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Create and manage your website

The “Site” command allows us to manage the websites hosted on the server. Create any type of site on your new server, add an SSL certificate, activate FastCgi Cache for your WordPress installation and more features that will allow you to have total control over your sites easily and reliably, always at a command away and with no complications.

Syntax: 

sudo site <domain> <option> <option2>

Options:

  • -html
  • -php
  • -wp
  • -wpsubdir
  • -wpsubdom
  • -mysql
  • -parked
  • -proxy
  • -on
  • -off
  • -cache
  • -delete
  • -delete-all
  • -force-redirect
  • -list
  • -ssl

Examples: 

sudo site example.com -html
sudo site example.com -wp -cache=on
sudo site example.com -cache=off
sudo site example.com -parked=domain.com
sudo site example.com -proxy=[localhost:8082]
sudo site example.com -off
sudo site example.com -ssl=on
sudo site example.com -ssl=on -root=domain.com
sudo site -list
sudo site -delete-all

How can I create a new site?

To create a basic HTML site, use the following command: 

sudo site domain.com -html

To create a site with PHP support. 

sudo site domain.com -php

All sites using the primary/main domain (not a subdomain) are configured to respond to requests from domain.com and www.domain.com (See the force-redirect option).

If you need to create a Database to use with your new site: 

sudo site domain.com -mysql

You can also use the “custom” option to introduce your own data before generating the database sudo site domain.com -mysql=custom or in the same way you can pass the data directly. 

# TIP Hack
# Use the -mysql option without domain to create a DB and User (MySQL)
sudo site -mysql

# Custom data
sudo site -mysql=custom

# Custom data
sudo site -mysql=[host,dbname,dbuser,password]
sudo site -mysql=[host,dbname,dbuser,password,external_dbuser,external_dbpass]

WordPress

Installing WordPress has never been so easy, Webinoly automatically configures the entire installation of WordPress. 

sudo site domain.com -wp

Use the “custom” option to modify some aspects of the database, in any way you can simply press <Enter> in each question to use the suggested data. 

# Installation script of a WordPress site using the "custom" configuration
sudo site example.com -wp=custom -cache=on

# WordPress Multisite with "custom" configuration
sudo site example.com -wpsubdir=custom -cache=on

In the same way, you can do the installation using custom data: 

sudo site example.com -wp=[<setup_db>,<setup_wp>,<host>,<dbname>,<dbuser>,<dbpass>,<wp_prefix>,<external_db_user>,<external_db_pass>]

For instance: 

# WordPress installation script with custom data.
sudo site example.com -wp=[true,true,localhost,example_com,example_user,password,wp_]

# TIP
Use "random" (without quotes) as password to automatically generate a random password.

WordPress Multisite

Choose the type of installation you require, either in subdomain or subdirectory, use the appropriate command for each option. 

sudo site domain.com -wpsubdom
sudo site domain.com -wpsubdir

Once you have entered in your new site, as is common, WordPress will ask you to select the language, user, mail, among other options. Since you are logged in WordPress will ask or you should go to “Tools -> Network Setup” to select the type of installation, subdomain or subdirectory again and will ask you to make some changes to your wp-config.php file; Webinoly has already added these lines, you only have to access the file and remove the comments manually for them to take effect.

External Database

Webinoly supports the use of external databases for your WordPress site, for example Amazon RDS. It is very simple to configure, during the installation of your site you will be asked for the “dbhost”, by default it is configured as localhost, but in case of requiring the use of an external database you only have to add the path in the format url.com:port.

  • myinstance.123456789012.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com:3306

It has been successfully tested with Amazon RDS using MySQL, MariaDB and Amazon Aurora as the database engine.

FastCgi Cache

Together with Nginx this is the best optimization you can do to speed up your WordPress site. Forget about using obsolete plugins like W3 Total Cache or Super Cache. FastCgi has demonstrated a performance far superior to the time to serve content cached from your server.

To enable FastCgi: 

sudo site domain.com -cache=on

To disable FastCgi: 

sudo site domain.com -cache=off

You can also activate it from the creation of your new site as follows: 

sudo site domain.com -wp -cache=on

It is highly recommended to use the Nginx Helper plugin to dynamically renew and purge cached content automatically; in this way we ensure to always display the most updated content when necessary.

It is important to configure the Purge Method of the plugin as “Delete local server cache file”, the support for the purge/url method has been disabled because it is considered a security risk. Similarly, the “Caching Method” should be set to “Nginx FastCgi Cache”.

Parked domain or alias

A parked domain is an additional or alternate domain that points to a main site. It is a simple way to access your site from different domain names. 

sudo site domain.com -parked

When executing the command you will be asked to enter the name of the main domain where the new parked domain will point to. In the same way you can use the command as follows to facilitate its use: 

sudo site domain.com -parked=mainsite.com

Make sure the main site is hosted on the same server.

Reverse Proxy site

To create a site with Reverse Proxy configuration in Nginx: 

sudo site example.com -proxy=[localhost:8080]

Replace the host and port values according to your needs.

How can I temporarily disable a site?

At any time you can activate or deactivate a site hosted on your server without deleting it. 

sudo site domain.com -on
sudo site domain.com -off

Delete a website

You should use this option with caution, as once a site is deleted it will not be possible to recover the files. 

sudo site domain.com -delete

You can also use the “force” option to omit the questions (unattended) sudo site domain.com -delete=force. 

# Tip - External Database (Unattended Script)
# Do not erase Database
sudo site domain.com -delete=keep-db

# Unattended delete with external DB
sudo site domain.com -delete=force -external-db=[user,pass]

# Revoke SSL Cert
sudo site domain.com -delete=force -revoke=on

To remove all sites hosted on your server: 

sudo site -delete-all

The databases of your WordPress sites that are currently in use will also be deleted. Some other DB’s may not be deleted, so there may be remnant stored data from your deleted sites. 

# Extended example
sudo site -delete-all=force -external-db=[user,pass] -revoke=on

When a site is deleted, if an external database is found, an attempt will be made to use the data from -external-db , if they are not found, the user will be asked to enter the necessary data. The -revoke=on parameter will remove and revoke the SSL Cert of a site if found, use the “off” option to keep the SSL cert.

List of your sites

To see a list of all your sites hosted on the server, use the following command: 

sudo site -list
# TIP - Use the "raw" option to remove format and have a filtered (all, main, parked, disabled) view.

sudo site -list -raw=parked

Force WWW or non-WWW in a site

By default, Webinoly configures your site to accept both requests in your domain, that is, example.com and www.example.com will be both valid. You can force the use and redirect the requests to any of your preferences. 

sudo site example.com -force-redirect=<options>

Options:

  • www
  • root
  • off

In some special cases where an SSL certificate has been imported from another provider and this does not include the “www” domain or vice versa, we can use the -ignore-ssl option as follows: sudo site example.com -force-redirect=root -ignore-ssl.

SSL Certificates with Let’s Encrypt

We take advantage of the facilities provided by Let’s Encrypt to generate free certificates for your site and make it even easier to configure your site easily and quickly.

There is no pretext for not migrating your site to HTTPS, just by executing the following command your new website will be fully configured to navigate securely over HTTPS. 

sudo site domain.com -ssl=on

During the creation of the certificate, Webinoly will ask for your email account, this email will be used to register the new certificate, in addition to helping you to follow up the periodic renewal process.

The certificates issued by Let’s Encrypt are valid for a period of 90 days and before that period it is recommended to request the renewal to keep it up to date. Webinoly automatically checks once a week the status of the certificates of all your sites and those that have less than 30 days of validity period is automatically requested for its renewal. Therefore, you should not worry, since Webinoly automatically completes the process to keep your certificates and your sites always in force.

During each weekly renewal check, you will receive an email in the account that you have registered with the current status of each certificate.

Disable SSL on a site

If for some reason you need to deactivate the use of the SSL certificate in your site, just execute the following command. 

sudo site domain.com -ssl=off
# Use the "revoke=(on/off)" option to skip questions. (Unattended)
sudo site domain.com -ssl=off -revoke=on

The -ssl=off option can be used even if your site doesn’t even exist anymore as a way to remove and revoke an orphan SSL cert.

Certificates in parked sites

The “-root” option allows you to create certificates for sites where the root of your files is in a different place than usual; this is the case of parked sites, since the parked domain does not even have a root directory or own files, however, it points to another site hosted on the same server. 

sudo site domain.com -ssl=on -root=mainsite.com

A common and practical example of the above case is in WordPress Multisite installations with Domain Mapping, where you have one or more parked (mapped) domains on your server pointing to a main site.

Certificates on Reverse Proxy sites

The “-root-path” option allows us to specify a different route, as is the case of sites in Reverse Proxy configuration where the files are stored in a location different than /var/www. 

sudo site domain.com -ssl=on -root-path=/opt/myapp/web

Wildcard Certificates

When we need a single certificate to cover all subdomains (* .example.com). This is the kind of certificate we need in WordPress Multisite installations in sub-domain configuration. 

sudo site domain.com -ssl=on -wildcard

During the creation of the Wildcard certificate, it will be necessary to create a DNS record to verify the ownership of the domain.

To add a site to an existent Wildcard cert: 

sudo site one.domain.com -ssl=on -add-to-wildcard=domain.com

Only have support for first-level subdomains, in other words, one.two.domain.com is not allowed.

Renewing certificates

Although Webinoly has a redundant system for the automatic renewal process, we have an option to force it. 

sudo site -ssl=renew

This command attempts to renew any previously-obtained certificates that expire in less than 30 days.

We can also force the renewal of a specific certificate: 

sudo site domain.com -ssl=force-renewal

In the case of parked domains or “reverse proxy” sites, the parameter -root or-root-path respectively necessary to force the renewal must be included.

Custom SSL Certificate

Bring your own Cert!

You can add your own cert of any third-party vendor or your preference. 

sudo site example.com -ssl=on -ssl-key=/path/cert.key -ssl-crt=/path/cert.crt -ssl-ocsp=/path/cert.pem

The -ssl-ocsp parameter is optional for OCSP support.

NGINX Setup per site

If need to add additional NGINX rules, you can have your own custom configuration file located at /var/www/domain.com and it should be named following the pattern *-nginx.conf, for example: custom-nginx.conf would be a valid filename.

Webinoly automatically detects if your site is a domain example.com or subdomain sub.example.com, this is to determine the most appropriate Nginx configuration for each site. It is a Let’s Encrypt requirement and a standard that each domain must allow access automatically to its version with “www”, if your site is hosted in a subdomain this is not necessary.

If for some reason you need to force a certain configuration, you can do it using the -subdomain option when creating your site. Example: sudo site example.com -html -subdomain=true, or likewise sudo site sub.example.com -html -subdomain=false.

With the command sudo webinoly -external-sources-update you can update the “Public Suffix” list that we use to determine if a site is a subdomain or not and the timezones database.

If you have any suggestions, ideas, or comments, or if you (gasp!) found a bug, join us in the support forum.