Domains

Overview

Use this interface to create and manage multiple domains from a single cPanel account.

Note:
  • You can change your primary domain via WHM’s Modify an Account interface (WHM » Home » Modify an Account).
  • Some settings only appear if your hosting provider’s settings enable them.

Actions

Create a New Domain

Important:

To create a new domain, your hosting provider must enable at least one the following features in WHM’s Feature Manager interface (WHM » Home » Packages » Feature Manager):

To create a domain, perform the following steps:

  1. Click Create a New Domain. A new interface will appear.
  2. Enter a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) in the Domain text box.
    • To create a new domain, enter the new domain name. For example, example.com.
    • To create a subdomain, enter a new name followed by a period (.) and then the website’s domain. For example, enter subdomain.example.com to create a subdomain of example.com.
  3. Optionally, you can specify the directory where you want the files for the domain to exist (the domain’s document root). To create this directory, deselect the Share document root with “example.com” checkbox, where example.com represents your main domain. You cannot create a document root outside of the public_html/ directory. This will create an addon domain. You cannot use the following directories:
    Note:
    • This setting only appears if your hosting provider enables it.
    • The interface automatically populates the remaining text boxes, and we recommend that you use these values. However, you can enter different values in the Document Root (File System Location) and Subdomain text boxes if you desire.
  4. Click Submit or click Submit and Create Another.
Note:

Visitors cannot view your subdomain immediately. Changes to DNS records may require two days or more to reach all of the nameservers on the internet.

Certificates

When you create a domain or subdomain, the system will attempt to secure that domain with an existing certificate.

  • If no certificate exists, the system will generate a self-signed certificate to secure the new domain.
  • If your hosting provider enables AutoSSL for the account that owns the new domain, the system will add a request for an AutoSSL certificate to secure the new domain and install it when it becomes available.

Force HTTPS Redirect

Use the Force HTTPS Redirect toggle to automatically redirect a domain’s visitors from the insecure version of the website to the secure version.

To automatically redirect visitors for a single domain, set the Force HTTPS Redirect toggle on for the domain.

To automatically redirect visitors for multiple domains, select the checkbox for each domain. Then, select Enable Force HTTPS Redirect.

Manage the Domain

Use the Manage the Domain interface to manage the domain’s document root directory, remove the domain, or perform other actions. From the Additional Resources menu, you can select the following actions to perform in a new browser tab:

Action Description
Create an Email Address Add an email address to the website.
Create a Site with Site Publisher Quickly create a simple website, even if you have never created a website before.
Modify the Zones Create, edit, and delete Domain Name System (DNS) records.
Modify the Redirects Send all of the visitors of a domain or particular page to a different URL.

New document root

The domain’s document root directory defines the domain’s directory relative to the cPanel account’s home directory. For example, enter newdomain.com in the New Document Root text box for a cPanel account that uses the /home/username home directory. That domain’s files will reside in the /home/username/public_html/newdomain.com directory.

Note:
  • This action changes the directory where the server searches for your files. It does not rearrange your files in any way.
  • You cannot modify the document root directory for domains that share that directory with the main domain.

To provide a new document root directory, perform the following steps:

  1. Enter a new path, relative to the user’s home directory.
  2. Click Update.

Remove the domain

Important:
  • We strongly recommend that you create a full account backup before you remove a domain. For more information about backups, read our Backup documentation.
  • This action only removes the domain’s vhost entries and DNS entries. The server retains the domain’s directory and contents.
  • You cannot delete the main domain.

To remove the domain from the cPanel account, perform the following steps:

  1. Click Remove Domain.
  2. To confirm that you wish to remove this domain, click Yes, remove this domain.

Email accounts when you remove a domain

If you remove a domain that contains email accounts, those email accounts will not appear in the Email Accounts interface (cPanel » Home » Email » Email Accounts). However, the mail folders continue to exist on the server. If you add the domain again, the email accounts will reappear.

List Domains

This interface lists your domains.

Item Actions
Domain
  • Click Domain to sort the list alphabetically by account name.
  • Click an individual domain to visit the public-facing website.
The Main Domain label identifies the domain that your hosting provider listed to create this account.
Document Root
  • Click Document Root to sort the list alphabetically by relative directory paths.
  • Click the home icon () or the file path to navigate to the File Manager interface (cPanel » Home » Files » File Manager) for that domain. A new interface will appear.
This interface displays an unlinked file path if your hosting provider disables the File Manager interface (cPanel » Home » Files » File Manager). For more information, contact your hosting provider.
Redirects To If the listed domain redirects to a different domain, the destination will appear here. Click a domain to visit the public-facing website. A new tab will appear.

To manage redirects, navigate to the Redirects interface (cPanel » Home » Domains » Redirects).
Force HTTPS Redirect
  • To automatically redirect the new domain’s visitors from the insecure version of the website (HTTP) to the secure version (HTTPS), set the toggle to On.
  • To disable redirection to the secure version of the website, set the toggle to Off.
Select the appropriate checkboxes and then click Force HTTPS Redirect On or Force HTTPS Redirect Off at the top of the table to perform this action on multiple accounts.
Important:
  • You can only enable redirection on main domains that also possess a valid SSL certificate. If you cannot enable redirection for your domains, contact your hosting provider.
  • The toggle will not appear for aliases.
Actions
  • Manage — To manage additional settings, click Manage. A new interface will appear.
  • Create Email — To create email addresses for the domain, click Create Email. The Email Accounts interface (cPanel » Home » Email » Email Accounts) will appear.
Show Associated Subdomains To show subdomains that the system automatically creates, perform the following steps:
  1. Click the gear icon ().
  2. Click Show Associated Domains.
This setting is only available if an addon domain exists.
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