DNS Record Type Customization¶

Overview¶

Poweradmin 4.0.0 allows you to customize which DNS record types are available when creating or editing records in both domain (forward) zones and reverse zones. This feature helps simplify the user interface by showing only the record types relevant to your specific DNS needs.

Configuration Options¶

The record type customization is configured in the dns section of your settings.php file with two key settings:

'dns' => [
    // Other DNS settings...

    // Record Type Settings
    'domain_record_types' => null,  // For forward zones (A, AAAA, MX, etc.)
    'reverse_record_types' => null, // For reverse zones (PTR, etc.)
]

Default Behavior¶

By default, both settings are set to null, which means Poweradmin uses its built-in default sets - not every type it knows about:

Forward zones: the common types (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, NS, SOA, SRV, TXT) plus a larger set of less common but valid types (CAA, DNAME, HTTPS, NAPTR, SSHFP, SVCB, TLSA, URI and others). DNSSEC types (DNSKEY, DS, CDS, CDNSKEY, RRSIG, NSEC, NSEC3, NSEC3PARAM, ZONEMD) are merged in only when dnssec.enabled is true.
Reverse zones: only six types - CNAME, LOC, NS, PTR, SOA, TXT.

Types the connected PowerDNS does not support are filtered out. Only the types whose support actually changed across recent releases are gated; everything else is assumed supported:

Record type	Requires PowerDNS
`SVCB`, `HTTPS`, `APL`	4.4.0
`CSYNC`, `NID`, `L32`, `L64`, `LP`	4.5.0
`ZONEMD`	4.8.0
`RESINFO`, `WALLET`, `HHIT`, `BRID`	5.1.0

So if SVCB is missing from the dropdown on a 4.3 server, that is the gate rather than a configuration problem. See the PowerDNS supported record types.

ALIAS and LUA records¶

Two types have requirements on the PowerDNS side beyond simply being enabled here:

ALIAS resolves a target name at query time and returns its A/AAAA records, which lets you put a CNAME-like record at a zone apex. PowerDNS needs a resolver configured (resolver= in pdns.conf) or it cannot expand the target. See the ALIAS guide.
LUA records execute a Lua expression on the DNS server at query time. PowerDNS ignores them unless the zone carries the ENABLE-LUA-RECORDS metadata, which is neither readable nor writable over the API - set it with pdnsutil or in the database. Because they run code on the server, Poweradmin also restricts them: users limited to zone_content_edit_own_as_client cannot create or edit them, and seeding one into a zone template needs full edit rights. See LUA records.

Customizing Domain (Forward) Zone Record Types¶

To customize which record types are available when editing forward zones:

'domain_record_types' => ['A', 'AAAA', 'CNAME', 'MX', 'NS', 'SOA', 'TXT', 'SRV', 'CAA'],

This example shows a typical configuration with common record types. You can add or remove types based on your requirements.

Customizing Reverse Zone Record Types¶

Similarly, you can customize which record types are available when editing reverse zones:

'reverse_record_types' => ['PTR', 'NS', 'SOA', 'TXT', 'CNAME'],

Zone Templates¶

When editing zone templates, Poweradmin will automatically show the combined list of both domain_record_types and reverse_record_types to ensure all potential record types for template use are available.

Pinning Popular Record Types to the Top (4.4.0)¶

By default, record types appear alphabetically in selectors. If you regularly create the same handful of record types, you can pin them to the top of every record type dropdown using top_record_types:

'dns' => [
    // Other DNS settings...
    'top_record_types' => ['A', 'AAAA', 'CNAME', 'TXT', 'MX'],
]

Pinned types appear first in the order you list them; all remaining types follow alphabetically. Leave the setting as null (the default) for the original alphabetical-only behavior.

Notes:

Pinning composes with domain_record_types and reverse_record_types. If a pinned type isn't part of the visible set for a given zone (for example, A in a reverse zone), it is silently skipped.
Unknown record types in the list are silently ignored, so typos won't break the selector.
The setting applies to every record type selector in the UI (Add Record, Edit Record, Bulk Add, etc.).

Supported Record Types¶

Poweradmin knows roughly 60 record types, matching the PowerDNS supported types. Any of them can be named in domain_record_types or reverse_record_types. The table below is a selection of the most commonly used ones, not the full list:

Record Type	Description	Typically Used In
A	Maps a domain name to an IPv4 address	Domain zones
AAAA	Maps a domain name to an IPv6 address	Domain zones
CNAME	Creates an alias for another domain name	Both
MX	Specifies mail servers for the domain	Domain zones
NS	Specifies name servers for the domain	Both
PTR	Maps an IP address to a domain name (reverse lookup)	Reverse zones
SOA	Start of Authority, contains administrative information	Both
SRV	Specifies location of services (like SIP, XMPP)	Domain zones
TXT	Contains text information (often used for verification)	Both
CAA	Specifies which Certificate Authorities can issue certificates	Domain zones
DNSKEY	Public key for DNSSEC	Both
DS	Delegation Signer, contains hash of DNSKEY record	Both
NAPTR	Name Authority Pointer for ENUM and other transformations	Domain zones
SSHFP	SSH Public Key Fingerprint	Domain zones
TLSA	TLS Authentication association	Domain zones
LOC	Geographical location of the host	Both (part of the default reverse-zone set)

Use Cases¶

Simplifying the Interface: Hide rarely used record types to make the interface cleaner
Preventing Errors: Limit available record types to prevent misconfiguration
Specialized Deployments: Tailor the interface for specific DNS use cases

Example Configurations¶

Basic Web Server Configuration¶

'domain_record_types' => ['A', 'AAAA', 'CNAME', 'MX', 'TXT'],
'reverse_record_types' => ['PTR', 'NS', 'SOA'],

DNSSEC-Focused Configuration¶

'domain_record_types' => ['A', 'AAAA', 'CNAME', 'MX', 'NS', 'SOA', 'TXT', 'DNSKEY', 'DS'],
'reverse_record_types' => ['PTR', 'NS', 'SOA'],

Full-Featured Configuration¶

'domain_record_types' => [
    'A', 'AAAA', 'CNAME', 'MX', 'NS', 'SOA', 'TXT', 'SRV', 'CAA', 
    'DNSKEY', 'DS', 'NAPTR', 'SSHFP', 'TLSA'
],
'reverse_record_types' => ['PTR', 'NS', 'SOA', 'TXT', 'CNAME'],