1. What is PowerAdmin
------------------------------

PowerAdmin is a non commercial front-end for the PowerDNS (www.powerdns.com) nameserver.
The goal of PowerAdmin is to manage the (MySQL) database behind PowerDNS, which contains
the DNS records.

There have been some changes in this release, both of major and minor importance.
Please read the following document to familiarize yourself with them. You are also
requested to report any bugs should you encounter them.



2. Where to get PowerAdmin
------------------------------

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



3. Notes
------------------------------


3.1 Migrating
------------------------------

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

Due to some major changes in this release the current version of PowerAdmin
supports gmysql backend. You are strongly advised to backup your data before running the
migrator.php tool in your poweradmin directory. This is to protect you against any data
loss should anything go wrong. We assume it all works properly, but due to a limited
number of betatesters we cannot guarantee our tool is 100% bug free.

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

Do the following to migrate: 
- rename the file migrator.php-pa in your webdir to migrator.php.
- Go here to migrate it.
It is recommended to synchronize your database aswell after the update


3.2 DB Information
------------------------------

For now on PowerAdmin supports PowerDNS' MySQL back-end only. If there is demand for other
database layers support will be added in the near future. Of course, since the code is opensource,
everyone who cannot wait is encouraged to plug in their own database layer (and if you dare, send the 
code to us so we can evaluate it and maybe integrate it with the current PowerAdmin).
We are still busy with PostGreSQL, but the experience needs a bit more tweaking for us.
Time will release it, we cannot yet.

By using PEAR::DB we are bound to have some way to keep track of indexes. This is done by using seperate
tables called users_seq and zones_seq. Also records_seq will be there. This means that if you manually
insert a record, chances are 90% that you will have corrupted workings of PowerAdmin (because the ID is
not in order.) The problem can be solved by running the Synchronize Database tool (select it or use the
seq_update.php url). This will let you resynch your indexes. It is also useful if you are migrating
from 1.0 to 1.1 or higher.

Read more about this in README-Sequence


4. Documentation
------------------------------

PowerAdmin has the following core features:

- User Level dependant editing of domains. For example an administrator
  can edit all domains, while a user can for example only edit the domain(s)
  owned by him/her.

- Simple administration of users that can access PowerAdmin.

- Easy creating of domains. Next of that, the proper assignment of rights
  is simply and done within a few clicks.

- Ability to apply a record-template when creating domains. For now, the template
  can only be configured in the config file, but this will be moved to a nice
  database-table soon.

- Editting records in existing zones.


5. Installation
------------------------------

!! If you are updating, you should necessarily read paragraph 3 !!

What you need:
- PowerDNS (Duh!) (Versions 2.1 through 2.6 have been tested, others might work aswell)
  http://www.powerdns.com/
- MySQL
  http://www.mysql.com/
- An (Apache) webserver that supports php4 and php4-mysql. The PHP version must be at least 4.2.1.
  http://www.apache.org/
  http://www.php.net/

First of all, install PowerDNS with it's MySQL Generic back-end.

Next to the MySQL user you created for PowerDNS, you need a MySQL user for PowerAdmin that can do
the following actions on the PowerDNS database you created: SELECT, INSERT, DELETE, UPDATE, CREATE.

Untar/gzip poweradmin-VERSION.tar.gz in your webdir. This will create a directory called
poweradmin-VERSION.

In the 'inc' subdirectory of your newly created directory, you'll find a file called
config-block.inc.php. Edit this file to suit your environment. Then rename it to
config.inc.php to be able to load the site. The website will not work properly without a config,
so pay attention to your configuration!

Next, go to http://www.yourdomain.com/poweradmin-VERSION/install.php

Fill in the required information to make an administrator login for your
PowerAdmin. If all goes well, the user is made, and you can log in using that username.
WARNING! Be sure to remove install.php from the webdir!

After you are done, run http://www.yourdomain.com/poweradmin-VERSION/test_setup.php to see if
everything is set up well.
This test also includes the functionality testing of your PowerDNS records (whether you
have read/write access or not)


6. User levels explained
------------------------------
User levels explained:

[x] = yes
[ ] = no

User        Permission to           Permission to           Permission to           Permission to
Level       change own              change other            create domains          add/modify
            domain(s)               domain(s)                                       users

 1               [x]                     [ ]                     [ ]                     [ ]
 5               [x]                     [x]                     [x]                     [ ]
 10              [x]                     [x]                     [x]                     [x]


7. Further Info && Bugs
------------------------------

The latest contact information can always be found at http://www.poweradmin.org .


8. Links and more information
------------------------------

http://www.poweradmin.org   Our main site
http://www.powerdns.com		PowerDNS
http://www.ietf.org		Information about DNS
http://poweradmin.sf.net	PowerAdmin @ SourceForge
http://www.apache.org/          The Apache Webserver
http://www.php.net/             PHP programming language
http://www.mysql.com/           MySQL database server

9. Changes
------------------------------

Changes for this version are:
- Many many many bug fixes!
- Enhanced sequence updater that is now smarter.
- SOA Fields fixed.
- Automatically SOA serial updating after each change in the DNS.
- MASTER/SLAVE Functionality but that stays untested at the moment of writing. 
  Use the toggles with care, see the config-block.inc.php for more information.
- Search abilities added thanks to DeViCeD
- A lot of other stuff and minor details not worth mentioning that much.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enjoy!

There are some major changes, we would like feedback!
See paragraph 7 for contact information.

Regards,
The PowerAdmin Team