Filed with Developers True Multi Domain Support (multiple certificates & IPs per acct) Case 40954

[Sindre]

Are there any plans to introduce this in the (near) future? In my opinion, it is the one thing which leaves cPanel behind some other control panels. With the current situation, it is not possible to install an SSL certificate for more than one domain in an account. Additionally, I would suggest that you add support for true multi-domain hosting (not just addon domains).

I believe these features have been requested for a long time by many people. It should not be that hard to implement, but it would make a huge difference.

[cPanelDavidG]

Are there any plans to introduce this in the (near) future? In my opinion, it is the one thing which leaves cPanel behind some other control panels. With the current situation, it is not possible to install an SSL certificate for more than one domain in an account. Additionally, I would suggest that you add support for true multi-domain hosting (not just addon domains).

I believe these features have been requested for a long time by many people. It should not be that hard to implement, but it would make a huge difference.

I am not aware of any near-term plans for implementing this (e.g. 11.25 or 11.26). However, that doesn't mean it's off-limits for incorporation into cPanel/WHM, just that it may be a while before we see this functionality.

You mention "true" multi-domain hosting. In cPanel 11, an addon domain doesn't need to reside in a subdirectory of the primary domain's website anymore, so you can have multiple websites that are separate from one another yet under the same cPanel account. In addition to the SSL issue, is there anything specific you are looking for?

[Sindre]

I am not aware of any near-term plans for implementing this (e.g. 11.25 or 11.26). However, that doesn't mean it's off-limits for incorporation into cPanel/WHM, just that it may be a while before we see this functionality.

You mention "true" multi-domain hosting. In cPanel 11, an addon domain doesn't need to reside in a subdirectory of the primary domain's website anymore, so you can have multiple websites that are separate from one another yet under the same cPanel account. In addition to the SSL issue, is there anything specific you are looking for?

Hi David,

Thanks for the reply.

I know you can specify a document root outside of the public_html for new addon domains, however, the way cPanel handles addon domains internally is like a "hacked" subdomain solution. Let me explain what I mean by "true" multi-domain hosting.

Lets say I have an cPanel account with the main domain "domain1.com". Then I want to add a second domain "domain2.com". This generates a subdomain domain2.domain1.com, and the domain2.com is just set up as a ServerAlias. Why not just create a vhost entry for domain2.com, keeping it totally separate from domain1.com? I am really confused why you implemented it this way in the first place.

In fact, I don't think there should be such thing as a "main domain". All domains should be treated equally, with the possibility to assign each one a specific IP address. I also suggest that you move away from the single "public_html" directory. Why not use one directory "domains", which every domain's web root is stored under:

home_dir/domains/domain1.com/
home_dir/domains/domain2.com/

Possibly, with a public_html/www directory under each domain folder.

I hope that in a future version, you will abandon the whole "addon domains" concept, and replace it with a section "Domains". You should also make it possible to change the document root of a domain.

I think the changes I have described above would make cPanel an even better control panel. The lack of proper multi-domain support is the top reason most of our clients hesitate to use cPanel.

I understand these enhancements would require some major changes to the core system and it is not something I expect to see in the next release, but I hope it can be put a bit higher on the priority list.

[zealus.com]

I absolutely agree with the above post. We have just hit the same roadblock with one of our clients who's hosted on WHM/cPanel servers, but there are no reseller accounts offered. In fact, our client doesn't even need reseller privileges for a single sake of having 2 web sites with separate SSL certs.

However, instead of

home_dir/domains/domain1.com/
home_dir/domains/domain2.com/

I'd rather see:

home_dir/domain1.com/www
or
home_dir/domain1.com/public_html

which would make perfect sense.

[Ivan A]

Hello. Tell me please, whether it planned to add the ability to change IP addresses for additional domains to my account? And not only for the entire account.

It would be very convenient. if the account could be allocated a certain number of IP addresses, and account owner, may appoint their own.

Thanks you.

[JawadArshad]

Hello. Tell me please, whether it planned to add the ability to change IP addresses for additional domains to my account? And not only for the entire account.

It would be very convenient. if the account could be allocated a certain number of IP addresses, and account owner, may appoint their own.

Thanks you.

Are you referring to changing IPs of "addon domains" in your cPanel.

[Ivan A]

Yes, that is, the client account is allocated (say 10 IP addresses), the client adds 20 additional domains and were able to indicate which domain and at what IP is.

[Ivan A]

Or at least, the possibility of changing IP addresses for additional domains in WHM.

[JawadArshad]

Yes, that is, the client account is allocated (say 10 IP addresses), the client adds 20 additional domains and were able to indicate which domain and at what IP is.

Or at least, the possibility of changing IP addresses for additional domains in WHM.

I am unaware of changing the IP of an addon domain from cPanel/WHM, however it can be manually done via SSH. Log in as root and do the following.
Each addon domain has a subdomain associated with it, you need to

1- Edit DNS zone of addon to point it to the new IP and also change the subdomain IP to that same IP. This can be done from WHM.

2- Edit the file /var/cpanel/userdata/username/subdomain.domain.com file, change the IP and save it.
'username' represents the cPanel username of the account.

3- Run
/scripts/rebuildhttpdconf

4- Run
/etc/init.d/httpd stop; /etc/init.d/httpd start

[Ivan A]

That is, so we are doing now, but to save time, would like to see such a possibility appeared even in WHM. Thank you.

[cPanelDavidG]

I have copied these posts from a previous thread about SSL certificates for addon domains, because this secondary conversation is a feature request

[dwykofka]

I agree with this, but the migration fto a new directory naming convention is pretty scary considering all of the php scripts on a server that are hard coded to the document root.

Perhaps a good way to get around that situation could be with the use of some symlinks.

I almost think it should mimick the mail setup

/home/user/mail/domain
/home/user/www/domain
/home/user/logs/domain

or

/home/user/domain/www
/home/user/domain/mail
/home/user/domain/logs

The users home directory really needs some cleanup

[cPanelDavidG]

I have updated the title of this thread since similar feature requests regarding support of multiple SSL certificates in a single cPanel account were being created. The thread title better encompasses all tasks that would be accommodated under a True Multi Domain system.

[cPanelDavidG]

I agree with this, but the migration fto a new directory naming convention is pretty scary considering all of the php scripts on a server that are hard coded to the document root.

Perhaps a good way to get around that situation could be with the use of some symlinks.

I almost think it should mimick the mail setup

/home/user/mail/domain
/home/user/www/domain
/home/user/logs/domain

or

/home/user/domain/www
/home/user/domain/mail
/home/user/domain/logs

The users home directory really needs some cleanup

For existing accounts, would there be any technical necessity for moving files within existing accounts? I'm thinking the docroot for what is currently the primary domain could be configurable, like add-on domains currently are, allowing files to remain in the same locations as they are now. A configurable docroot would also alleviate the difficulty in migrating from an old production site to a site developed within a separate subdirectory of that account.

As for cleaning up the file structure, that is something that could be handled via recommended/default docroots. My concern is that forcing this file re-arrangement for existing files on existing accounts will be disk I/O-intensive and result in breaking users' PHP scripts on a mass scale. However, a website owner could optionally move their scripts and change their docroot at a later time, thus being aware of the situation and able to take pre-emptive and corrective action if they want such an organized file structure within their accounts. Let me know your thoughts.

[monarobase]

I agree with you that you can't break users scripts by changing their docroots.

I like the idea of the default new docroots being in the new correct place but letting users put their docroot whereever they like.

I've had a few users who have requested that we make them a symlink to emulate the main site being in the same directory structure as their other addon domains.

I think that the a default structure is a great idea and it would be good if both hosts and resellers could choose a default structure so they can do as they like.

And why not give the hosts the option to allow or not allow their users to change the default docroot directory structure obviously without changing the current structure for already existing sites.