MySQL Configuration for Poweradmin

Overview

This guide explains how to configure Poweradmin to use MySQL or MariaDB as your database backend.

Requirements

• MariaDB 10.6+ (10.11 LTS is used in CI) or MySQL 8.x. MySQL 5.7 reached EOL in October 2023 and is no longer recommended.
• PHP with PDO MySQL extension enabled
• A MySQL/MariaDB user with appropriate privileges (see step 3 below)

Note: Recent Poweradmin releases are tested against MariaDB only (see the tested environments table). MySQL 8.x is expected to work but is not exercised in CI.

Configuration Steps

1. Create a configuration file at /config/settings.php based on the example below:

   <?php
   /**
    * Poweradmin MySQL Configuration
    */
   return [
       /**
        * Database Settings
        */
       'database' => [
           'type' => 'mysql',            // Set database type to MySQL
           'host' => 'localhost',        // MySQL server hostname
           'port' => '3306',             // Default MySQL port
           'user' => 'poweradmin',       // Database username
           'password' => 'your_password', // Database password (change this!)
           'name' => 'powerdns',         // Database name
           'charset' => 'utf8mb4',       // Recommended: utf8mb4 for full Unicode support
           'file' => '',                 // Not used for MySQL
           'debug' => false,             // Set to true to see SQL queries for debugging
   
           // SSL/TLS Settings (optional, added in 4.1.0)
           'ssl' => false,               // Enable SSL/TLS connection
           'ssl_verify' => false,        // Verify server certificate (requires ssl=true)
           'ssl_ca' => '',               // Path to CA certificate file
           'ssl_key' => '',              // Path to client private key (for mTLS)
           'ssl_cert' => '',             // Path to client certificate (for mTLS)
       ],
   
       // Other configuration sections remain the same as in settings.defaults.php
   ];
   

Database Creation

Creating the Database

CREATE DATABASE powerdns CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_general_ci;
CREATE USER 'poweradmin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON powerdns.* TO 'poweradmin'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Note: @'localhost' only allows connections from the database server itself. If Poweradmin runs on a different host, replace it with the web server's address (@'192.0.2.10') or @'%' for any host, and make sure the server is listening on more than the loopback interface (bind-address in my.cnf). Prefer a specific address over %, and see SSL/TLS Configuration for encrypting the connection.

Schema Installation

The SQL schema files are located in the sql/ directory:

• For a new installation: Use sql/poweradmin-mysql-db-structure.sql
• For PowerDNS schema: Check the appropriate version in sql/pdns/[version]/schema.mysql.sql. Only 4.5 through 4.9 are bundled; for PowerDNS 5.x use the official schema

mysql -u poweradmin -p powerdns < sql/poweradmin-mysql-db-structure.sql
mysql -u poweradmin -p powerdns < sql/pdns/[version]/schema.mysql.sql

SSL/TLS Configuration

Added in version 4.1.0

Poweradmin supports SSL/TLS encrypted connections to MySQL/MariaDB servers.

SSL Settings

Setting	Description	Default
ssl	Enable SSL/TLS connection	false
ssl_verify	Verify server certificate (requires ssl=true)	false
ssl_ca	Path to CA certificate file	Empty
ssl_key	Path to client private key (for mutual TLS)	Empty
ssl_cert	Path to client certificate (for mutual TLS)	Empty

Example: SSL with Certificate Verification

'database' => [
    'type' => 'mysql',
    'host' => 'mysql.example.com',
    'port' => '3306',
    'user' => 'poweradmin',
    'password' => 'your_password',
    'name' => 'powerdns',
    'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
    'ssl' => true,
    'ssl_verify' => true,
    'ssl_ca' => '/path/to/ca-cert.pem',
],

Example: SSL without Verification (Self-Signed Certificates)

'database' => [
    'type' => 'mysql',
    'host' => 'mysql.example.com',
    'port' => '3306',
    'user' => 'poweradmin',
    'password' => 'your_password',
    'name' => 'powerdns',
    'charset' => 'utf8mb4',
    'ssl' => true,
    'ssl_verify' => false,
],

Backwards Compatibility Note

By default (ssl=false), Poweradmin disables SSL certificate verification to maintain backwards compatibility with servers that don't use SSL or use self-signed certificates. This addresses issues with newer MariaDB connector libraries that enforce SSL verification by default.