I've recently started learning about how to setup a multi-site drupal web page.
I am working on a web site for a national veterans organization. The question has come us asking if the different states can be part of the site. The national site name would be SOA.COM. The Florida State site would be either FL.SOA.COM or SOA.COM/FL - probably the first.
At this point, I do not have a question about how to set it up, but the practicality of this approach.
The idea is we would share the code across all fourteen sites, but we would NOT share data. This means that I would have 14 different databases, with 14 different set users, and 14 different administrators (plus the master admin for all sites).
The idea is, by using the multi-site capabilities I would reduce my software maintenance. However, this means that I would have to upgrade all 14 sites at the same time. Which means I have the opportunity to break all 14 sites at the same time if the upgrade causes any problems (of course this would never happen).
From what I've read, there are also some potential security issues where one of the administrators could gain access to data in the other sites.
I like the idea of 14 different site because it resolves the security issues and I can only break one site at time. However, the mere thought of having to maintain the software on 14 sites sounds is causing me to have nightmares. Fortunately, 13 of these sites will be using base modules with little or no custom code.
So my question is: While saving time on the software maintenance sounds like a great idea and time saver, is this a practical approach in the real world?
Or are there better approaches?
Thanks,
Comments
Don't use multi-site; it's
Don't use multi-site; it's really inconvenient to upgrade multiple sites all at the same time. The one time you might want to use multi-site is if you are using a code compiler, and you want to reduce the number of duplicate php files to keep your cache size down.
If all of your sites are going to be similar (as it sounds like they are), you might want to reconsider your decision to have 14 different databases, and use one site using domain access instead (http://drupal.org/project/domain). The sites can all appear as separate entities, and even have their own theme, but they all will share the same database, which will ease administrative concerns.
I concur entirely with Greg's
I concur entirely with Greg's summary, the Domain Access module gives you the ability to share content across many sites from a single code base and would allow centralisation of configuration and management without loosing the ability to customise each site to the requirements. It's a very powerful and very well tried and tested.
Use Aegir
It allows you to safely and separately upgrade every site in the multisite setup - without affecting other sites. Using Domain Access is good only when you don't need and don't plan to separate admin access per site. But what if you would need to delegate admin, FTP and SSH access per site? Enter BOA - Aegir based, fully open source hosting system which allows you to manage your Drupal multisite with peace of mind. I would highly recommend some related articles we list at http://omega8.cc/library/aegir-basics
There are some reasons why
There are some reasons why Domain Access is trouble, but lots of reasons to like it.
Cons:
1. Menus :(
2. Setup tasks can be confusing for site builder / admin until you get used to it
3. Blocks, unless you use one of: Context, Boxes, Panels, etc
4. Speed?
For 14 sites, unless they share no content, I would go with Domain.
Ryan Price
DrupalEasy Podcast
Josh Koenig just wrote a
Josh Koenig just wrote a great article about some pros and cons of multisite. It also talks about how that relates to what they built at Pantheon, but I think the article is valuable regardless of where you host https://www.getpantheon.com/blog/much-ado-about-drupal-multisite
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