Deploying multiple portals using the Multitenancy feature
Introduction
In case you have a large number of users, you might need a solution that allows you to reduce licensing and infrastructure costs as well as simplify the software deployment and maintenance. ONLYOFFICE Workspace provides you such a possibility. You can run several independent portals from a single ONLYOFFICE Workspace installation instead of installing several application instances on separate servers.
For example, you can create individual portals for certain departments of your organization so that each portal contains own data and has some individual settings, but all the portals can be centrally updated and managed via Control Panel.
Step 1. Set up your domain name
To use the multitenancy functionality, you need to have a registered domain name. In your domain DNS settings, create the following records:
- Create the A record that points your domain name to the IP address of the server where ONLYOFFICE Workspace is installed.
- Create the wildcard A record specifying the asterisk "*" as a name to enable subdomains.
Your settings should look something like this:
Step 2. Configure the current portal
To access Control Panel, sign in to your portal and click the 'Control Panel' link on the Start Page. Alternatively, you can go to the portal 'Settings' and click the 'Control Panel' link on the left-side panel.
Switch to the Multitenancy page in the COMMON SETTINGS section on the left sidebar. Specify your domain name in the first entry field. Then enter any portal name you like in the second field (it must be at least 6 characters long) and click the CONNECT button.
The portal start page will open in a new browser tab at the portalname.domainname.com address.
Step 3. Create a new portal
At the Multitenancy page of the Control Panel, perform the following actions:
- click the NEW PORTAL button,
- specify a name for your second portal,
- if necessary, uncheck the Limit Control Panel functionality option,
When this setting is enabled, the PORTAL SETTINGS section will only be available in the Control Panel of the new portal. This section allows the portal administrator to manage the current portal only. If you disable this setting, full access to the Control Panel functionality will be provided. The COMMON SETTINGS section will also be available in the Control Panel of the new portal. This section allows the portal administrator to manage all portals.
- click OK to save the portal.
If you have not unchecked the Visit this portal after creating option that is selected by default, you will be redirected to the new portal that is available at the newportalname.domainname.com address.
The Portal Setup page will open in a new browser tab. Specify and confirm your password (By default, the password must be at least 8 but no more than 120 characters long), optionally change the email to create the Administrator account. You will not need to upload the license file as it is applied to all the portals at once.
To configure some individual settings for the new portal, go to the Portal Settings. You can adjust Customization settings (portal language and time zone, welcome page settings, team template, color scheme), select the necessary Modules and Tools to use, specify Security settings and SMTP settings.
Step 4. Manage your portals
You can access Control Panel from each of the created portals. At the Multitenancy tab you can view the overall number of your created portals and the license information. If you want to upgrade your pricing plan, click the Pricing plan settings link to go to the Payments page.
All the created portal addresses are also displayed at the Multitenancy tab. You can navigate between them clicking the portal you want to go to.
If for some reasons you nevertheless decide to change the domain name, click the EDIT button in the Domain settings section. In a new window that opens, set a new domain name and click OK.
After changing the domain name you might also need to reconfigure some settings.