Since moving from an Ensim control panel to Plesk I have had trouble many times with previewing works-in-progress on sites that do not yet have the DNS pointed to them. This was not an issue in Ensim as you could use the IP address in the URL to create a direct pathway to the site as it is under construction. Plesk, unfortunately will not allow you to do this and will only allow a site preview from within the control panel.
It finally dawned on me the other day that I could use the Plesk domain alias feature to solve this problem.
Set up the domain in Plesk, as you normally would. Next go to Domains > Domain Alias > Add domain alias. From this point add a subdomain against any domain you like, like project.yoursite.com.
Next go to your registrar/DNS manager and point the appropriate subdomain to the IPA of the host server.
That’s it, nothing else to it.
The Cotton Club » Blog Archive » Site Preview w/ Plesk says:
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April 18th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Thanks for this very useful tip. I'm waiting for the dns of my subdomain alias to propagate, but just had a thought… Does this still work if the alias is a subdomain of a domain that is on the same server?
April 12th, 2010 at 12:25 am
I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work just fine.
April 12th, 2010 at 12:37 am
I can confirm now that it does work. I was just worried that if it couldn't find the subdomain within the actual stated domain then it would assume it didn't exist.
Many thanks!
April 12th, 2010 at 2:47 am