1. cPanel & WHM Documentation
  2. Installation Guide
  3. cPanel DNSOnly® Installation
installation dnsonly whmadvanced

Installation Guide - cPanel DNSOnly® Installation

Overview

This document describes how to install cPanel DNSOnly® on your server.

You can download cPanel DNSOnly for free.

Configuration requirements

To successfully install and use cPanel DNSOnly, your system must meet the following requirements:

  • Your server must meet our system requirements for its specific operating system.

  • Your server cannot have previous content on it.

  • Your server must allow traffic on ports 53, 953, and 2087.

  • If you want the server to send email notifications, you must allow traffic on port 25.

  • Your DNS cluster configuration must meet the requirements for DNS clusters in our Guide to DNS Cluster Configurations documentation.

  • If your DNS cluster will include domains that use DNSSEC, all of the cluster’s servers must run PowerDNS.

Install cPanel DNSOnly

To install cPanel DNSOnly, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to the /home directory on your server.

  2. To fetch the latest installation files from WebPros International, LLC’s servers, run the following command: 

    curl -o latest-dnsonly -L https://securedownloads.cpanel.net/latest-dnsonly

  3. To open and execute the installation files, run the following command: 

    sh latest-dnsonly

Access cPanel DNSOnly

To access the cPanel DNSOnly interface, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to https://IP:2087 in your preferred browser.

    Note:

    In this address, IP represents your server’s IP address. If you have a domain name that resolves to the server, you can use it in place of the IP address.

  2. Enter root in the Username text box.

  3. Enter your password in the Password text box.

  4. Click Log in.

Remove the Trial License banner

Note:

You must have a cPanel DNSOnly license, which the server automatically obtains during installation. If this does not occur, contact cPanel Customer Service.

A Trial License banner appears in your WHM Home interface if your server currently uses a trial license. To remove the Trial License banner, you must remove the trial license from the server.

To do this, perform the following steps:

  1. Contact cPanel Customer Service and request that they deactivate your trial license.

  2. Create a directory to contain the cPanel license files.

  3. Move the cpanel.lisc file and the /root/.cpanel/datastore/_usr_local_cpanel_cpanel_-F file to the directory that you created. To do this, run the following commands: 

    1
2

    mv /usr/local/cpanel/cpanel.lisc /root/trashfiles/
mv /root/.cpanel/datastore/_usr_local_cpanel_cpanel_-F /root/trashfiles/
    Note:

    In these commands, trashfiles represents the directory that will contain the license files.

Restart cPanel DNSOnly. To do this, run the following command:

/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/restartsrv_cpsrvd

cPanel DNSOnly and DNSSEC

Warning:

If the DNS cluster includes domains that use DNSSEC, all of the cluster’s servers must run PowerDNS.

cPanel & WHM supports DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC) in DNS clusters. A DNS resolver will compare the DNS server’s DNSSEC record to the DS record at the registrar. If they match, the record is valid.

  • You can create, manage, or delete a domain’s DNSSEC keys in cPanel’s Zone Editor interface (cPanel » Home » Domains » Zone Editor).

  • The system uses the /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/dnssec-cluster-keys script to synchronize and revoke currently-active DNSSEC keys in a DNS cluster. If you wish to perform this step manually, run that script as the root user.

For more information about DNSSEC in cPanel & WHM, read our DNSSEC documentation.