Trying to set up a site as an addon domain before moving it from another hosting account? You may get mooned by cPanel in such cases. Here is there error you see and (more importantly) how to fix it.

When you try to set up the addon, you get this message:

There was a problem creating the addondomain. Show Details

Error from park wrapper: Using nameservers with the following IPs: xx.xxx.xxx.xxx,xx.xxx.xxx.xxx Sorry, the domain is already pointed to an IP address that does not appear to use DNS servers associated with this server. Please transfer the domain to this servers nameservers or have your administrator add one of its nameservers to /etc/ips.remotedns and make the proper A entries on that remote nameserver.

In order to eliminate this error, go into WHM. In Server Configuration, under Tweak Settings option, check this box:

Allow Creation of Parked/Addon Domains that resolve to other servers (i.e. domain transfers) [This can be a major security problem. If you must have it enabled, be sure to not allow users to park common internet domains.]

Once you’ve created the addon domain, you can untick this box again. It’s more secure to leave it unchecked, of course, but many times you’ll want to get the new site up and running before you change over DNS, huh? At least, if you’re smart, you do.
photo credit: bwright923

If you’re using Google Apps for email–and it’s a solid choice with lots of storage space, spam management tools and integration with other free services–after creating the appropriate DNS records to route your email, you’ll want to add an SPF Record. This ensures better email delivery and prevents vile spammers from forging their spam as having come from you!

Some domain registrars give you adequate tools to add an SPF record directly, but if not, it’s simple enough to add it directly in WHM.¹

You’re using the “Edit Zone” command; select the zone for the domain in question, and add a new text record:

Click for Larger View

Google Apps Mail SPF

Use domain.com. (keeping period at the end intact) as the entry, and the code below for the text part of the record (keeping quotes intact).

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See? That didn’t hurt much.

1. Thanks to this helpful article on Tech Talk Point.

Trying to replace, delete or change files via FTP, you may notice you get insufficient permissions errors. If you haven’t seen this a lot, your first instinct is to try to change the permissions on the directories in question, in which case you will continue to get mooned. This issue is less about permissions per se than about directory ownership. If you’re running on a server that has some directories owned by nobody/99, that means the server itself is considered “owner” and individual users won’t be able to change or delete these.¹

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The username/groupname should be replaced with your info–but you don’t know this already, best to get out of there and get tech support to help you–and these two will normally be the same. The R makes it recursive, changing the files inside the directory as well as the directory you run the command on, and the v gives you verbose output so you can see what got changed.

1. If your server requires 777 permissions for certain functions, then you most likely will have some directories “owned” by the server/nobody.

Lost your admin password? Need in to the WP admin but client hasn’t given you access? If you can access the database directly–easiest using a tool like PHPmyAdmin–you can give yourself whatever access you need. ¹

Locate the right database–if you have FTP, looking at the wp-config.php file at the root of your WP installation is the fastest route. Otherwise, if you have multiple WP installs, check out the options table to match urls and make sure you’re looking in the right database.

In your wp_users table, you insert a new record:

1. user_login –username to access WordPress
2. user_pass – password – be certain to select MD5 from the phpMyAdmin Function dropdown menu; it’s stored encrypted)
3. user_nicename – how you’d like to refer to yourself, not login
4. user_email – email for this user
5. user_url – optional
6. user_registered –  just select a date
7. user_activation_key – leave this blank
8. user_status – leave this set to 0
9. display_name – what displays, can be same as nicename

Note the user ID, as you’ll need it for the next steps.

To give yourself access permissions, head on over to insert a record into the wp_usersmeta table.

1. umeta_id - automatically generated
2. user_id – ID of the user you just created
3. meta_key –  wp_capabilities
4. meta_value copy and paste this:

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Insert another row, with this information:

1. umeta_id - automatically generated
2. user_id – use the ID you created
3. meta_key – insert wp_user_level
4. meta_value – insert 10

Save your work and go log in!

1. Big hugs and kisses out to DNA Web Agency for this uber-helpful information lifted for this tutorial.

Parking a domain on top of an addon domain in cPanel can be a quick, easy way to change the domain on a site without mussing with files or database connections and the like. If you’re using a database-driven site, however, be sure to make the relevant changes to the database. ¹

1. Login to cPanel and click Addon Domains–and not parked domains.
   
2. In the field to the right of “New Domain Name,” type the domain name you wish to park on top of your addon domain
3. Click outside the text box and your other settings will populate.
4. Under “Document Root:” remove everything except “public_html”
5. Look down to your current addon domain and its “Document Root” – normally a folder named after the original domain.
6. Take the “Document Root” and insert it in the field to the right of “Document Root:” at the top.
7. Insert any password in the password field. (You won’t need to remember this password, so just use the Generate Password button.)
8. Click Add Domain

1. Thanks to Hostgator Support for this helpful info.

The easiest is to have your mailscanner configured to quarantine Whole Message as Queue files; from Chirpy with instructions for this and more, here.

Quarantine Whole Message = yes
Quarantine Whole Messages As Queue Files = yes

then to requeue the email to be delivered, you need to go to the indicated directory within:
/var/spool/MailScanner/quarantine/<date>/<message-id>/

Then you need to:
cp -av *-H /var/spool/exim/input/ ; cp -av *-D /var/spool/exim/input/
one done you’ll have to wait for the next exim mail queue run, or run it yourself from WHM > Manage Queue > <message-id> > Deliver Now

If you”ve got a WP installation on a server not running under suPHP (i.e. requiring some folders set to 777 permissions), you may find your WP requests FTP info to do any updates, and get miscellaneous errors even with this info provided.¹ The AutoFTP plugin can help by saving the FTP credentials, but you may still see the errors. I did.

In addition to being annoying, this  can also be confusing for some webmasters. Since it’s a lousy idea to make your entire wp-content folder world-writable to allow for easier plugin updates, let’s look at a better solution:²

First, let’s add some protection for your wp-config.php file to your .htaccess file:

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Verify your “wp-content” folder permissions are set to 0755.

Then, chmod your wp-config.php file to 0644.

In your wp-config.php file (at the root of your WP installation), add the code below. Be sure to provide the correct paths for your server, and do not add a port to your FTP host:

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This should take care of the requirement to enter FTP information for every automatic update, and eliminates those annoying “cannot copy file” and “cannot move file” error messages when trying to do auto-upgrades of WP and plugins.

1. Why not run under the more restrictive permissions provided by suPHP? Maybe you want to run opcache  like e Accelerarter that requires a different configuration, for example.
2. Thanks to “detroiter” for this solution.

There may be times where you want to host a subdomain on a different server than the main domain. To accomplish this, you need an A record, added either at the domain registrar if possible, or the server that hosts mydomain.com.

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The X’s should be replaced by the target server’s IP address. I prefer changing this info at the domain record level, since that doesn’t require cooperation of the main domain’s host, and thus can be changed by the domain owner in the event the target server’s IP changes.

For this to work, the subdomain MUST be added to the target server. A very simple way to do this is to add the main domain as an Addon in cPanel, and then set up the subdomain which will add all the relevant DNS entries (even though the main domain is not actually hosted on the target server).¹

1. Caveat – I’ve found you may see occasional weirdness, though, with the approach described, such as a WordPress installation that requires uploads to go straight to the upload folder to work, instead of month and year-based folder settings. Would probably be better to add the subdomain to your server configuration directly for long-term robustness.

As a companion to our “Restarting Haldaemon from the Command Line” piece (coming in handy after software update where you get those annoying ConfigServer firewall warnings “Suspicious process running under user dbus”), here’s what you need to do to restart dbus from the command line:

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Note: Your server configuration may vary.

When you cannot access the admin of a WordPress installation because of a plugin issue, you can delete the plugins directly from a database management tool like PHPmyAdmin. (And if you can’t access the WP backend, there’s a good chance it is because of a plugin issue.)

This helpful tidbit comes from the WP FAQ

In the table wp_options, under the option_name column (field) find the active_plugins row

Change the option_value field to: a:0:{}

If you have FTP access, you can also rename your original plugin folder (/wp-contents/plugins) and and add an empty plugin folder. After you sign on to your WP admin area, you can delete the dummy folder and rename the plugin folder back to “plugins,” as it will have deactivated all  your plugins when you signed on with the empty folder.

Happy WordPressing!