1 1. What is PowerAdmin

     1 What is Poweradmin?

     2 ------------------------------

     2 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

     4 PowerAdmin is a non commercial front-end for the PowerDNS (www.powerdns.com) nameserver.

     4 Poweradmin is a non-commercial front-end for the PowerDNS nameserver,

     5 The goal of PowerAdmin is to manage the (MySQL) database behind PowerDNS, which contains

     5 see <http://www.powerdns.com>. The goal of Poweradmin is to provide a

     6 the DNS records.

     6 friendly management interface to the database backend of PowerDNS

     7 which actually holds the DNS records. At this moment, both the mysql

     8 and pgsql are supported. The interface allows add, modify and deletion

     9 of both forward and reverse zones and has full IPv6 support.

     8 There have been some changes in this release, both of major and minor importance.

    11 Poweradmin is written by Roeland Nieuwenhuis <trancer@trancer.nl>

     9 Please read the following document to familiarize yourself with them. You are also

    12 and Sjeemz <sjeemz@sjeemz.nl>. It contains patches of Wim Moistry and

    10 requested to report any bugs should you encounter them.

    13 Dennis Roos.

    14 

    15 Please see CHANGES for a list of changes, CHANGES.pre-1.3.0 for a list

    16 of changes prior to 1.3.0 release, README.i18n for information on the

    17 multi language support, README.sequence for information the "sequence

    18 updater" and the insertion of records and zones using other interfaces

    19 than poweradmin.

    14 2. Where to get PowerAdmin

    25 The Poweradmin website can be found at <http://www.poweradmin.org>.

    15 ------------------------------

    16 

    17 The main location of PowerAdmin is http://www.poweradmin.org

    21 3. Notes

    31 - PowerDNS, versions 2.1 through 2.9.19 have been tested, others might

    22 ------------------------------

    32   work as well. See <http://www.powerdns.com>.

    33 

    34 - MySQL or PostgreSQL. Both MySQL versions 4 and 5 have been reported

    35   to work, 5.0.22 has been tested.

    36   

    37 - A webserver that support PHP 4 or 5. Apache 2.0.55 has been tested.

    38 

    39 - PHP. At least version 4.2.1. Version 5.1.2 has been tested. It needs

    40   the mysql or pgsql extension, as well has PEAR. 

    41 

    42 - PEAR::MDB2 (2.4.0 has been tested) and PEAR::MDB2_Driver_mysql

    43   (1.4.0 has been tested) or PEAR::MDB2_Driver_pgsql.

    25 3.1 Migrating

    46 Installing

    26 ------------------------------

    47 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

    28 If you are running a stone-age version of PowerAdmin read the following information!

    49 Upgrading? See section "Upgrading". 

    30 Due to some major changes in this release the current version of PowerAdmin

    51 - Install PowerDNS with a mysql or pgsql backend.

    31 supports gmysql backend. You are strongly advised to backup your data before running the

    32 migrator.php tool in your poweradmin directory. This is to protect you against any data

    33 loss should anything go wrong. We assume it all works properly, but due to a limited

    34 number of betatesters we cannot guarantee our tool is 100% bug free.

    36 !! Please be sure you have a working backup of your data !! 

    53 - Install MDB2 and MDB2_Driver_mysql (or pgsql equivalent) packages of

    54   PEAR. You can install PEAR on a Debian-based server by installing

    55   the package php-pear. Make sure php-cli can access the mysql module

    56   (uncomment the line "extension=mysql.so" in /etc/php5/cli/php.ini).

    57   The addional PEAR packages can be installed using the "pear install"

    58   command (e.g. "pear install MDB2 ; pear install MDB2_Driver_mysql").

    38 Do the following to migrate: 

    60 - Add a SQL user for poweradmin that is granted SELECT, INSERT,

    39 - rename the file migrator.php-pa in your webdir to migrator.php.

    61   DELETE, UPDATE and CREATE actions.

    40 - Go here to migrate it.

    62 

    41 It is recommended to synchronize your database aswell after the update

    63 - Untar and gunzip the poweradmin package in your web dir. This will

    64   create a directory "poweradmin-VERSION", we will refer to this

    65   directory as "poweradmin/".

    66 

    67 - In the 'poweradmin/inc" directory the file "config-me.inc.php".

    68   Edit this file to suit your environment. Then rename this file to

    69   config.inc.php to be able to load the site. The website will not

    70   work properly without a config, so pay attention to your config!

    71 

    72 - Next, go to <http://yourserver/poweradmin/install.php>

    73 

    74 - Fill in the required information to make an administrator login for

    75   your PowerAdmin. If all goes well, the user is added, and you can

    76   log in using that username. Do not forget to remove install.php from

    77   the webdir!

    78 

    79 - Finaly, run <http://yourserver/poweradmin/test_setup.php> to see if

    80   everything is setup correctly. This test also includes the

    81   functionality testing of your PowerDNS records (whether you

    82   have read/write access or not).

    44 3.2 DB Information

    85 Upgrading from 1.2.7-patched

    45 ------------------------------

    86 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

    47 For now on PowerAdmin supports PowerDNS' MySQL back-end only. If there is demand for other

    88 If you are upgrading from 1.2.7-patched, there is not much you need to

    48 database layers support will be added in the near future. Of course, since the code is opensource,

    89 do. The only thing that is needed is install PEAR packages MDB2 and

    49 everyone who cannot wait is encouraged to plug in their own database layer (and if you dare, send the 

    90 MDB2_Driver_mysql (or MDB2_Driver_pgsql). This can be done by running

    50 code to us so we can evaluate it and maybe integrate it with the current PowerAdmin).

    91 the commands "pear install MDB2 ; pear install MDB2_Driver_mysql".

    51 We are still busy with PostGreSQL, but the experience needs a bit more tweaking for us.

    92 Make sure php-cli can access the mysql extension by uncommenting the

    52 Time will release it, we cannot yet.

    93 line "extension=mysql.so" in /etc/php5/cli/php.ini

    53 

    54 By using PEAR::DB we are bound to have some way to keep track of indexes. This is done by using seperate

    55 tables called users_seq and zones_seq. Also records_seq will be there. This means that if you manually

    56 insert a record, chances are 90% that you will have corrupted workings of PowerAdmin (because the ID is

    57 not in order.) The problem can be solved by running the Synchronize Database tool (select it or use the

    58 seq_update.php url). This will let you resynch your indexes. It is also useful if you are migrating

    59 from 1.0 to 1.1 or higher.

    60 

    61 Read more about this in README-Sequence

    64 4. Documentation

    96 User levels explained

    65 ------------------------------

    97 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

    67 PowerAdmin has the following core features:

    99 [x] = yes   [ ] = no

    69 - User Level dependant editing of domains. For example an administrator

   101 User    Permission to   Permission to  Permission to    Permission to

    70   can edit all domains, while a user can for example only edit the domain(s)

   102 Level   change own      change other   create domains   add/modify

    71   owned by him/her.

   103         domain(s)       domain(s)                       users

    73 - Simple administration of users that can access PowerAdmin.

   105  1           [x]             [ ]            [ ]              [ ]

    74 

   106  5           [x]             [x]            [x]              [ ]

    75 - Easy creating of domains. Next of that, the proper assignment of rights

   107  10          [x]             [x]            [x]              [x]

    76   is simply and done within a few clicks.

    77 

    78 - Ability to apply a record-template when creating domains. For now, the template

    79   can only be configured in the config file, but this will be moved to a nice

    80   database-table soon.

    81 

    82 - Editting records in existing zones.