Site Aliases

MokoWaaS supports multi-domain configurations through the Site Aliases system. This allows a single Joomla installation to respond to multiple domain names, each with independent settings for offline mode, robots directives, and backend access.

Configuration

Site aliases are configured in the plugin settings under the Site Aliases tab.

Primary Domain

Set primary_domain to the canonical domain for the site (e.g. waas.dev.mokoconsulting.tech). This is the domain that:

Serves as the canonical URL for SEO purposes
Hosts the admin backend (when redirect_backend is enabled on aliases)
Is used in heartbeat registration with Grafana

Alias Entries

Add alias domains using the repeatable subform table. Each alias entry has the following options:

Field	Type	Default	Description
`domain`	Text	(required)	The alias domain name, e.g. `www.example.com`
`offline`	Yes/No	No	When Yes, visitors to this alias see the offline page
`offline_message`	Textarea	--	Custom message displayed when the alias is offline (only shown when `offline` is Yes)
`robots`	List	`index, follow`	Robots meta tag directive for this alias
`redirect_backend`	Yes/No	Yes	When Yes, admin URLs (`/administrator`) on this alias redirect to the primary domain

Robots Options

Each alias can have its own robots directive:

Value	Effect
`index, follow`	Normal indexing (default)
`noindex, follow`	Do not index pages, but follow links
`index, nofollow`	Index pages, do not follow links
`noindex, nofollow`	Do not index or follow
`none`	Equivalent to `noindex, nofollow`

How Canonical URLs Work

When a request arrives on an alias domain, MokoWaaS:

Matches the HTTP_HOST against configured alias domains
Applies the alias-specific robots meta tag
If the alias is marked offline, renders the offline page with the custom message
If redirect_backend is enabled and the request is for /administrator, issues a 301 redirect to the primary domain's admin
Sets the canonical URL to the primary domain equivalent of the current page

This prevents duplicate content issues when the same site is accessible from multiple domains.

Grafana Monitoring for Aliases

When the plugin sends a heartbeat to the Grafana monitoring receiver, it registers both the primary domain and all alias domains. The monitoring dashboard can then track health status for each domain independently.

Each alias appears as a separate entry in the Grafana Infinity datasource, pointing to the same health endpoint but accessed via the alias domain. This ensures SSL certificate checks and DNS resolution are validated per-domain.

DreamHost Mirror Setup

For sites hosted on DreamHost, alias domains are typically configured as "mirror" domains in the DreamHost panel:

In DreamHost panel, add the alias domain as a Mirror of the primary domain
Ensure DNS for the alias domain points to the DreamHost server
Add the alias domain to the MokoWaaS Site Aliases configuration
Set redirect_backend to Yes (recommended) so admin access always uses the primary domain
Set robots to noindex, nofollow if the alias is a staging or preview domain

DreamHost mirrors serve the same filesystem, so no additional Joomla configuration is needed beyond the MokoWaaS alias entry.

Pages