WordPress® All-in-One For Dummies®

Mapping a Large Volume of Domains

On some enterprises, you may need to map a large volume of domains to the WordPress network, for example if you have 10-100, or more, domains. Adding each domain to the server with a ServerAlias directive is not only time consuming but, as the list grows, the server slows while reading all the domains.

The time necessary to add these domains can be shortened considerably by using a wildcard host. To use a wildcard host, you need to access your Web site via a terminal or via SSH with the root user. This is only available on VPS or dedicated hosts. The ideal situation for using a wildcard host is when the main installation of WordPress is the default domain on the server. A quick way to check if your WordPress main installation domain is the default domain on your Web server is to type your IP address in your browser address bar. If your main WordPress site displays in your browser, then you know that you can proceed with using a wildcard host. If it does not, you will need to obtain a dedicated IP address from your Web hosting provider — contact them to set that up for you.

Apache configuration

Adding a wildcard host to your Web server requires that you access the Apache configuration files on your Web server. This section assumes that you have access to those files; if you do not, contact your Web hosting provider to either provide you with the access you need, or ask them to complete the steps for you to add the wildcard host to your account. ...