Virtual Hosting - Sites/Organizations

Overview

Sites/Organizations Site Virtual Hosting is an extension of the friendly URL functionality of Liferay that allows one or more SITES in a single portal instance to be identified by separate and unique HOST NAMES (DNS entries).

End users type in the name of the host they want to visit into the address bar in browser, and while it APPEARS to the users that they are visiting different web sites, they are in fact being directed to a Single Liferay Server. The Liferay server determines which site to present to the user based on the URL.

Site Virtual Hosting Setup

Step – 1: Host Entries

The first step in using a virtual host to ensure a Domain Name Server (DNS) entry exists for each virtual host you want, and that every one of them point to the IP address of Liferay server.

For testing we can set up test DNS entries on a local machine that maps a host name to the IP address of 127.0.0.1 by editing the hosts file.

On Unix/Linux/Ubuntu machine HOST file exist in “/etc/hosts”

                                                And

On Windows machine HOST file exist in “\windows\system32\drivers\etc”

Step – 2: Liferay Settings

As Administrator, log into Liferay portal instance. Ensure you have access to the "Sites". Go to the Control Panel and Select the site to map the virtual host name.  Click on the “Site Setting” section and then click on the “Site URL” link on the Site Setting page.

On the “Site URL” page, each Site has a “Friendly URL” and “Virtual Hosts” section. Under the “Virtual Hosts” section "Public Pages" and “Private Pages" URL area exist to have their own virtual host name.

Note: Virtual hosts names are optional. You can specify a name for the public pages site only, the private pages site only, or both.

Now in the “Virtual Host” section, configure the Public Pages site URL:

For example www.siteone.com (in my case I am using www.starcj.com)

For example if Friendly URL as /siteone, this means instead of typing the URL

“http://localhost:8080/web/siteone” we can map this entire URL with the "www.siteone.com"

(in my case I am using www.starcj.com).

That’s it the Liferay setting is over. 

In Browser

Type the URL as http://www.siteone.com:8080

Note: We have to type the port number along with the URL , which will take us to the desired site means:

            http://localhost:8080/web/siteone to http://www.siteone.com:8080

In my case it is  
            http://localhost:8080/web/starcj to http://www.starcj.com:8080

Remove the Port number from the URL

Approach 1: Using mod_jk Module with Apache

With the help of mod_jk module with Apache, we can easily access site url without Port number

http://www.siteone.com:8080 to http://www.siteone.com

Install Apache Web Server (if already not exist)

Install and configure mod_jk module (if already not exist/configured)

Once Apache, Mod_jk installation/configuration done, we need to configure the URL Apache should pass through the Tomcat in “/etc/apache2/sites-enabled/000-default” and add the following line

<VirtualHost *:80>

            .......................................

            .......................................

           

            JkMount /* ajp13_worker

</VirtualHost *:80>

Note: In my example I am referring the defult “workers.properties” file of mod_jk for Apache.

/etc/libapache2-mod-jk/workers.properties

# Define 1 real worker using ajp13

worker.list=worker1

# Set properties for worker (ajp13)

worker.ajp13_worker.type=ajp13

worker.ajp13_worker.host=localhost

worker.ajp13_worker.port=8009

Now restart the servers (Apache as well as Tomcat Liferay Server)

Approach 2: Changing the Liferay Tomcat Server Port 8080 to 80

Whenever you enter a URL without a port, it defaults to port 80, the standard http port. Change the Tomcat's listening port from 8080 to 80, and you'll be done.

Step:

     1.) Locate server.xml in {Liferay Tomcat installation folder}\ conf \  

     2.) Find following similar statement

             <Connector port="8080" maxHttpHeaderSize="8192"

               maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" maxSpareThreads="75"

               enableLookups="false" redirectPort="8443" acceptCount="100"

               connectionTimeout="20000" disableUploadTimeout="true" />

                                                or

              <Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1" 
                          connectionTimeout="20000" redirectPort="8443" />

    3.) About Tomcat’s server.xml file cites it’s runs on port 8080. Change the Connector port=”8080″ port to any other port number.

             

            For example

            <Connector port="80" protocol="HTTP/1.1" connectionTimeout="20000" redirectPort="8443" />

           

            Above statement instruct Tomcat server runs on port 80.

        4.) Edit and save the server.xml file. Restart Tomcat. Done

Finally access the http://www.siteone.com URL in browser without port.  Liferay site  - siteone landing page will open successfully.  In my case it is http://www.starcj.com