Running DNN in a WS2008 VM (on our own box - no hosting provider issues).  I currently have two portals.  Each is a subdomain of xxx.xxx.edu.  Currently, each portal is running on its own DNN installation in its own IIS website. Each subdomain also has its own SSL certificate.

My question is whether it's better for me to be creating individual installations in IIS websites for each subdomain (each of which will have its own cert), or whether I should be creating new portals for each subdomain.  Obviously, it's easier to update one installation than several.  I just can't figure out how this would work from an SSL perspective.

Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

-Jeremy

From a maintainance perspective you really only want to have 1 DNN install and just create separate portals for each of your subdomains. that way you will have an easier time if you want to give your users access to multiple portals or even share content between portals.  (Though content sharing has to be done with custom modules or 3rd party modules)

You will probably have to go with the "wildcard" cert.  (though not as sure about that) 

I can't tell you anything about certificates, but I can tell you that when adding a portal alias, DNN doesn't touch IIS.  When you've added your new portal alias, you need to go to IIS manager and, for IIS7, add the URL in the site binding section of your existing IIS website, in IIS6 you need to add it as a host header record.

However, it is also possible to set up the new alias as a completely different website in IIS(6, not tried it in 7) and point it at the same physical directory as your existing site.  I'm not sure of any disadvantages of doing this and it may actually have the desired effect with respect to certificates.  One other advantage of doing it this way is that it's one way of being able to have a site offline to most people whilst you do maintenance through a hidden url.