DirectAdmin Dashboard Tour: How to Log In and What Every Menu Does

The first time you open DirectAdmin, the number of menu items can look like a lot. In practice you will use about eight of them regularly. This tour explains how to log in, how the Evolution skin is laid out, and what each section is for, so you know where to go without guessing.

How to log in to DirectAdmin

DirectAdmin runs on its own port on the server, port 2222, rather than on a normal website address. Your login URL therefore looks like https://server-hostname:2222. ProWebHosting includes the exact URL, your username and your password in the welcome details we send when your account is set up. Some hosts also provide a friendlier address that redirects to the same place.

The Evolution skin layout

After login you land on the Dashboard. The Evolution skin has three areas. Across the top is a bar with a search box, notifications and your user menu. Down the left is the navigation, grouped into five categories. The middle is the working area, where the Dashboard shows your account's usage (disk space, bandwidth, email accounts, databases, domains) against the limits of your plan.

Two things make the skin quicker to use. The search box at the top finds any page by name, so typing "SSL" jumps straight to certificates. And the whole panel is a single page application, so pages open without a full reload. The user menu also lets you switch between light and dark mode and change the interface language.

If you have a Reseller or Admin account you will also see a level switch. A standard shared hosting account is User level only, which is exactly the level this tour covers. For background on the levels, read what DirectAdmin is.

Account Manager: domains, databases, SSL and DNS

Account Manager holds the settings that define your hosting account. This is where you go when you add a new website or change something at the domain level.

• Domain Setup: lists your domains, lets you add an addon domain (on plans that include them) and change domain-level settings such as the PHP version or forcing HTTPS.
• Subdomain Management: creates blog.yourdomain.pk style subdomains, each with its own folder.
• FTP Management: creates extra FTP users, useful for giving a developer access to one folder without your main password.
• MySQL Management: creates databases and database users, and opens phpMyAdmin with a single click. WordPress, Laravel and most PHP apps need a database from here.
• SSL Certificates: requests a free Let's Encrypt certificate and shows what is currently installed. Newer DirectAdmin versions label this page SSL/TLS Certificates.
• DNS Management: edits A, CNAME, MX and TXT records if your domain uses the server's nameservers.
• Site Redirection: sends one URL or an entire domain to another address.
• PHP Settings: selects the PHP version for the account.

E-mail Manager: everything about mail

Every email tool sits under E-mail Manager. The item you will use most is E-mail Accounts, where you create addresses on your domain, set their quota and reset passwords. It also shows the settings your phone or Outlook needs. Our guide to creating DirectAdmin email accounts walks through it.

• Forwarders: send copies of mail for one address to another, for example sales@ to two people.
• Autoresponders: automatic replies for holidays or acknowledgements.
• Catch-All E-mail: decide what happens to mail sent to addresses that do not exist on your domain.
• Spam Filters: block or allow senders and adjust filtering strength.
• MX Records: the records that tell the internet where your mail should be delivered, which you only change if you use an outside mail service.
• Webmail: a browser-based mailbox for reading mail without setting up a client.

Advanced Features: cron jobs, error pages and the WordPress Manager

Advanced Features is smaller than its name suggests. Cron Jobs schedules a script or command to run at set times, for instance a nightly cleanup or a WordPress cron trigger. Error Pages lets you upload your own 404 and 500 pages instead of the server defaults.

Depending on how the server is configured, this section can also include DirectAdmin's own WordPress Manager, which installs and maintains WordPress sites from inside the panel. On some servers a third-party app installer appears under Extra Features instead. Either way, the app installer in your DirectAdmin account is the quickest route to a working WordPress site; see how to install WordPress on DirectAdmin.

System Info & Files: file manager, backups and usage

• File Manager: browse, upload, download, edit, rename, compress and extract files in your browser. Your website files live in domains/yourdomain.pk/public_html.
• Site Summary / Statistics / Logs: disk and bandwidth totals, visitor statistics, and the Apache access and error logs you need when something breaks.
• Create/Restore Backups: make a full or partial backup of your account and restore it later. Do this before any major change.
• Resource Usage and Resource Limits: shows CPU, memory and entry process usage against your plan limits, so you can see whether traffic or a plugin is hitting a ceiling.
• Login Keys: create limited secondary credentials for scripts or a developer, with their own expiry and allowed actions.

Of all the sections, File Manager and Site Summary / Statistics / Logs are the ones to learn first. The first lets you fix a broken theme file; the second tells you what went wrong.

Extra Features: plugins and host add-ons

Extra Features is where DirectAdmin places plugins and tools added by the host. The contents vary from server to server. It can hold an app installer, phpMyAdmin shortcuts, a PHP selector tool, or nothing at all. If a tool you have read about elsewhere is missing from your account, ask support rather than assuming it does not exist; it may simply not be enabled on your plan.

Quick reference: where to go for common tasks

Frequently asked questions