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Default behavior of domains

Default behavior of domains that are added to the “Domains & TLS” panel of an environment’s VIP Dashboard:

  • The fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for a site on the VIP Platform can be either the www or non-www variant of the domain. Whichever variant of the domain is added to the VIP Dashboard will be the FQDN.
  • When a domain is added to an environment’s VIP Dashboard, the www or the non-www variant of the domain is also included and associated with that environment.
  • When a www variant of a subdomain or a sub-subdomain is added to the VIP Dashboard (e.g., www.admin.example.comwww.sub.admin.example.com) its non-www variant is also included.
  • When a non-www variant of a subdomain or a sub-subdomain—with a TLD matching .com.net, or .org—is added to the VIP Dashboard (e.g., admin.example.comsub.admin.example.com) its www variant is not added automatically. The www variant must be added separately.
  • The www version of a domain is actually a subdomain of the non-www (root) version of a domain. The DNS for both versions of the domain must be updated to point to VIP.
  • Redirects between the www or non-www variants of a domain are automatic on single sites but must be configured for multisites.

WordPress multisite

The Site Address (URL) for a network site on a WordPress multisite environment must be unique, and can have either a subdomain or a subdirectory structure. A network site’s Site Address (URL) can be updated to a custom domain after the domain has been added to the environment’s VIP Dashboard.

Secondary domains for redirects must also be added to an environment’s VIP Dashboard so that they are associated with that environment.

In addition:

  • If a custom domain has been added to an environment’s VIP Dashboard and has DNS pointed to WPVIP but does not match a Site Address (URL) for any site on the network, requests for that domain will resolve to the main site (ID 1).
  • Add custom code to vip-config.php to handle redirects for one or more domains to a network site. This includes redirects between non-www domains and www variants of the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for all sites on a multisite network.
  • Add custom code to client-sunrise.php to enable a domain to serve a specific part of a site, or for a network site to be accessible from more than one URL.

Last updated: August 15, 2024

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