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

Where is the info for Addon Domains stored in Apached? Parked domains? cPanel Docs gives us an answer:

Deleting an addon domain won’t delete the files or databases associated with that domain. A parked domain, of course, won’t have files or databases associated with it.

If you cannot access your sites via http://ipaddress/~username (usually used as a temporary address pending domain propagation for new hosting clients), check that the Apache module mod_userdir, if enabled, has an exception configured for the default virtual host.

End transmission.

To set up a default parking page for cPanel/WHM server, you need to place your default files in the proper place.

Check /usr/local/apache/htdocs for when a domain resolves to your server but does not actually exist in the Apache configuration file. If you just need a park page set up you can place it in that directory and name it index.php, index.html, etc.

As always, your configuration may vary.

photo credit: RJ Bejil

Allowing people to set up blogs for WordPress MU at blog.domain.tld requires installing your WPMU in the site root and setting up wildcard DNS. In setting up my first WPMU, I ran across this tutorial by Matt Mullenweg of WordPress fame, linked from the WordPress MU docs.

Since I’m not the queen of DNS or anything, I checked with my admin folks to make sure I got the Virtual Host entries correct. I found out this is extremely easy to do if you have a cPanel setup.

Here’s How from my SysAdmin:

To add wildcard DNS and vhost settings in one swoop, simply add a new sub domain to the account and name it ‘*’ (the asterisk character). Make sure it’s document root is pointed to the same directory that your WordPress MU is setup in and cPanel will add everything else to all of the configuration files.

Sure enough, worked like a charm, took 30 seconds, and didn’t require anything scary like restarting Apache–there is no time that runs slower in the time-space continuum than waiting for httpd to restart, man.

You can install regular SSL certificates to replace the self-signed copies that come with WHM (and therefore eliminate error warnings the customers receive using Webmail, cPanel, etc.).

In WHM to install your cert for WHM/cPanel services, you will need to use the link “Manage Service SSL Certificates” under Service configuration in your WHM. This will allow you to install certificates to different services such as mail and WHM.

These SSL Certificates won’t require a unique IP address because they are stored in a different area that the other security certificates.