What do you need to do to create multiple repositories on the same server? Do you need to redeploy the Alfresco app for each instance? Can we share the application server instance so that we don't have to open new ports for new instance?
The multi-tenancy option enabled on Alfresco 3.x is very useful tool when you don't have to change the main funcionalities, but when you need to separate your binaries data or your database, or implement customized forms, you'll certainly have a headache. I tried to do this to implement a SAAS platform using Alfresco, but when you customize some accounts the next restart will give you a "Could not startup tenants…" message. This is not acceptable for a SAAS stable solution, so I've tried another alternative.
First choosing an application server with Virtual Hosts capability (i.e. Tomcat), after a DBMS with similar hosting isolation (i.e. MySQL). Ohh you can say… Both have the option to divide the data about each account. To do the same you must to config:
MySQL: Startup with mysqld_multi On each enabled account you must the change the my.cnf to add database config, with new ports, sockets and *.pids. The new database maybe started independently.
Tomcat: Adding a new <host> node on server.xml you can specify that a DNS address (i.e. tenant1.mycompany.com) can reach the same application using the same 80 http port.
Alfresco: How to point Alfresco to new database and different binaries path? Simple, you must change the /conf/Catalina/tenant1.mycompany.com/alfresco.xml file created after the first deploy of your new server. This file accepts properties like "datase.url", "root.dir", "email.server", etc.
… which version/build were you using ? If you still have the the server log and steps to repeat, can you please log the details in JIRA ? Have you tried this against the latest Community and/or Enterprise (Trial) ?
