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Couple of Practical Questions on Managing the WAS

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    Couple of Practical Questions on Managing the WAS

    Hey there again forum,

    I'm here today because I have a couple of questions that may not have just one correct answer.

    1). I have my project on the WAS in A5Webroot/ProjDir and www.mysite.com/ProjDir/SomePage.a5w works great, but if I go to www.mysite.com/ I get a 403 error. I presume this is normal because all of the security settings are in ProjDir. Is there a way that I can redirect traffic from www.mysite.com/ to www.mysite.com/ProjDir/??

    2) I was wondering if some of you would be willing to share your strategy for maintaining the WAS as far as backups and publishing new "stuff". Say I have my site setup and then locally I develop some extra features. Before publishing them to the server, I want to make a backup of what I have on the server. The easiest thing (perhaps not the most efficient) I can think to do is just make a copy of A5Webroot/ProjDir from the server and then publish. If I do this and then say, "Ah, this doesn't work at all", can I then replace my newly-published files with the my backup (or would it be wiser to re-publish a backup of the original files)??

    With #2, I'm not looking for a specific answer per se, but rather just hoping you guys would share your thoughts.

    Thanks a bunch!

    #2
    Re: Couple of Practical Questions on Managing the WAS

    1. You're getting a 403 because your files (and presumably the WAS is pointing to) www.mysite.com/ProjDir. You will need to use your DNS settings to redirect your website.

    2. You can backup your development copy directly form the main Alpha controlpanel: Restore/backup database... You may have to use your Web hosting services backup tools to backup your data on teh server, although you could do it manually if necessary.
    Peter
    AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

    [email protected]
    https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


    Comment


      #3
      Re: Couple of Practical Questions on Managing the WAS

      Not DNS, rather change the Document Root in Alpha WAS to "a5webroot\projdir".

      Your backup strategy is fine, just keep multiple backups and extra backups of the websecurity_* tables.
      Steve Wood
      See my profile on IADN

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Couple of Practical Questions on Managing the WAS

        Originally posted by Steve Wood View Post
        Not DNS, rather change the Document Root in Alpha WAS to "a5webroot\projdir".
        He wants www.mysite.com/ to point to www.mysite.com/ProjDir/ (I think that's what he is saying)
        Peter
        AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

        [email protected]
        https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


        Comment


          #5
          Re: Couple of Practical Questions on Managing the WAS

          From what I have tried and read, DNS can only point to an IP or Alias (CNAME). It cannot resolve to a folder within another site. If he changed the Document Root to point to the subfolder, then www.mysite.com WOULD resolve to that subfolder.
          Steve Wood
          See my profile on IADN

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Couple of Practical Questions on Managing the WAS

            If the TS already point WAS to a5webroot/projectdir then why www.mysite.com doesn't point directly to projectdir ? But instead he has to do www.mysite.com/projectdir which should be the one to generate 403 error ?

            Unless the TS didn't point the document root to a5webroot/projectdir then it's something else...

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Couple of Practical Questions on Managing the WAS

              Steve was correct, I changed the Document Root to be www.mysite.com/ProjDir/ and it works. I didn't do that initially, because doesn't such a setup mean that I can have only one project on the server at a time? Though, I don't expect to have multiple projects there anyway, I was avoiding it. Since it is easy enough to change the Document Root it is what I will go with for now.

              Thanks to both Peter and Steve for the backup advice.

              Going back to the first part, I had an idea last night, but I wasn't sure if it would work and wanted to see what you guys thought about it:
              I have SSL on so the address for my site is https://www.mysite.com/ and therefore http://www.mysite.com/ does not go anywhere. My thought was that I wanted http:// to redirect to https://. I thought of two potential solutions.

              1) Install Apache and have it redirect traffic coming into port 80 to port 443 where it would be picked up by the WAS. This seems like a workable solution, but it seems somewhat like a waste of to install Apache for such a small task.

              2) Is it possible to run another instance of the WAS without SSL and simple have a default Index.a5w page redirect to port 443? I wasn't sure if (a) this would work and (b) was allowed under the WAS license?

              I haven't worked with DNS stuff in a couple years, but I want to say that DNS could accomplished this too??

              Thanks for all the great help!

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Couple of Practical Questions on Managing the WAS

                I knew that second question was coming. Here's what I do

                I have more than a dozen subfolders under a5webroot. Each serious live web app is served by a different Alpha WAS instance, IP address and SSL as needed.

                But the websites that are under development, draft, demo or otherwise "not live", are all running under one WAS instance, and the visitor has to enter the subfolder after the domain to reach them. Once they go live, they get their own Alpha Instance.

                Alpha is planning to charge for additional Instances starting with V11 (from what I hear).

                Both of your methods 1 and 2 will work. I've used the first method with IIS server, probably easier than setting up Apache. There is an article somewhere on how to mix ssl and non ssl in the same application doing what you have in your second suggestion.
                Steve Wood
                See my profile on IADN

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Couple of Practical Questions on Managing the WAS

                  Thanks Steve, that makes complete sense!

                  I think I will try using another instance of the WAS for the non-SSL.

                  Thanks again.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Couple of Practical Questions on Managing the WAS

                    Originally posted by Steve Wood View Post
                    From what I have tried and read, DNS can only point to an IP or Alias (CNAME). It cannot resolve to a folder within another site. If he changed the Document Root to point to the subfolder, then www.mysite.com WOULD resolve to that subfolder.
                    Okay. I thought he had 2 ip addresses. After rereading it, it makes sense.
                    Peter
                    AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

                    [email protected]
                    https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


                    Comment

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