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Easier ways to turn DNS, mail and web hosting on and off individually on a domain


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John Robinson

I provide DNS, mail and web hosting facilities to my customers using DirectAdmin - but I don't necessarily always want to provide all three. In particular with several using Office 365, I would like just run their web site. Or for people using other tools for their web site e.g. Wix, I just want to provide DNS and email. The UI isn't terribly helpful for managing these combinations, and really I'd like to be asked at the time I add a domain which services I want, and be able to change them in the principal domain admin screen, at the User level. The functionality's kind of there, but not all at User level, and there are interactions that cause error messages.

Now, DNS isn't that big a deal - I can use the Admin level DNS admin to remove their zone. And in any case, since my DirectAdmin is a stealth primary, I can tell my advertised DNS servers not to slave from my DNS. It would still be good to have a nice big button in the User level admin to turn DNS off, though, and for other areas which appear to depend on DNS (such as MX Records -> Local Mail Server) not to give an error when you've turned off DNS and now want to turn off Local Mail Server.

And I guess the web bit isn't that big a deal either; as long as the DNS doesn't point to my DirectAdmin box, it isn't going to be used, but it does mean config is in place, and potentially processes like php-fpm pointlessly running for the user. It would still be good to have a nice big button in the User level admin to turn off web hosting, and if DNS is enabled, have a place to enter the IP(s) of the actual web server(s).

Finally I know I can turn off email using the MX Records -> Local Mail Server feature, but that leaves all the other email settings still in place - it would still be good to have a nice big button in the User level admin to turn off local email, and if DNS is enabled, have a place to enter the actual MX servers.

So yes it would be good to have easier ways to turn hosting elements off and on.

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Shantha Oshada Agunawala

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Chris Demers

I run into most of these issues myself with customers. It would be nice if the user/reseller can turn off dns and when turned back on either re-create the original defaults or option to restore previous config. (Next one Optional but would be nice.) Another handy button would be a restore DNS back to it's original state when the domain was created, and maybe a "FIX" button to just apply the original config over top what is there, keeping any extra records that were added. And when dns is disabled not give an error when user tiries to go to their email settings to set/change local delivery.