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Proxmox VE

The Proxmox VE community scripts project has a helper script that creates an LXC container with PowerDNS and Poweradmin already set up. The script is listed as PowerDNS, so searching the catalog for "poweradmin" finds nothing.

This script is maintained by the community-scripts project, not by the Poweradmin team. Report problems with the script itself to community-scripts/ProxmoxVE.

What it installs

  • A Debian 13 container (1 CPU, 1 GB RAM, 4 GB disk by default)
  • PowerDNS Authoritative 5.0 from the PowerDNS repository, with the SQLite backend
  • The latest Poweradmin release in /opt/poweradmin, served by Apache on port 80
  • One SQLite database at /var/lib/powerdns/powerdns.db, shared by PowerDNS and Poweradmin
  • An admin user with a random password

Install

Run this in the Proxmox VE host shell:

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/community-scripts/ProxmoxVE/main/ct/powerdns.sh)"

When it finishes, the script prints the container address. Open http://<container-ip> and log in as admin. The password is in ~/poweradmin.creds inside the container:

cat ~/poweradmin.creds

After installing

The script writes a minimal /opt/poweradmin/config/settings.php. Before you add real zones, change at least:

  • dns.hostmaster, dns.ns1 and dns.ns2 - the script sets placeholder values (localhost.lan, 8.8.8.8, 9.9.9.9) that end up in the SOA and NS records of every new zone
  • The admin email address and password, under Users

See Basic Configuration for the other settings. The site is plain HTTP, so put it behind a reverse proxy with TLS if anyone reaches it over an untrusted network.

Update

Run the same command from the container's console (or type update there). It upgrades the PowerDNS packages and, when a new Poweradmin release is out, replaces /opt/poweradmin with it and keeps config/settings.php.

Containers created before 14 August 2026 kept the database at /opt/poweradmin/powerdns.db, inside the web root. The update moves it to /var/lib/powerdns/powerdns.db and fixes both config files, so run an update on any older container.