AEMaaCS Dispatcher for multi site

[VishnuRa5]

In AEMaaCS , for a multi site setup

In conf.d

1. can we have a common vhost code in a seperate file and then reference it in siteA.vhost and siteB.vhost ?

2. How about having common rewrites and site specific rewrites . in which folder we should put them and how to include them in vhost ?

In conf.dispatcher.d

1. can we maintain site specific farms ? and how to manage it using virtualhosts.any file ?

2. how to include site specific filters , like filtersA.any inside filter.any 

3. how to include site specific cache rules , like including siteACache.any  in site specific farm file 

[SantoshSai]

Hi @VishnuRa5,

Here’s how you can structure a multi-site Dispatcher setup in AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS).
I’ll break it down by conf.d (Apache HTTPD layer) and conf.dispatcher.d (Dispatcher configs).

In conf.d (Apache vhost layer)

1. Common vhost code

   • Yes, you can absolutely put shared logic (like SSL, headers, logging, or other boilerplate config) into a separate include file.

   • Example:

     # conf.d/includes/common_vhost.conf
     <IfModule mod_headers.c>
       Header always set X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN"
     </IfModule>
     Then in each site vhost:
     
     
     Include conf.d/includes/common_vhost.conf

2. Common vs. site-specific rewrites

   • Put global rewrites under something like conf.d/rewrites/global_rewrite.rules.

   • Put site-specific rewrites under conf.d/rewrites/siteA_rewrite.rules, siteB_rewrite.rules.

   • Reference them in each vhost file:

     # Inside siteA.vhost
     Include conf.d/rewrites/global_rewrite.rules
     Include conf.d/rewrites/siteA_rewrite.rules

In conf.dispatcher.d (Dispatcher layer)

1. Site-specific farms

   • Yes, you can maintain separate farm files per site, e.g.:

     • conf.dispatcher.d/available_farms/siteA_farm.anyconf.dispatcher.d/available_farms/siteB_farm.any

   • Then symlink them into enabled_farms/.

   • Use the virtualhosts section in each farm to match requests for that site:

     /virtualhosts {
       "/sitea.domain.com/*"
       "/sitea/*"
     }

2. Site-specific filters

   • Create files like filtersA.any, filtersB.any.

   • In your main filter.any you can include them:

     $include "filtersA.any"
     $include "filtersB.any"

3. Site-specific cache rules

   • Same approach. Create siteACache.any, siteBCache.any.

   • In each farm file, reference its own cache rules:
     

     /cache {
       /rules {
         $include "../cache/siteACache.any"
       }
     }

Recommended Folder Structure

conf.d/
 ├─ available_vhosts/
 │   ├─ siteA.vhost
 │   ├─ siteB.vhost
 │   └─ common_vhost.conf
 ├─ rewrites/
 │   ├─ global_rewrite.rules
 │   ├─ siteA_rewrite.rules
 │   └─ siteB_rewrite.rules

conf.dispatcher.d/
 ├─ available_farms/
 │   ├─ siteA_farm.any
 │   ├─ siteB_farm.any
 ├─ filters/
 │   ├─ filter.any   (includes all site filters)
 │   ├─ filtersA.any
 │   └─ filtersB.any
 ├─ cache/
 │   ├─ siteACache.any
 │   └─ siteBCache.any

This way you keep common logic reusable, and still have clean separation for site-specific overrides.

[VishnuRa5]

@SantoshSai  

thankyou verymuch , it worked.

Similar to having a coomon vhost configuration file , 

can we keep common code in farm files in a seperate file and reference it in siteA_farm.any and siteB_farm.any ?

[SantoshSai]

@VishnuRa5 

Yes - you can do the exact same thing with farm files in conf.dispatcher.d.

AEM Dispatcher configs (.any files) support the $include directive, so you can modularize your farms just like you did with vhosts.

1. Create a shared file for common config
   For example:

   conf.dispatcher.d/farms/common_farm_parts/common_farm_base.any

   Inside it you might have things that are identical across all farms, such as:

   /renders {
     /0001 { /hostname "localhost" /port "4503" }
   }
   
   /cache {
     /docroot "/mnt/var/www/html"
     /allowAuthorized 0
   }

2. Reference it inside each site-specific farm
   Example for siteA_farm.any:

   /siteA_farm {
     $include "../common_farm_parts/common_farm_base.any"
   
     /virtualhosts {
       "/sitea.domain.com/*"
       "/sitea/*"
     }
   
     /filters {
       $include "../filters/filtersA.any"
     }
   
     /cache {
       $include "../cache/siteACache.any"
     }
   }

   Example for siteB_farm.any:

   /siteB_farm {
     $include "../common_farm_parts/common_farm_base.any"
   
     /virtualhosts {
       "/siteb.domain.com/*"
       "/siteb/*"
     }
   
     /filters {
       $include "../filters/filtersB.any"
     }
   
     /cache {
       $include "../cache/siteBCache.any"
     }
   }