Preview a non-live site in Plesk

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.

10 Comments. Posted by on Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 9:30 pm.

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  • dbootle

    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?

  • http://www.gregorysmart.com Gregory Smart

    I don't see any reason why it shouldn't work just fine.

  • dbootle

    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!

  • http://www.awkward.se Joakim Strandell

    Thanks! This pointed me in the right direction. It works with just fine with subdomains as well!

  • http://twitter.com/landonmiller Landon Miller

    Thanks for sharing Gregory – this worked great.

    @dbootle It does work with a separate subdomain on the same server.

  • Paul

    Such an easy solution! Thanks so much for that :)

  • RCNeil

    Is this possible when you are migrating a site?  Can your DNS point a subdomain to one IP and then keep the regular domain name’s hosting settings accordingly? 

  • http://www.gregorysmart.com Gregory Smart

    I believe so.

  • RCNeil

    Not with Dreamhost :(  this is a never ending battle haha