Bitnami Multisite WP Redirection Problem Fixed!

It’s surprising how often I find myself thinking “For some strange reason…” when systems stop working correctly. Here is an interesting Binami problem I had with their WordPress package. I do want to say that I appreciate this package and I mostly love it. In this case, I do not know what happened but here is what I did.

I found that one of the sites I manage with my multisite server was having SSL problems. Even though the domain was in the SSL certificate, it wasn’t being used for the site. So I went through the steps again to reinstall the certificate. I have those documented here: Updating SSL on WordPress Multisite by Bitnami – TraccDeck

That seemed to resolve the issue BUT for some strange reason the site started redirecting to my main blog. Well, that wasn’t good!

Unfortunately there is little support from Bitnami for their deployments outside their documentation. The Reddit group is really small and not helpful. I did find this:

Configure WordPress Multisite (bitnami.com)

In the Troubleshooting section it says:

If you have problems with redirection when you log in to the WordPress dashboard, check that the domain was successfully updated in these database tables:

wp_options table: siteurl and home options

wp_blogs table: domain option

What I did find is that in the wp_options table, they were set as “domain.com” but the wp_blogs table had a domain of “www.domain.com”. When making a change to the wp_blog table to match, it started serving the site properly. It appears that the entries in both tables must MATCH EXACTLY. In thinking this through, it makes sense that they do BUT that fact is not documented anywhere and since it’s in two different locations, it’s an easy mistake to make.

Hope this helps.

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Paul Bergman

CEO at Tracc Development, Inc.

Paul Bergman runs a business strategy and cybersecurity consulting company in San Diego. He is also CEO of a mentoring non-profit in San Diego, Lamp of Learning. He writes on cybersecurity and board management for both corporate and nonprofit boards.

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