Topic: Virtual Domain for e-mail but not website??

[Jason Judge]

I would like to configure a virtual domain within SME Sever 5.1.2 so that it can be used to deliver e-mail to (my ISP is forwarding the mail) BUT still allows the website at that domain name to be hosted elsewhere.

It seems when I create a new virtual domain, SME requires that I select an i-bay for the hosted web-site at that domain. Perhaps there should be an option: 'none', or is there some other way around this?

-- Jason

[chris meredith]

As long as your DNS isn't pointing to that box/I-Bay, it shouldn't matter.

[Jason Judge]

I'm not sure I understand the answer.

If I create a virtual domain xxx.com on my SME box then I cannot access the externally hosted (Internet) website www.xxx.com. I would like to be able to do that. To create the virtual domain it is necessary to select an i-bay and it is that web-site I see when I attempt to access www.xxx.com.

Now when my ISP delivers mail for xxx.com direct to my server, unless I have this set up as a virtual domain, won't my server reject the mail ("don't know that domain here...")?

In other words, I want to receive mail for a domain, but I don't want to host a site for that domain. Should I be asking for the ISP to set up something special so the ISPs MX records point to my server but the normal WWW records (whatever they are called) point to their server?

-- Jason

[Terry Brummell]

It's been discussed on the phourm many times before, do a search.  You need to change the www record in the server manager for the new virtual domain to point to the external ISP's web server IP address.

[Jason Judge]

I searched to no avail. The problem with searching on these boards is that there are so many ways of asking the same question, and so many ways of missing the exact keyword that would get the right results. Hitting on the correct answer is very difficult. I agree it's a great source of information though, and I do always search before posting.

Anyway, I'll give this workaround a go - I can see how it would work. I think it's a workaround since it does not track any changes the ISP may make to the IP address for the site. Since it is only an inconvenience to a small user group if this particular site disappears without warning at any point in time, then it is something I can live with.

Thanks!

-- Jason

[Jason Judge]

I've just tried this solution and am still getting directed to the local i-bay site. Should I need to reboot the server to get it to recognise the new 'remote' IP address? Could this be a squid caching thing? I've cleared the browser cache, so the problem is not with the browser.

The httpd logs confirm SME is trying to deliver pages from the Primary i-bay instead of the remote site.

Or is this a known problem in SME 5.1.2?

Any help appreciated.

-- Jason

[Jason Judge]

Just so you know - a full reboot fixed the problem.

It looks like whatever gets restarted when a host global IP address is added from the server-manager is not enough. A full reboot is needed before these changes take effect.

-- Jason

[Terry Brummell]

I just did it, pointing my www to mitel's main web page IP.  Going to www.brummell.net internally now pointed me to mitel.com, so works for me.  No reboot was required on this end.

Terry

[Jason Judge]

Strange! I expect the sequence of events leading up to it are probably important.

I tried adding the global IPs and removing them several times with no effect. Also adding and removing the virtual domains - again no effect. Only the full reboot got it going.

The log files confirmed the SME (5.1.2) was doing exactly what I observed. Now I know not everyone gets this, I'll try to capture a bit more information next time it happens.

Mind you I also get spontaneous loss of internal connections to SME-hosted web-sites (such as server-manager!) on average once each week. This is a problem which I know a few other people have, but not very many. In this case reboots do not help, but creating a local network and dropping it again brings the hosted sites back.

Wierd...

-- Jason