each portal may have its own domain name, however, there is no tool to consolidate sites besides using templates (which does not include users and roles).

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Cheers from Germany,
Sebastian Leupold

   

Speed up your DNN Websites with TurboDNN

I have done this with several sites and am now in the process of splitting some of them out into separate DNN installs  (deweyhall.com and hospitalitygreen.com, aegean-breeze.com and several others, for example, are on the same portal)  One of the features that attracted me to DNN in the first place was the fact that you could do this.  Setting them up is pretty easy,  you just create a new portal, make it a parent, and place the base URL in the "portal alias" field.  Likewise, you can change from a child portal to a parent portal by adding another portal alias as a portal can have multiple aliases.  With my hosting provider, I had to assign a static IP address to the DNN install with multiple sites.  But I ran into a number of issues.

• Some software is licensed per domain, not per install.  One of my hosted sites wanted a friendly URL module installed, but when it was installed, because it was licensed for and only set up for one domain, all other domains on the site displayed a banner saying the site was using unlicensed software, do I had to remove it, although it was being used for one domain only..
• E-MAIL is a problem.  Because the hosting company prevents one domain from sending email with another domain as the sender, all notification email has to originate from the primary domain.  This can sometimes be confusing to people when the register or when system notifications are sent.  With my hosting company, I had to set up a separate mail only plan for each domain in order for the domains to have separate e-mail domains.
• Version Upgrades can be a headache:  When DNN Works, it works well, but it ain't perfect.  Several times there have been issues when upgrading the DNN version, which caused all sites hosted under that install to be unavailable until the issues were resolved.
• Unanticipated Growth:  A couple of my sites has grown much larger than anticipated and need to be separated into their own install, which can be tricky and requires a good deal of time and attention.

There are some advantages to having some consolidated sites, including a single point of administration, module upgrades and modules that are licensed per install as opposed to per domain, and it may affect you hosting fees with some providers. .  If you proceed, I would make the following recommendations. 

• Do this only for sites that will need minimal maintenance - deweyhall.com is an example. the only thing that ever changes is the performer schedule. They do not use the site for bulk emails and there is no point to registering.
• Don't consolidate for any sites that have potential to grow or which may need domain licensed software.
• Don't do this for any sites that need their own separate e-mail domains.  Setting this up is a pain - you have to customizeserver  DNS records andif you hosting provider doesn't allow this, your e-mail will not work. . Sometimes, a user will prefer to use a gmail or yahoo account, this makes things easier
• Use a portal name instead of the automatically generated number  (portals/dewey vs. portals/3) when setting up the portal.  When you need to do maintenance via ftp, then it is easy to identify which portal you are working in - who can remember which number is what?