Multiple Umbraco instances (load balanced) with a single admin server (host) and a single admin URL (with 1 SSL certificate).
Ok today we have multiple Umbraco installations (separate IIS pools, separate db’s) that are not load balanced. Tomorrow(ish) we plan to have all these on a load balanced setup. We will upgrade them to all the same version but WILL NOT merge the instances into a single Umbraco instance. Now we do not want to buy (in particular manage) multiple SSL certificates for each instance. What we would prefer is to use a single AD (Active Directory) membership provider for all sites and use some cleaver way of allowing users to choose which site they want to edit/administer when they login.
When he/she saves/publishes the correct load balanced server is called
We understand that this will mean that the single admin sites web.config will contain lots of db connections and load balancing settings etc.
The alternatives that we DO not want to implement are (using the above example):
3 more IIS instances
Lots of SSL certificates
Merging the instances
Now our tech guys are quite confident they can hack the Umbraco login screen to do this though we do are not keen on that and would appreciate guidance if anyone has done anything similar before o9r sees an alternative.
Seems an ok place to post this, I don't know the answer to your question, but I just wondered if you knew that for load balanced Umbraco instances you don't need the admin installed on each server, you can just install it on one ( or a seperate machine ) and then each time the admin interface publishes a new version of the Umbraco.config file ( the XML used by Umbraco ) you can copy that file across your load balanced servers.
I just thought that if you did not know this, it might help towards a solution.
In answer to your question "did i post this in the wrong place?", well possibly, this is what the Core forums are for:
"This section is for discussions evolving around developing and maintaining the core of Umbraco. Not for anything relating to 3rd party packages or implementation specific issues."
But anyway there isn't anything OOTB that I can think of which would allow you to do what you need to do. Although Umbraco can support AD it's not really at a User level, it's more of a Member thing. You would need to have a custom page which looks at the credentials the user has used to log in and then does the log into the appropriate Umbraco instance after that. An Umbraco User login is just another ASP.NET form POST, which means there's nothing wrong with doing a POST programmatically to the /umbraco/login.aspx of the particular site they are requesting authentication to.
You could also just store their Umbraco credentials in AD, so you can do a straight lookup against it, rather than having some kind of mapping file somewhere. I've built sites in the past where you do a POST from somewhere to an ASP.NET page for authentication (I've had a PHP site authenticate against ASP.NET to produce a single-sign-on across multiple domains), you just need to ensure that you set the following:
login username and password fields with the same key as the name of the input fields on the form (name is what is used in a POST)
set the __EVENTTARGET to the name of the button
set the __VIEWSTATE (can be blank)
set the __EVENTARGUMENT to anything if you want to invoke an Command event rather than an Click
Remember, ASP.NET just uses standard HTTP protocols at the front, the magic happens behind the scene
Multiple load ballanced instances with a single admin server
Multiple Umbraco instances (load balanced) with a single admin server (host) and a single admin URL (with 1 SSL certificate).
Ok today we have multiple Umbraco installations (separate IIS pools, separate db’s) that are not load balanced. Tomorrow(ish) we plan to have all these on a load balanced setup. We will upgrade them to all the same version but WILL NOT merge the instances into a single Umbraco instance. Now we do not want to buy (in particular manage) multiple SSL certificates for each instance. What we would prefer is to use a single AD (Active Directory) membership provider for all sites and use some cleaver way of allowing users to choose which site they want to edit/administer when they login.
e.g.
Admin URL (all instances): https://umbadmin.mycompany.com/umbraco/login.aspx
Sites
Load balanced on 2 servers (6 IIS instances):
We understand that this will mean that the single admin sites web.config will contain lots of db connections and load balancing settings etc.
The alternatives that we DO not want to implement are (using the above example):
Now our tech guys are quite confident they can hack the Umbraco login screen to do this though we do are not keen on that and would appreciate guidance if anyone has done anything similar before o9r sees an alternative.
did i post in the wrong place??
HI Alec,
Seems an ok place to post this, I don't know the answer to your question, but I just wondered if you knew that for load balanced Umbraco instances you don't need the admin installed on each server, you can just install it on one ( or a seperate machine ) and then each time the admin interface publishes a new version of the Umbraco.config file ( the XML used by Umbraco ) you can copy that file across your load balanced servers.
I just thought that if you did not know this, it might help towards a solution.
Cheers,
Chris
Hi Chris
Thanks for the post. Yes we know that, the question relates to having a single admin install for several different Umbraco instances.
Perhaps this is a question for the core team..
Alec
This may be rude but
"bounce"
FYI we would be willing to pay for a solution if someone has one that fits our needs.
In answer to your question "did i post this in the wrong place?", well possibly, this is what the Core forums are for:
"This section is for discussions evolving around developing and maintaining the core of Umbraco. Not for anything relating to 3rd party packages or implementation specific issues."
But anyway there isn't anything OOTB that I can think of which would allow you to do what you need to do. Although Umbraco can support AD it's not really at a User level, it's more of a Member thing. You would need to have a custom page which looks at the credentials the user has used to log in and then does the log into the appropriate Umbraco instance after that.
An Umbraco User login is just another ASP.NET form POST, which means there's nothing wrong with doing a POST programmatically to the /umbraco/login.aspx of the particular site they are requesting authentication to.
You could also just store their Umbraco credentials in AD, so you can do a straight lookup against it, rather than having some kind of mapping file somewhere.
I've built sites in the past where you do a POST from somewhere to an ASP.NET page for authentication (I've had a PHP site authenticate against ASP.NET to produce a single-sign-on across multiple domains), you just need to ensure that you set the following:
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