Tutorial—Set up multiple websites or stores with nginx

Set up multiple websites with nginx

This tutorial shows you step-by-step how to set up multiple websites using nginx.

Assumptions

We assume the following:

You’re working on a development machine (laptop, virtual machine, and so on)

Additional tasks might be required to deploy multiple websites in a hosted environment; check with your hosting provider for more information.

Additional tasks are required to set up Magento Commerce (Cloud). After you complete the tasks discussed in this topic, see Set up multiple Magento Commerce (Cloud) websites or stores.
You use one virtual host per website; the virtual host configuration files are located in /etc/nginx/sites-available
You use nginx.conf.sample provided by Magento with only the modifications discussed in this tutorial
The Magento software is installed in /var/www/html/magento2
You have two websites other than the default:
- french.mysite.mg with website code french and store view code fr
- german.mysite.mg with website code german and store view code de
Refer to Create websites and Create store views for help locating these values.

Roadmap for setting up multiple websites with nginx

Setting up multiple stores consists of the following tasks:

Set up websites, stores, and store views in the Magento Admin.
Create one nginx virtual host per Magento website.
Pass the values of the Magento variables $MAGE_RUN_TYPE and $MAGE_RUN_CODE to nginx using the Magento-provided nginx.conf.sample.
- $MAGE_RUN_TYPE can be either store or website
  - Use website to load your website in your storefront.
  - Use store to load any store view in your storefront.
- $MAGE_RUN_CODE is the unique website or store view code that corresponds to $MAGE_RUN_TYPE

Step 2: Create nginx virtual hosts

This section discusses how to load websites on the storefront. You can use either websites or store views; if you use store views, you must adjust parameter values accordingly. You must complete the tasks in this section as a user with root privileges.

To create virtual hosts:

Open a text editor and add the following contents to a new file named /etc/nginx/sites-available/french.mysite.mg.conf:

map $http_host $MAGE_RUN_CODE {
   french.mysite.mg french;
}

server {
   listen 80;
   server_name french.mysite.mg;
   set $MAGE_ROOT /var/www/html/magento2;
   set $MAGE_MODE developer;
   include /var/www/html/magento2/nginx.conf;
}

Create another file named german.mysite.mg.conf in the same directory with the following contents:

map $http_host $MAGE_RUN_CODE {
   german.mysite.mg german;
}

server {
   listen 80;
   server_name german.mysite.mg;
   set $MAGE_ROOT /var/www/html/magento2;
   set $MAGE_MODE developer;
   include /var/www/html/magento2/nginx.conf;
}

Save your changes to the files and exit the text editor.
Verify the server configuration:
```
nginx -t
```
If successful, the following message displays:
```
nginx: configuration file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
```
If errors display, check the syntax of your virtual host configuration files.

Create symbolic links in the /etc/nginx/sites-enabled directory:

cd /etc/nginx/sites-enabled
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/french.mysite.mg french.mysite.mg
ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/german.mysite.mg german.mysite.mg

For more detail about the map directive, see nginx documentation on the map directive.

Verify your site

Unless you have DNS set up for your stores’ URLs, you must add a static route to the host in your hosts file:

Locate your operating system’s hosts file.

Add the static route in the format:

<ip address> french.mysite.mg
<ip address> german.mysite.mg

Go to one of the following URLs in your browser:

http://mysite.mg/admin
http://french.mysite.mg/frenchstoreview
http://german.mysite.mg/germanstoreview

You’re done!

Additional tasks might be required to deploy multiple websites in a hosted environment; check with your hosting provider for more information.
Additional tasks are required to set up Magento Commerce (Cloud); for more information, see Set up multiple Cloud websites or stores

Troubleshooting

If your French and German sites return 404s but your Admin loads, make sure you completed Step 6: Add the store code to the base URL.
If all URLs return 404s, make sure you restarted your web server.
If the Magento Admin doesn’t function properly, make sure you set up your virtual hosts properly.

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