Sub-Server/Alias Level Delegation

Jamie/Joe,

*** REFERENCES: all references to "subdomain" in the below request refers to "sub-servers", where "domain.com" is a "top-level", and "subdomain.domain.com" is a "sub-server".

== THE BACK STORY ==

I've been dabbling with Cloudmin over the past few days, working on a redesign of our global network infrastructure and furthering the development of our in-house client-facing control panel GUI.

As part of my mid-term goals, I'd like to be able to delegate a "sub-domain" to a different machine than the "domain" is delegated.

ex.

While most customers will never completely make use of this functionality, within my own eco system I already manually do this for certain tasks, where dividing a domain is critical.

== CURRENT DESIGN ==

From what I can see, Cloudmin currently only supports the creation of "domain.com", and after that you it is implied that "subdomain.domain.com" would be created on the same host. While this is ideal for many situations, adding "subdomain" and "alias" level creation would offer greater flexibility.

== IMPLEMENTATION ==

This feature depending on its implementation could be designed in a "quick-fix" model, or in a "complete" model, where a quick fix might address a portion of the overall tasks.

There are certainly a lot of areas that'd need to be re-engineered to make certain features work, which I suspect cannot be designed over a coffee :-) and as such would not expect this to be implemented in the near future if going the route of a "complete" model design.

I figured I'd open this tracker to start to get the wheels of creativity moving, and welcome your feedback on the topic. Further details will be added over the coming weeks which may hopefully aid in the implementation of this extra functionality as even in writing this message, I realize there are lots of things that'd need to be adjusted for this to completely work properly.

== IMMEDIATE NEEDS (off the top of my head) ==

A) ability to add "sub-domains" to a different node than "domain"

B) ability for at the node level, DNS to be consolidated as records are created for a "domain" or "sub-domain" respectively. (we already have slave dns in place, so a means for the slaves to intelligently add records for each part would be important, and further not allowing "domain" to overwrite "subdomain")

C) aliases would likely end up using a "proxy" model for accessing websites in Apache, given it wouldn't be as simple as adding a record to the Apache configuration file as the current alias feature does.

== IDEAS, IDEAS, IDEAS ==

Hopefully the above has stirred up some ideas on the topic, and perhaps together we can brew this idea into a reality, therefore bringing the feature to market in a much more stable, and flexible manner. Naturally while I have my needs, I understand the importance of meeting the needs of others in the process, so am certainly flexible in the design concept.

*** NOTICE: I KNOW THAT YOU CAN CREATE A "SUBDOMAIN" AS A "TOP-LEVEL" SERVER, AND THIS REQUEST IS NOT MEANT TO REPLACE THIS FUNCTIONALITY, BUT RATHER IS TO COVER A NEW METHOD OF ACCOMPLISHING THE TASK OF HAVING SUB-SERVERS IMPLEMENTED AT THE CLOUDMIN LEVEL ***

-Peter