discipleaaron

I do appreciate your “above and beyond the call” with me here. And one of the links in that string (http://www.microsoft.com/web/wordpress) deals with the aforementioned WPI (Web Platform Installer) that is my main concern. That was the windows widget we used to set up WordPress the FIRST time. And yep, it works great.

I am shy on the side of caution when contemplating using it for a SECOND installation of WordPress on the same machine, because Windows is often too smart for its own britches. It will see that MySql is already present, that PhP is already present, and think they are not necessary. Maybe they are, and maybe they are not. If they are needed in a secondary location (to provide the required separation between domains), then you probably know better than anyone what is coming if WordPress gets installed without them. I’d have to install them secondarily from the command line anyway, open all sorts of .INI and other files and fill in code gaps and linkages.

Then again, if it does install them, and because there could be a newer version of something than what’s already on the server, it might just overwrite the code serving the existing site, and screw up both installations.

Hence, the buried questions previously about “command line install” of each and every piece. As wonderful as SOME of this automation is, there are times when a human is doing something that a machine isn’t comprehending. (There are times when humans do things that other humans don’t comprehend …LOL.) That WPI has its merits. But this is a bit outside the norm, and let’s face it — Windows has a habit of thinking IT (rather than the human) is in charge.

I doubt there is any little “check box” that will pop up and ask me: “Oh, do you really want a second installation of WordPress on this machine?” and after checking “yes” … would it then have another saying “Check here if you want a fully separated installation on this server” … whereby it would go about being the brains and doing exactly what we need. ROFL.

[Someone is going to eventually write that code now. Can I get a royalty for the suggestion? ROFL]

Like many here, I am trying to wean away from many things Microsoft. That said, their server is about as tough as it gets where security is concerned, and that’s the main reason I wanted 2008r2 on this machine. Aside from that, I prefer Corel Office over the MS Office suite, won’t touch Exchange for our e-mail (even though that’s the one I have deployed in the past, and know it well), etc.

Is there a location where I can download EACH needful item for this project, singularly? Then I can do a command-line installation one at a time (and in proper sequence), and have it 100% separated from the existing DB, etc.

Perhaps I should have worded that question that clearly in the previous dialog somewhere, but I know I have already asked it in several forms. I also need to know what the sequence is for command-line installation. ( [x] first, then [y] , etc. )

I’d rather spend another two weeks here finding all the pieces, and sorting it out in my mind BEFORE doing something that takes another month of server rebuilding when it gets fouled up and destroys the other site.

Thank you again for your patience Mika, et al.

Aaron

I think you are bouncing between twenty people and confusing the concept here. All these sites are going to sit on the SAME physical server machine. .INFO is already running. There is nothing to “move.” So there is WP, PhP, MySql, etc. systems functioning, and driving the .INFO site. I want a separate installation ON THE SAME MACHINE, but WP multi-site to drive the .COM collection of sub-sites. If it needs its own DB, etc. to function, none of those things can interlope to the point of messing up .INFO. If it needs installed from the command line to point to a folder on a D drive (instead of “root” — that too.) There’s a lot of interaction between programs (obviously), so I need to know the particulars of installing WP again, but on the same server, and what to install with it that will be separated from what already exists.

Are we on the same page yet?

The next problem is that I would have to send the bill to myself. The server sits here, and I’m working of, by, and on behalf of, myself. This is not an accounting question. It’s a question of software interaction…ROFL.

Aaron

Here are two additional pieces of info that might clarify more about why the decision to use subDOMAINS/Sub/Directories is a bit more interesting. We own:
name.com
name.org
name.info

The “Name.info” site is our currently functional WordPress site. I don’t want anything (sub domains or sub directories) connected to that site.

The “Name.org” site is currently hosted on another site, and running Moodle for our courses/curricula. However, that site will be moved from hosted to internal, and installed on this same server that now hosts the .INFO site.

We would like to have multi-site functional on the “Name.com” URL.

With the .INFO site being WP stand-alone, along with a solid FTP site, would it not make more sense to have a second installation, where it could then handle these subsites? The fact is, our previous experiences with anything hosted have included intolerable TOS situations and things that have led us to wanting OUT of all such idiocy. Now, with 5 static IP’s, the plan is to allocate one of them to .INFO, another to .ORG, and another to .COM (where we want a collection of WP subsites).

So I am really needing a bit more info that I am finding in the 101 book thus far, plus the fact that again, your writings are speaking Apache, not Win 2008r2 with IIS and that somewhat irritating Windows Platform Installer (WPI) that tries to make all decisions for you. In this case, that seems to me a fair open door to having an installation overwrite what is already in place, and crash a site we’ve been building now for months.

The second piece of necessary info is that this server is NOT out there in cloudville. There is no “hosting provider” to call for a “flip this switch” situation. I bought and built this Dell server. It sits here about 10 feet from me. If it is going to be done, it will be by me and whatever “support” WordPress can help with.

WordPress was recommended because it can do what our specs said we need (other than the Moodle situation for the actual curricula). We want WordPress to give us subsites for our Intranet, Journalism programs, and even (imagine this one) blogs.

But those ancillary WP sites have to be on the .COM url, and not part of what we have as .INFO. How to get to there, from here, with least resistance?

If you don’t think there is “enough material” in this situation to warrant a book of its own, I beg to differ. At only 71 pages, your 101 level document is a “white paper” by just about any tech standards. WinServer’s MS Press title weighs in at over 1400 pages, and 90% of IIS 7 isn’t even touched. That has a few manuals of its own, and enough “undocumented” material for about 4 more. What we need here is a White Paper on multi-URL name hosting with WordPress multi-site in a hybrid environment, running on Windows Server 2008r2. And this is particularly necessary for those of us who want to “seed the cloud” and bring it down to earth as rain. 🙂

I’m sure it isn’t Mika. But what I’d really like is someone as savvy as yourself to co-author a how-to guide on just such projects with me. It shouldn’t take a developer, when there is a Win-savvy server admin (that would be almost me), and someone who knows their way around the .INI files where WordPress is concerned.

But each nuance has it’s ups and downs, and even though I possess two WordPress manuals (“24 Hour Trainer” and “WordPress Bible”), neither of them spell out clearly the steps required to do X or Y, nor did I know when installing WinServer/WordPress for the first time that if you go ahead and do the Multi-site thing “now” it will be better planned for later. Pfft. I’m new to WordPress, but have been building servers since NT 4.0 was “new,” and BackOffice Small Business Server was the vehicle in around 1999.

Sub domains need individual registration. Subdirectories do not. >30 days makes subdirectories “taboo.” But for our needs, subdirectories make the most sense. So I guess to do that I need a second install of WordPress. Fine. How do I do it WITHOUT damaging one fully functional and necessary WordPress site, when there is a Windows WPI interface wanting to do the installation? I think it will require working specifics from the command line — but there’s no manual saying: do this, then this, then this, and you need the second instance of MySQL (or whatever) in a separate location, mapped here to avoid the existing database, yada yada, geek speak.

Where’s the playbook for this game? If there is none, let’s tag team it by phone and write one. I have 8 books to my credit already. One more won’t slow me down more than a little.

🙂
Aaron