[users@httpd] RE: Previewing a Virtual Host before server name is available in DNS

["Amador, Orlando M. [OBIPR]" <oa...@obipr.jnj.com>]

>I have configured 2 virtual host in the http.conf file.  Both are working
fine since we have configured the DNS server to
>point to the apache server.  We need to configure a 3rd virtual host, but
can't change the DNS to point to our apache server
>until it is approved.
>So the question is how we configure the new virtual host so it is visible
without DNS? 
>This is the same to what a web hosting company will do.  One can preview
the website under some URL of the main server. 
>For example if the real server is named www.server1.com and the new virtual
host is for www.server2.com, then one could type
>something like www.server1.com/server2 or similar and view the file from
the virtual host (server2) instead.
>I read the virtual hosting documentation and did not find anything in this
subject.  I though that maybe "ServerPath" could
>do the trick, but id did not work.  Tried to set serverpath to "/server2/"
and the requested www.server1.com/server2/ but it 
>only complains that the URL was not found.
>I understand that we can set an entry in the host file to map the virtual
host name to an IP, but this is not practical
>since we need to have several people in different workstations looking at
this.
>How to the web hosting companies accomplish this?  is it just with Apache
or is it something else?
>Any suggestions?
>This is for Apache 2.0.52 running on Linux.

Reading further I found the alias directive.  So now we configured:

Alias /server2.com /var/www/server2

It seems to do the trick.  Any drawbacks?

Saludos,
Orlando 
Orlando M. Amador
Technology Lead
Ortho Biologics LLC
oamador@obipr.jnj.com
(787) 854-1800 x2294 

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