Is there a way using XP and IIS (the version released with XP Pro) to create a multi-homed environment? Or a software package that helps use do it? As a web developer using a laptop and who travels alot and works on several sites simultaneously, what I'm simply trying to accomplish is being able to "overlook" localhost/subdir and treat each site I'm working on as if I'm actually working on that sites development server. What would be the ideal scenario would be to be able to point to "dev.workingsite.com" that would actually serve a root directory of localhost/workingsite. Otherwise, each site I work on has to have "special" code that checks to see if it is in a sub-directory rather than at the root then prepend certain variable to directory pointers to accomodate that. I sucks and rather than having a server OS installed, I'd really like to work with what I have available or purchase some software that "fools" my system into thinking it can support multiple home or DNS pointers.
Anyway, I'm no sys-admin so I'm hoping I'm explaining my need well enough. Thanks in advance for any advice. I've set this question at a moderate difficulty level despite the fact that for me it is obviously substantially more difficult in hopes there is some guru out there that has some great solution.
Mike
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Agreed that this is what I have done in the past but only on a server. Since I only care about running this on localhost, IP wouldn't be an issue right (127.0.0.1)? But I'd never done this in IIS on XP before and though that an a minimum you must be running some sort of DNS service (or some other service). Let me see if that works...though I'm pretty sure I've tried it and it does not, at least in XP. Thanks.
Get a copy of Virtual PC (If your terminal has enough RAM) or similar. You than install a variety of Server OS's (Licensing notwithstanding) and then you will be able to develop and test in multiple environments. This will help as you move stuff from IIS4 to IIS5 and then IIS6.
A good VM will also run non MS software
This does give you a little more complexity, but then you will not be fighting XP's limitations to create multiple sites.
A horrible alternative would be to reconfigure PWS (The IIS version installed on Worksations as opposed to the full version), everytime you needed to work on a different site.
IIS on XP DOES allow this. As mentioned in my post above:
1) Enter the FQDN in the Host Header field in each site's properties.
2) Enter the IP address in the hosts file.
The host header field allows more than one site to share a single IP. The hosts file is a substitute for the DNS server. It will work.
Jeff
Never mind. Never mind. Never mind!
philippe_leybaert is correct. The problem is that only one site can be defined. Although everything else I spewed is correct.
Two possible solutions:
1) Find a copy of 200X Server and use it instead of XP. This is what I do.
2) Rename the directory that contains the site you want to work on to the directory name that is specified in IIS. When you want to work on another site, simply rename the first site back to its original name and rename the second site to the IIS directory name. It's a little goofy, but it should work.
Jeff
rhrowson got the points because he gave at least a solution to the problem before simply saying "no, this is not possible". jeffkearns got me a little excited there for a second but quickly retracted. I realize a true server OS will do this since I had pointed out that this is not wholly foreign to me. I just find it difficult to beleive that this is not something worth some programmers time to persue. Editing the hosts file is nice because at least you can produce a more meaningful url but ultimately they can all only point to 127.0.0.1 and nothing more as it relates to the laptop I'm doing the development on. We need a way to "fake out" IIS into thinking that there are mutliple host headers that point to different directories as root webs. Maybe someday perhaps. But I'm not taking a step back to Win2K at this point and may just end up going back to a web server at the house...though that still is only a partial solutions since the whole point of the laptop is mobility.
Thanks for the efforts.
Mike
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by: jeffkearnsPosted on 2004-05-07 at 19:16:40ID: 11019745
You'll need to do two things. 1) Host headers in IIS and 2) host records in your hosts file. I'm using Win2K, so things might be a little different for you, but at least you'll be pointed in the right direction.
1) In IIS, open the properties of each site that is on your machine. On the Web Site tab, click the Advanced button. Highlight the identity of the site and click Edit. Enter the full name (dev.workingsite.com) in the Host Header Name field. Or, if you're setting a site up fresh, simply enter the full name (dev.workingsite.com) in the Host Header field of the dialog box.
2) Edit your hosts file which is located in C:\WinNT\system32\drivers\
192.168.1.100 dev.workingsite.com
Finally, since you're entering an IP address in the file above, you'll need to make sure your IP address stays the same. This isn't much of a problem for a desktop, but could be a problem for a laptop.
Jeff