PD DirectAdmin DNS for WHMCS

PD DirectAdmin DNS lets a hosting company manage the DNS zones on its DirectAdmin servers from inside WHMCS, and gives its customers a Manage DNS area in the client portal so they can change their own records without a ticket. Zones are tied to the clients and domains that own them, records are edited in WHMCS and written straight to DirectAdmin, and your customers never receive a DirectAdmin login.

It is built for hosts whose nameservers run DirectAdmin: you keep DirectAdmin as the place DNS is served from, and WHMCS becomes the place your team and your customers work on it.

Why hosts choose PD DirectAdmin DNS

Scoped access, not a password. The module signs in with a DirectAdmin login key, which you can limit to the commands it needs, restrict to your WHMCS server's address and give an expiry date. Where a server is too old to offer login keys, an account password works instead.

DirectAdmin stays the source of truth. Records are read live and written back the moment you save. The module keeps no copy of them, so WHMCS can never show something DirectAdmin is not serving.

Your team stops switching tools. Every zone on the server is listed with its client, the domain or service it is bound to, its nameservers, health, DNSSEC state and last backup. Search and filter by name, client, provider or status; the list pages on the server, so it stays quick with thousands of zones.

Customers handle their own changes. An MX record for new mail, a TXT record for a verification, a CNAME for a new subdomain: customers add, edit and delete these on their own zones. They can reach only zones bound to their own account.

Honest about how DirectAdmin works. DirectAdmin creates and removes a DNS zone together with its domain. The module says so and does nothing else: Create zone and Delete zone explain this instead of acting, and no setting of the module deletes a zone at DirectAdmin. Your zones cannot be removed by a stray click.

Backups you did not have to remember. Zones are snapshotted on a schedule as BIND zone files, and any snapshot can be downloaded or restored.

How it works

1. Create a login key. In DirectAdmin, make a login key for an account with DNS rights, limited to the DNS commands the module uses.
2. Add the server. In Providers, enter the hostname, port, username and key, then press Test connection. It tells you whether the server can be reached and what to fix if not.
3. Your zones appear. Every zone the login owns is listed with no import step. Track matched zones binds each one that matches an active domain or hosting service to its client, without changing anything on DirectAdmin.
4. Open it to customers. A Manage DNS link appears on the domain and service pages of clients whose domain has a zone.

What you get in WHMCS

Zones and clients

• Zones listed straight from DirectAdmin with client, bound domain or service, nameservers, health, sync and DNSSEC state
• Search by name; filter by provider, tracking state, status and client with a searchable client picker
• Assign a zone to a client and, optionally, one of their domains or services
• Lock a zone so the client cannot change it while you keep full control and they keep read access
• Zones on DirectAdmin that the module does not track are flagged, and Track adopts one without changing it
• More than one DirectAdmin server can be connected side by side
• Reconcile and health jobs flag a zone that has gone missing or whose owner is no longer active

Records

• A type-aware editor showing only the fields the chosen type uses, with addresses and hostnames checked before saving
• Search by name or value, filter by type, and choose 10, 25, 50 or 100 records per page
• Templates with merge fields, applied to a zone in one click and safe to apply twice
• Import a BIND zone file with a preview of how many new records it will add, and export any zone as a zone file
• DNSSEC switched on or off per zone, with the DS record shown ready to copy for the registrar
• Reverse DNS: add an IP range, map addresses to hostnames, and each PTR is written to the matching reverse zone

Limits and automation

• Packages cap how many zones a customer may have, and optionally records per zone and per record type, linked to your products
• Content rules: blocked patterns and IP allow and deny lists refuse matching customer saves, quick set-ups and imports. Your own changes are never restricted
• Auto-provision, off by default: a zone is created and bound to the client when a domain is registered or transferred, or a service with a domain is set up. A failure is logged and never interrupts the order
• Point chosen domain extensions at your DirectAdmin server, so the nameservers are set when such a domain is registered or transferred
• REST API with named tokens, read or write scope, optional IP limits and 120 requests a minute. Every write goes into Activity with the token's name
• Activity records who changed what, when, and whether it worked

Backups and upkeep

• Scheduled snapshots every 24 hours by default, keeping the newest 10, with both adjustable
• Back up one zone or all of them on demand, restore a snapshot exactly after a safety snapshot, or recover a deleted zone from its last snapshot
• Maintenance page to run sync, health check, orphan check and backups on demand, using WHMCS's own cron
• Orphaned zones are flagged and never deleted automatically

What your customers get

• Manage DNS in your client area, on Six, Twenty-One and Nexus, with a navigation link and links on domain and service pages
• A checked editor for adding, editing and deleting records on their own zones
• Quick set-ups for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 and an SPF lockdown, adding only what is missing and never a second SPF record
• DNSSEC and zone files: turn DNSSEC on or off for their zone, copy the DS record, import and export a zone file
• Their own snapshots, taken, downloaded and restored by themselves, with a safety snapshot first
• Optional email notices when a zone is set up for them or staff change their records, off until you switch them on

Customer pages never show your server address or credentials and never name the server behind their DNS. Every string is translatable, with wording overrides that survive updates.

Security built in

• The login key is stored with authenticated encryption and is never shown again in the provider form
• It is used only to read and update zones and records
• Customers can reach only their own zones, enforced on the server
• Rotating the key means creating a new one in DirectAdmin, entering it on the provider and testing it. The old key can then be deleted

One product, every feature

PD DirectAdmin DNS is one paid module with everything included and no per-zone or per-seat fee. It installs into PD Modules, updates itself, and uninstalls without leaving tables behind or touching WHMCS files.

It is listed as beta: it is built on DirectAdmin's official API and checked against that API's documented behaviour, and it leaves beta as results from hosts' live servers come in. If your subscription lapses, DNS records are never touched and DirectAdmin keeps serving every zone.

Requirements

• WHMCS 9 or later on PHP 8.2 or later, with the ionCube Loader
• A DirectAdmin server and a login key (DirectAdmin 1.40.2 or later) or account password
• PD Modules, the free control panel every PD module installs into