Before you can create an addon domain in cPanel and successfully use it, you must change the name servers for the addon domain name to match the name servers of the primary domain of your cPanel. The cPanel will allow you to create an addon domain even if the addon domain you are adding is not registered or is not propagated to the server you are setting it up on. This makes it easy to avoid downtime if you are moving an existing domain from another host or server over to your cPanel as an addon domain.
How do I create an addon domain?
- Log into cPanel and click on the "Addon Domains" icon.
- In the "New Domain Name" field, enter the domain name you wish to add. You must enter the domain name without www. or http:// in front of it. If you wish to add "http://www.code-three.com" then you would simply enter "code-three.com".
- The Subdomain/FTP Username" field will be used for two different purposes. This field will set up both the new subdomain the addon domain will load from and also the FTP account that will have access to publish to the document root of this new addon domain. The field will automatically populate with a cPanel suggested value which will look like the domain you have entered without the TLD of the domain. If you were adding "code-three.com", then the field would populate with "code-three". This will cause cPanel to create a subdomain of code-three.primarydomain.com from which your addon domain, code-three.com, will load from. The FTP user name which is created will be code-three@primarydomain.com and not code-three@code-three.com. This is because cPanel will not allow FTP accounts to be created that have usernames which match your addon domains.
- The "Document Root" field will allow you to set the location from which this new addon domain will load it's content from. If you wish to add code-three.com as an addon domain, then this field will automatically populate with a cPanel suggested value which will look like "/public_html/code-three.com". If you change the document root of your addon domain, then when the addon domain is created, this document root will be reflected in the creation of the subdomain and FTP username that are created for your addon domain. Note: Changing the document root of your addon domain does not change the subdomain or the FTP username that is created, it will only modify their document root. To see this, you would have to visit the "Subdomains" and "FTP Accounts" icons and view the document root information.
- Next, you will need to create a password for the FTP account that is created for your addon domain. You must enter this password twice so that cPanel may verify that you do infact know the password you have entered and that it does not contain any typos. You may choose any password you wish, it does not matter if the new password matches the password of other FTP accounts. If you wish to reset the password to this FTP account in the future, you will need to use the "FTP Accounts" icon in cPanel to do so.
- Finally, you are nearly finished. All you must do now is click on the "Add Domain!" button to complete the setup of your new addon domain.
About addon domains
Addon domains are handled like subdomains as far as the server is concerned, but to the outside world they are separate domains.
When you setup an addon domain, you enter the domain name only (without www. or http://). The system will automatically suggest an appropriate subdomain and document root. The subdomain and FTP account will be automatically generated by cPanel upon creation of the addon domain. You do not have to create those manually.
The FTP account which is created will only have access to the document root you have specified for the new addon domain.
Addon domains do not have their own cPanel, however, you may create or modify anything for your addon domain that cPanel will create or modify for your primary domain ( E-mail accounts, redirects, fantastico installations, subdomains, etc. ).
Web stats for your addon domain will be found within the icon of the web stat program you select in cPanel. If you are using an older cPanel theme such as "X", you will need to look under subdomain stats to find the web stats.
You may actually load your addon domain in one of three ways:
- http://addondomain.com/ ( As an addon domain )
- http://addondomain.com.primarydomain.com/ ( As a sub domain )
- http://primarydomain.com/addondomain.com/ ( As a sub folder )
Unless otherwise specified by a script you have installed on this addon domain, all three examples should load the very same content.
