G'day Guys,For some time I've wanted to host multiple websites from a single ReadyNAS unit...I haven't had the time to investigate it.1. Backup all the .conf files in /etc/frontview/apache2. Backup all the .conf files in /etc/frontview/apache - so you can restore the originals if you screw something up !!!3. Edit /etc/frontview/apache/Virtual.confOriginal file<VirtualHost _default_:80> SSLEngine off RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^/admin/(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}/admin/$1 [R,L]</VirtualHost>Modified fileNameVirtualHost *:80<VirtualHost *:80> SSLEngine off RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^/admin/(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}/admin/$1 [R,L]</VirtualHost>4. Create a new my-virtual.conf file in /etc/frontview/apache/addons, this way it will be auto loaded without modifying any other files. The example below has definitions for two websites....add/remove as required.my-virtual.conf<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName www.example.com DocumentRoot /path/to/example.com <Directory /path/to/example.com> Options Indexes Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> <Location /index.html> SetHandler none Order Allow,Deny Allow from all </Location> SSLEngine off</VirtualHost><VirtualHost *:80> ServerName www.domain.net DocumentRoot /path/to/domain.net <Directory /path/to/domain.net> Options Indexes Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> <Location /index.html> SetHandler none Order Allow,Deny Allow from all </Location> SSLEngine off</VirtualHost>5. shutdown apache, killall apache-ssl6. restart apache, apache-ssl -f /etc/frontview/apache/httpd.conf7. All done :D CAVEATS1. Toggling the state of HTTP within Frontview rewrites Virtual.conf so the above changes will be lost.ReadyNAS Team1. It would be nice if the above changes could be made to the format of /etc/frontview/apache/Virtual.conf, so that changes aren't overwritten2. I currently have to add the Location element to undo a global definition within httpd.conf. It would be awesome if this was removed from httpd.conf and added to Virtual.conf as...NameVirtualHost *:80<VirtualHost *:80> <Location /index.html> SetHandler server-status Order Deny,Allow Deny from all </Location> SSLEngine off RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^/admin/(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}/admin/$1 [R,L]</VirtualHost>Cheers,David

why not using /etc/frontview/apache/addons/ for this ?

super-poussin wrote:why not using /etc/frontview/apache/addons/ for this ?Step 4 uses that location, however, the way /etc/frontview/apache/Virtual.conf has been defined....it really doesn't allow expansion, hence the reason for modifying it. You can't have mixed declarations of <VirtualHost _default_:80> and <VirtualHost *:80> as the first one declared will always be used.

Nice how-to... thanks for sharing.Does this still require these steps?http://www.readynas.com/?p=135Currently, I've got my blog-thingy hosted on the ReadyNAS Pro. In Frontview, under the HTTP protocol I am redirecting HTTP traffic to the read-only HTTP share "webserver". How does your how-to fit in with this?Notice that when you try to go to my site http://home.bott.ca/ in automatically redirects to the webserver share (as I expect it would - http://home.bott.ca/webserver/).Do all websites have to be placed within this "webserver" share?I guess I'm just a bit confused as to how this works. If you've got any sites hosted on your NAS where you can provide an example, I'd love to see it in action.Regards,Dave

I don't use that option, I currently have it set to 'None Selected'. Using that options adds an additional rewrite rule to /etc/frontview/apache/Virtual.conf, something like this...RewriteRule ^/$ /webserver [R,L]Instead, I have a single share called 'Sites' with a folder for each site that I have configured, then the my-virtual.conf sets the DocumentRoot to the specific Site folder. But I have only done this to make my life easy for updating content. Each site could exist on totally different shares, there is no restriction on that.I'm not hosting anything elaborate, just some firefox extensions and other stuff that I hack around with, here's two sites that are currently hosted off my NAS...http://www.smugglr.nethttp://smugbrowser.introversion.com.au/beta

dbott67 wrote:Nice how-to... thanks for sharing.Does this still require these steps?http://www.readynas.com/?p=135No, actually the approach from this Howto is more flexible but requires more work and a lot more knowledge about how things "really work".dbott67 wrote:Currently, I've got my blog-thingy hosted on the ReadyNAS Pro. In Frontview, under the HTTP protocol I am redirecting HTTP traffic to the read-only HTTP share "webserver". How does your how-to fit in with this?Two totally different beasts. The way you do it will create a config similar to this:<VirtualHost _default_:80> SSLEngine off RewriteEngine on RewriteRule ^/$ /website [R,L] RewriteRule ^/admin/(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}/admin/$1 [R,L]</VirtualHost>The important part is line 4 where all requests are redirected to the Share "website". That's what you already noticed here:dbott67 wrote:Notice that when you try to go to my site http://home.bott.ca/ in automatically redirects to the webserver share (as I expect it would - http://home.bott.ca/webserver/).While this works, it will just allow you to host one website on your NAS.Comes in the Howto. The important part here is that you can have not only one but several <VirtualHost ...> entries.This leads straight to your next question:dbott67 wrote:Do all websites have to be placed within this "webserver" share?No. Let's have a look at the VirtualHost definition:<VirtualHost *:80> ServerName www.example.com DocumentRoot /path/to/example.com <Directory /path/to/example.com> Options Indexes Order allow,deny Allow from all </Directory> <Location /index.html> SetHandler none Order Allow,Deny Allow from all </Location> SSLEngine off</VirtualHost>Notice line 3. The DocumentRoot ... tells Apache where to look for the files it should serve to the user. In this case this would be /path/to/example.comAlso important is line 2. The ServerName ... tells Apache what site this configuration is meant for.A simple, yet very abbreviated example:<VirtualHost *:80>ServerName server1.dyndns.orgDocumentRoot /website1(...)</VirtualHost><VirtualHost *:80>ServerName anotherserver.dyndns.orgDocumentRoot /website2(...)</VirtualHost>Now what happens when a request comes in is this: Apache will look in the headers for the host name the user wanted to address. Say the user requested "anotherserver.dyndns,org". Apache finds the defintion for that server, looks into the directory /website2 and will serve the file index.html if it's to be found there. (That's an overly simplistic explanation but you should get the drift). /website2 doesn't have to be a share, it just has to exist.Likewise, since all Apache cares about is the host name, not the IP address, "server1.dyndns.org" and "anotherserver.dyndns.org" may of course point to the same (your public) IP address.I really hope this was somewhat understandable since I tried to cramp many things in a "not too long to digest" post ;)-Stefan

devbobo

Aspirant

Nov 29, 2009

HOW TO: Hosting multiple websites

G'day Guys,

For some time I've wanted to host multiple websites from a single ReadyNAS unit...I haven't had the time to investigate it.

1. Backup all the .conf files in /etc/frontview/apache
2. Backup all the .conf files in /etc/frontview/apache - so you can restore the originals if you screw something up !!!

3. Edit /etc/frontview/apache/Virtual.conf

Original file


<VirtualHost _default_:80>
  SSLEngine off
  RewriteEngine on

  RewriteRule ^/admin/(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}/admin/$1 [R,L]
</VirtualHost>

Modified file


NameVirtualHost *:80

<VirtualHost *:80>
  SSLEngine off
  RewriteEngine on

  RewriteRule ^/admin/(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}/admin/$1 [R,L]
</VirtualHost>

4. Create a new my-virtual.conf file in /etc/frontview/apache/addons, this way it will be auto loaded without modifying any other files. The example below has definitions for two websites....add/remove as required.

my-virtual.conf


<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName www.example.com
  DocumentRoot /path/to/example.com
  <Directory /path/to/example.com>
    Options Indexes
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
  </Directory>
  <Location /index.html>
    SetHandler none
    Order Allow,Deny
    Allow from all
  </Location>
  SSLEngine off
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerName www.domain.net
  DocumentRoot /path/to/domain.net
  <Directory /path/to/domain.net>
    Options Indexes
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
  </Directory>
  <Location /index.html>
    SetHandler none
    Order Allow,Deny
    Allow from all
  </Location>
  SSLEngine off
</VirtualHost>

5. shutdown apache, killall apache-ssl
6. restart apache, apache-ssl -f /etc/frontview/apache/httpd.conf
7. All done :D

CAVEATS
1. Toggling the state of HTTP within Frontview rewrites Virtual.conf so the above changes will be lost.

ReadyNAS Team
1. It would be nice if the above changes could be made to the format of /etc/frontview/apache/Virtual.conf, so that changes aren't overwritten
2. I currently have to add the Location element to undo a global definition within httpd.conf. It would be awesome if this was removed from httpd.conf and added to Virtual.conf as...


NameVirtualHost *:80

<VirtualHost *:80>
  <Location /index.html>                                                              
    SetHandler server-status                                                          
    Order Deny,Allow                                                                  
    Deny from all                                                                     
  </Location> 
  SSLEngine off
  RewriteEngine on

  RewriteRule ^/admin/(.*)$ https://%{SERVER_NAME}/admin/$1 [R,L]
</VirtualHost>

Cheers,

David

ReadyNAS Developers Network

129 Replies

Replies have been turned off for this discussion

WhoCares_

Mentor

Nov 30, 2009

devbobo wrote:
If above changes were made to the Virtual.conf file by the ReadyNAS team....the risk of that happening would be reduced considerably and that would open up the prospect of making this into an Add-on which would remove the risk all together.

devbobo wrote:
If above changes were made to the Virtual.conf file by the ReadyNAS team....the risk of that happening would be reduced considerably and that would open up the prospect of making this into an Add-on which would remove the risk all together.

Actually I've been playing with the thought myself. But after some consideration I realized, that this will mean a whole shitload (sorry ;)) of additional work to bake this into an addon. Starts with creating the directories, goes on to making sure that the vHost definitions are correct, supporting different DocumentIndex files (like index.php -> checking whether PHP is installed? -> ... ), possibly setting up of shares (which user to give access by default?) and on and on and on. That's why I refrained from posting. So: hat tip to you for being bold ;)

-Stefan

mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Nov 30, 2009
devbobo, if you wish to develop an add-on you can start by looking here: How to Develop a Frontview Add-On

If NetGear doesn't change the config file, you may need to get the add-on to backup the conf files after a change. Then setup a button that results in the conf files being restored from backup.

It'd be a lot of work, but if you want to do it, go for it.

devbobo

Aspirant

Nov 30, 2009

WhoCares? wrote:
devbobo wrote:
If above changes were made to the Virtual.conf file by the ReadyNAS team....the risk of that happening would be reduced considerably and that would open up the prospect of making this into an Add-on which would remove the risk all together.

Actually I've been playing with the thought myself. But after some consideration I realized, that this will mean a whole shitload (sorry ;)) of additional work to bake this into an addon. Starts with creating the directories, goes on to making sure that the vHost definitions are correct, supporting different DocumentIndex files (like index.php -> checking whether PHP is installed? -> ... ), possibly setting up of shares (which user to give access by default?) and on and on and on. That's why I refrained from posting. So: hat tip to you for being bold ;)

-Stefan

I think you might be over-complicating it (or maybe it's me simplifying it too much)...but for the add-on i had in mind, the user would add the ServerName and DocumentRoot for each website they wanted to host. From info that it should be pretty simple to create to .conf file to put in /etc/frontview/apache/addons. I don't really care about creation of shares etc, that is admin crap that doesn't really have to live in the addon. Am I missing something ? :?

mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Nov 30, 2009
You have to be careful. If people who don't have SSH enabled install the add-on and it stuffs up so that Frontview can't be accessed... then that's not going to be too good.

Hopefully a firmware re-install would get the NAS working again.

devbobo

Aspirant

Nov 30, 2009

mdgm wrote:
devbobo, if you wish to develop an add-on you can start by looking here: How to Develop a Frontview Add-On

If NetGear doesn't change the config file, you may need to get the add-on to backup the conf files after a change. Then setup a button that results in the conf files being restored from backup.

It'd be a lot of work, but if you want to do it, go for it.

mdgm wrote:
devbobo, if you wish to develop an add-on you can start by looking here: How to Develop a Frontview Add-On If NetGear doesn't change the config file, you may need to get the add-on to backup the conf files after a change. Then setup a button that results in the conf files being restored from backup. It'd be a lot of work, but if you want to do it, go for it.

thanks, I've already been looking at the doco. Might have a play tonight.

WhoCares_
Mentor
Nov 30, 2009
devbobo wrote:
Am I missing something ? :?

No, not really. Just the thing about "giving the little finger and have your arm torn out". Besides that, I guess you'd be home safe :-D

-Stefan
WhoCares_
Mentor
Nov 30, 2009
mdgm wrote:
Hopefully a firmware re-install would get the NAS working again.

That's one of the problems because most likely it wouldn't.

-Stefan
mdgm-ntgr
NETGEAR Employee Retired
Nov 30, 2009
WhoCares? wrote:
mdgm wrote:
Hopefully a firmware re-install would get the NAS working again.

That's one of the problems because most likely it wouldn't.

-Stefan

Ok. So yeah SSH installed would be a must. Also a simple script to restore default conf files. That could be started by e.g.

/c/script.sh

or whatever you want to call it. That should fix a problem if something goes drastically wrong (I think). If it doesn't then perhaps a script (with files from a working system on the same firmware version) may need to be downloaded.
WhoCares_
Mentor
Nov 30, 2009
mdgm wrote:
Ok. So yeah SSH installed would be a must.

See, there we go. When I started developing addons I was under the impression that it would be clear to users that having SSH enabled was mandatory before installing an addon. Well, turns out I was wrong.

mdgm wrote:
Also a simple script to restore default conf files.

It'd be even easier than that. Just have Netgear modifiy Vhost.conf like suggested and add a line like

Include /etc/frontview/apache/VHost_user.conf

This file could exist as a 0 byte sized file to be filled by the addon. Make sure that a firmware reinstall overwrites the file with the 0 byte sized version and you're ... well ... somewhat safe there.

-Stefan

Edit: Still, I've been thinking about this a lot. And I've always come to the same conclusion: If you can do it, you don't need an addon. If you can't do it ... well, maybe then you shouldn't ;)
dbott67
Guide
Nov 30, 2009
Stefan, thanks for the explanation and to the rest for the enlightening posts. It does make sense and I think I may tinker around a bit when I get some free time. This looks very interesting... 8)

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HOW TO: Hosting multiple websites

129 Replies

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