Need your advice. MultiSite

Question

I want to create a project like http://www.chinatexnet.com/, but before begin writing code I want to ask for advice from the experts.

So, project that I am planning to develope contains just one main website and multiple sub-sites (about 500 subsites). If you look at http://www.chinatexnet.com/, there is one main site and too many subsites with same(simple) structure. The main site has noting its own it just gathers information from subsites. Subsites have defferent look, defferent information but same simple structure.

So what I am thinking is to create two sites, one for main site, the second is just template for subsites. Than create instalation profile by the second site (of course with the data which users inserted) and automate procces with drush. Finally get multisite system.

Is this right way or I need to use contrib modules like Domain Access or Subsites? I've read a lot about multisite system, and I know there can be problems like updating or gathering data to main site. But I can't see another way, so, if anyone has experience with such kind of projects, please, advise me.

P.S.: Sorry for my english :)

Answer 1

Given your description, the domain access module is the better way to go. Drupal multisites won't give you the capacity to have one main site and many smaller sub sites but that is the key feature of domain access:

The Domain Access project is a suite of modules that provide tools for running a group of affiliated sites from one Drupal installation and a single shared database. The module allows you to share users, content, and configurations across a group of sites ...