cPanel DNS Helper

Owned by HostBill
Last updated: Jun 08, 2020 by HostBill Support

Overview

cPanel DNS Helper is an extension shipped with cPanel v2 module to help you connect your cPanel installations with one of the HostBill-supported DNS services:

  • Power DNS
  • Power DNS Slave Zones
  • OnApp DNS
  • cPanel DNS
  • ...or any other DNS HostBill supports

Why may I need this?

cPanel handles DNS really well, but if you have multiple services not related to cPanel which you wish to plug into single/centralised DNS installation that is not backed by cPanel DNS it makes managing DNS tricky. 

Or maybe you want to hook up your PowerDNS to store slave zones, while your cPanel would keep master zone records.

This is where our cPanel/HostBill DNS helper kicks in.

How it works?

  • In your cPanel installations you setup DNS templates to use your actual master nameserver (i.e. cPanel, Power DNS, cPanel DNS)
  • cPanel DNS Helper periodically polls all configured cPanel servers for zones, and fetches their details using cPanel API
  • HostBill then "decides" what to do next. It can:
    • Push this zone to real master nameserver
    • Notify secondary nameserver to create/update slave zone
    • After exporting such zone, HostBill can assign it to the related customer 

So you can have:

  • Slave DNS (any supported by HostBill) notified automatically about new zones in cPanel, or:
  • cPanel DNS will not be used to handle DNS queries, but as a source of data for actual DNS server that handles requests.
    With this approach you can benefit from flexible & automated DNS templates built into cPanel on any central DNS server you wish to use with it.


Configuring cPanel DNS Tool in HostBill


  1. Find and activate cPanel DNS Tool plugin in your HostBill → Extras → Plugins
  2. Once activated proceed to Extras → Plugins → cPanel DNS Tool to configure the module
  3. Fill out the fields:
    • Target DNS - zones from cPanel will be pushed to these DNS servers
    • Source servers - servers cPanel that will be synchronized 
    • Try to assign imported zone to existing HostBill DNS management account - when enabled tool will look for active DNS management service using target DNS & belonging to customer who owns synchornized zone
    • Sync DNS only if HostBill domain exist - when enabled, zone will be created/updated/deleted on target DNS only if active domain with matching name exists in HostBill
    • Transfer A/CNAME only for free subdomains - In HostBill product configuration you can offer free subdomain to product. If such subdomain is used to create cPanel account, with this option enabled new zone will not be created in target DNS, instead main domain zone will be updated with related A/CNAME records

Note

For the module to work properly it is necessary that the Module - cPanel DNS Tool cron task be enabled.

Warning

This option should be used with caution, possibly only for Slave module. If you enable this option, client will "see" imported zone in DNS management section.

If customer would then update anything directly on DNS server, his changes may later be overwritten by another synchronization made with cPanel DNS tool.

It's best to have clients manage their DNS directly on cPanel or via HostBill client portal, using cPanel DNS management function.