Meant to get this post up a long time ago and I can’t believe it’s almost two months since my last post. Wow. I’m terribly sorry for this lengthy “intermission” but sometimes life has a way of interrupting the best laid plans. Again, my apologies.
Now, on to my insights and how I upgraded my blog to a WP 3.0 Multi-site using the domain options.
As stated in my last post, I had to move my blog to a new hosting provider (HostGator) to avail myself of the multi-site subdomain option, since my provider wouldn’t allow “virtual domains”, only sub-directories. Please note, that if you upgrade your blog to the 3.0 and try to use the multi-site network, because it is an established blog, you can ONLY use the subdomain feature, so be sure to check with your provider to make sure you can do this. Otherwise, you will have to install the WP 3.0 Multi-network differently and use sub-directories with a new WP install.
What I did… (some of you may not need or want to move your blog so steps 1-2 may not be necessary – it all depends on what kind of network installation you want and whether or not you are starting from scratch)
1. First, I backed up my blog by FTP, and then my database (instructions can be found here) from my old server. I also did a blog “export” from within WordPress. I like to do all three…
2. I installed the blog on my new server (HostGator)… there are a couple of ways you can do this… you can do the automatic install and then import your old blog (export file you downloaded from within WP), or if you are like me, I like to FTP WordPress and then do a fresh install manually. I then import my old database files into the new database and FTP all my original blog files over the current ones — make sure you do not overwrite the wp-config.php file tho! Then I activate all my plugins.
3. Once everything has been moved over and set up properly, I want to prepare for the upgrade. First, we need to update all of our plugins. I know you can do all of them at once from within WP but I prefer to do them individually cause sometimes they don’t play nice and upgrade as they should when done all at once. After I have updated all of my plugins, I deactivated them all and did an AUTOMATIC WP 3.0 upgrade. (I upgraded my blog from WP 2.9.2). Hopefully all will go well and you will now have WP 3.0 installed. Now you can go back in and reactivate all of your plugins again.
4. Setting up your network — right now your site will look like the single blog installation that you are used to. We now need to insert some code into our wp-config.php file so that it knows you want it to be a multi-site network.
To enable the Network menu item , open up your wp-config.php file and add this line above where it says /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */:
define(‘WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE’, true);
This will enable the Network menu item to appear in the Tools menu. 
Now visit Administration > Tools > Network to see the screen where you will configure certain aspects of your network.
5. Still more to do to enable your network… Fear not, we’re almost there! 
In order to finish you must follow the following steps.
- First, you want to back up your existing wp-config.php and .htaccess files in the event something goes wrong.
- You will need to create a “blogs.dir” directory in the /wp-content/ directory… do this with either your FTP program or thru your Cpanel. This directory is used to stored uploaded media for your network blogs and must be writable by the web server. They should have the same server permission settings as your wp-content directory.
- WordPress will generate extra lines of code for you to place into your wp-config.php file. These lines are dynamically generated for you based on your configuration, so edit your wp-config.php file while you are still logged in to your sites admin panel and have them readily available. Just do a Copy & Paste and put the generated code immediately above /* That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging. */. Then Save.
- You will need to add the generated mod_rewrite rules to your .htaccess file also, replacing the other WordPress rules. If there is no htaccess file then you will need to create one using your text editor. Again, this code is dynamically generated for you based on your configuration so once again, just do a Copy & Paste..
After you have completed all of these steps you will have to Login again. This will refresh your Admin Panel and you should now see a “Super Admin” listing in your menu.
Now all you need to do is go into your Super Admin > Options panel and configure your network options, and then you’re all set to go… start creating sites and users (if you are sharing your network). I personally am using this set up just for myself and organizing all of my sites under one “umbrella” so to speak. Makes it much easier to update and configure my sites, not to mention posting. It’s really nice to have just one login!
Please Note… I’m no expert when it comes to WordPress but I do hope you will find this info helpful. It has been a while since I did my upgrade so I may have forgotten or overlooked something. If that is the case, please leave a comment so others will know.
For more detailed information and support I suggest you go to wordpress.org , it’s a invaluable resource that can benefit any WP user!
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