This documentation covers Poweradmin 4.x. Some sections are still being expanded.

Debian Installation

This guide will help you install Poweradmin on Debian systems. Debian 12 (PHP 8.2) is the recommended target.

Prerequisites

Install PowerDNS

Poweradmin is a frontend for an existing PowerDNS authoritative server - it does not install or run PowerDNS itself. If you do not already have PowerDNS running, install it first and configure a database backend (MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, or SQLite). See the PowerDNS installation guide for details.

Install PHP and Extensions

Install PHP and the extensions Poweradmin requires:

apt install php php-cli php-intl php-mbstring php-xml php-curl php-fpm

Note: gettext and tokenizer are built into php-cli on Debian and do not need separate packages. php-fpm is required only if you plan to use Nginx or choose not to use mod_php with Apache.

Database Support

Install the appropriate PHP database driver based on your preferred database:

# For MySQL/MariaDB
apt install php-mysql

# For PostgreSQL
apt install php-pgsql

# For SQLite
apt install php-sqlite3

Web Server Configuration

Apache

Install Apache if it is not already present:

apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-php

Then:

  1. Enable the required Apache modules:
a2enmod rewrite headers

  1. Either place Poweradmin in the default webroot (/var/www/html/) or create a virtual host configuration.

  2. Ensure AllowOverride All is set in your Apache configuration to allow the .htaccess file to function properly.

The .htaccess file included with Poweradmin handles URL routing, API support, and security rules automatically.

Nginx Configuration

If you prefer Nginx, use the configuration example provided in the Poweradmin repository. The configuration includes API routing, CORS support, security rules, and clean URL handling.

Version-specific configuration files:

Save the configuration to /etc/nginx/sites-available/poweradmin and adjust:

  • server_name - Set to your domain name
  • root - Set to your Poweradmin installation path
  • fastcgi_pass - Adjust PHP-FPM socket path to match your installed PHP version (e.g., unix:/var/run/php/php8.2-fpm.sock on Debian 12)

Then enable the site:

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/poweradmin /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
nginx -t  # Test the configuration
systemctl reload nginx

Caddy Configuration

For Caddy servers, use the configuration example from the repository:

Installing Poweradmin

Obtain Poweradmin Source Code

Download the latest release from the stable line (currently the 4.2.x series). Always check the releases page for the most recent version - the example below uses v4.2.3:

VERSION=4.2.3
wget https://github.com/poweradmin/poweradmin/archive/refs/tags/v${VERSION}.zip
unzip v${VERSION}.zip

Or download directly from your browser and transfer the files to your server.

Deploy to Web Server

Move the Poweradmin files to your web server's document root:

cp -r poweradmin-${VERSION}/* /var/www/html/
chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/

Complete the Installation

  1. Visit http://your-server/install/ in your browser
  2. Follow the installation steps
  3. Once installation is complete, remove the install directory for security
  4. Log in with the admin username and password created during installation

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues:

  • Check PHP error logs: /var/log/apache2/error.log or /var/log/nginx/error.log
  • Ensure all required PHP extensions are installed and enabled
  • Verify file permissions are set correctly for your web server user
  • For API issues, ensure CORS headers and Authorization header forwarding are configured (see the example configs)