On 12/23/12 5:54 PM, Roger wrote:
Thank you Richard.
As far as having a multi-site system or a couple of independent installs, I would suggest that it may be better to have separate installs. One issue with a multi-site install is that Drupal's built in update tools are not setup for it. For a single install, a module update can be done solely inside Drupal, and it will take the site off-line, update the module, and you can run the database update. This is NOT automated for a multi-site install. You will need to manually take off-line the other sites, and manually run the database update afterwords, and then manually put them back online. There are more advanced tools (like Drush) which can help with this, put it does require someone to understand a lot more about how the system works.
Yes I agree, and have found the above to be very true. On the shared server there are real issues with updating core. The whole core update process is untidy and messy whether it is on shared server, VPS, VDS or local machine. On shared server I can't have files other than provided by the ISP. I'm going to take time to re read your discussion on domains vs localhost Roger
A shared server normally gives no significant restrictions on the files in your document root (which is where Drupal would live), and often also give you space outside document root for other "user" files. If you understand how the server is working, maintaining a site isn't significantly harder than on a dedicated server. If your Hosting provider (it normally isn't an ISP, which provides your internet connection, unless you are trying to install on the space they provide, which often is limited) is only letting you use the files they provide, it sounds like a very restricted account, probably not really suitable for a Drupal host. If they are specifically a Drupal hosting provider, than you will need to read THEIR instructions, and the generic instructions may not be applicable.
I run several Drupal sites on shared servers, and have no problem updating modules or core. I have installed Drush on these (this took a bit of study to get setup right) and once that was done, maintaining the sites has been a breeze. There is a fundamental issue with core updates, that makes using an outside program needed, in that it is tricky for a script program to update itself in place, this is one reason I like using Drush to do this.
From some of your questions, I suspect you don't really understand how a
server works, and this is causing some of your problems. Jumping straight from that to trying to configure a multi-site installation (which is somewhat of an advanced topic), is just adding to your confusion. I would make certain that I understand how to do a simple site, before trying to tackle something this complicated.