By now, you seem to have links to most of the major virtual domain
implementations for AOLserver; what you might not have is some data for
figuring out which to use. I can fill in a little...
Since AOLserver 3.x, virtual domains are no longer supported in AOLserver
(although they are coming back for 4.x). AOlserver 3.x runs a server with
a single name on one or more IP addresses, but it has a single responder
for all listeners. Generally, there are two approaches to achieving
virtual domains with AOLserver 3.x:
- Run multiple instances of AOLserver on a private IP address and private
ports, and use a front-end webserver (which could be AOLserver or could be
some other webserver) to reverse-proxy the incoming traffic to the
appropriate AOLserver instance
- Install code that intercepts the request, divine the intended virtual
server from the intended IP address and any Host headers in the request,
and handle the request locally, using different code depending on the
virtual server.
One variant of the first strategy is to use one AOLserver running nsvhr,
and multiple instances running nsunix; this runs the virtual instances
over a Unix domain socket, instead of a TCP/IP socket, which helps to
conserve ports, and does not expose the virtual instances to the network,
but has been historically buggy, unable to run out-of-the-box without
patches. Apparently in the latest version, nsvhr and nsunix work
out-of-the-box, although confirmation of this is sketchy. If you want to
use the reverse-proxy approach, you're probably best using TCP connections
(it's not clear there are performance advantages from using Unix domain
sockets, as far as I know).
There are several modules that implement the second approach, and each
works slightly differently, but all seem to work well.
Unless you use separate instances for the,, Virtual servers on AOLserver 3.
x really just let you separate the static content; you don't get separate
Tcl interpreters, and you don't get the suexec for CGI (although you can
use CGIWrap). You can still get a lot of mileage out of it, though.
Hope this helps.
Pete.
On Friday, January 3, 2003, Mike wrote:
Ok I got aolserver working so what do I need to do to setup two websites
to point to one IP I could easily do it with apache but this server is
whole new ball game. ;)
