want to keep it as fast as possible for my customers.

Nwwoman, I also got the Omega8 quarterly subscription at 240ドル which helped me with any reservations I had about not knowing how to handle things under the hood as, hopefully, I can rely on their support if anything does go wrong.

I don't really know anything about the backend of Aegir but then I didn't know much about the backend of cpanel either.

I've still got a cpanel set-up on a shared server elsewhere and every time I go back to it now it feels like coming across an old Amstrad computer and remembering how we used to do it in the old days!

On Aegir with one click I can create a site, create a site on a sub-domain or clone a site - which is a particularly useful feature for me.

I always used to develop new sites on Xampp but now it is so much easier just to create a new site on a sub-domain on Aegir (one click) and then when I'm ready, migrate it to the live domain (one click (or is it two?)). No creating databases, no filling out the Drupal installation form - nothing.

Maybe you can do all this with Drush, but as I don't know how to use it, I don't know.

The whole Aegir/Linode set-up is about 4 times more expensive than my old set-up on a shared server but the sites are faster and it has revolutionised my site building. And there was no way I could carry on with the updating problem I had on the shared server anyway.

I still don't know how to pronouce Aegir though.

Hi - 2048 is pretty big server so you should have plenty of room for growth. TBH I was looking at the 768 linode but I do not have anywhere near 50 sites at the moment. I was planning to do the same as you - load the site up and monitor performance, once the server starts struggling then I would upgrade the server - I believe linode makes upgrading relatively painless.

Glad to hear its working for you.

JamieT

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