A couple of nights ago i spent 2 hours trying to figure out how to setup a multi-site on DreamHost. What i needed was to run 3 different domains(domain1.com, domain2.com, domain3.com) off one code base but running off separate databases.
Prepare
Make sure all the domains have been added via panel.dreamhost.com and are working. So now if you SSH into DH you should see the following folders in your account folder “/home/username” (username is your DH useraccount):
/home/username/domain1.com /home/username/domain2.com /home/username/domain3.com
Install
Perform a standard drupal install on domain1.com (This domain will use/sites/default).
Create 2 folders in /sites. Which will be domain2.com and domain3.com. If you go into /sites you should see the following folders:
/sites/all /sites/default /sites/domain2.com /sites/domain3.com
Paste in a copy of settings.php into the domain2.com and domain3.com folders.
SSH
Go back to /home/username and remove the domain2.com and domain3.com folders which were created by DH.
SSH into the server and perform the following commands:(DO AT YOUR OWN RISK)
# rm -r domain2.com # rm -r domain3.com
Now we’ll have to create symbolic links.
Add the following commands:
# ln -s /home/username/domain1.com/ /home/username/domain2.com # ln -s /home/username/domain1.com/ /home/username/domain3.com
Now go to domain2.com or domain3.com you’ll get the install page. Fill out the install page and everything should be working.