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

DNS Templates

DNS templates in Poweradmin allow you to create standardized sets of DNS records that can be applied to multiple zones, streamlining zone management and ensuring consistency across domains.

Template Management

Templates are managed through the Poweradmin interface and stored in the database. Each template can contain multiple DNS records of various types (A, CNAME, MX, etc.) that will be applied when the template is used.

Templates support placeholders that are automatically substituted:

[ZONE] - replaced with the actual domain name
[SERIAL] - replaced with current date + sequence (YYYYMMDD00)
[NS1], [NS2], etc. - replaced with configured nameservers
[HOSTMASTER] - replaced with configured hostmaster email

Zone Template Application

When Changing a Zone's Template

When you change a zone's template on the edit page:

Only template-generated records are overwritten - the system specifically deletes records that were originally created from templates
Manual records are completely preserved - any records you added manually remain untouched
Changes are immediate - template application happens instantly when you save the change
SOA records are handled specially - existing serial numbers are preserved and incremented appropriately

How Poweradmin Tracks Template Records

Poweradmin maintains a database table (records_zone_templ) that tracks which DNS records were created from templates. This allows the system to:

Identify which records can be safely replaced during template updates
Preserve manually added records during template changes
Maintain the relationship between zones and their source templates

Template Synchronization

Manual Updates Only

Important: Zones do NOT automatically update when templates are modified. This is by design to give administrators explicit control over when changes are applied.

Methods to Apply Template Changes

Individual Zone Update:

Go to Edit Zone page
Change the template dropdown (even to the same template)
Save changes - this triggers a template refresh

Bulk Zone Update:

Go to Edit Template page
Click "Update Zones" button
This updates ALL zones currently using that template

No Automatic Sync Indicators

Poweradmin does not currently provide interface indicators showing which zones are "out of sync" with their templates. Administrators must manually track when template changes need to be applied to existing zones.

Permissions

Zone Template Operations

Different template operations require different permissions:

Creating zone templates: Requires zone_templ_add permission
Listing zone templates: Requires zone_master_add OR user_is_ueberuser permission
Editing/deleting zone templates: Requires user_is_ueberuser OR (zone_templ_edit AND template ownership)
Adding/editing/deleting template records: Requires user_is_ueberuser OR (zone_templ_edit AND template ownership)

Applying Templates to Zones

Creating zones with templates: Requires zone_master_add OR zone_slave_add permission
Changing existing zone templates: Requires zone editing permissions (zone_content_edit_own for owned zones or zone_content_edit_others for other zones)
Unlinking zones from templates: Requires user_is_ueberuser OR zone editing permissions (zone_content_edit_own/zone_content_edit_others OR zone_meta_edit_own/zone_meta_edit_others)

Permission Templates

Poweradmin also supports permission templates (different from zone templates):

Adding permission templates: Requires templ_perm_add permission
Editing permission templates: Requires templ_perm_edit permission
Deleting permission templates: Requires user_edit_templ_perm permission

Default Zone Template

A global zone template can be marked as the default. The marked template is pre-selected on the Add master zone form (instead of "none") and shown with a "(default)" suffix in the dropdown, so users know which template will be applied if they don't change the selection.

Setting the default from the UI

On the Zone templates list, ueberusers see a star button next to each global template:

An outline star icon - "Set as default": flags this template as the default. Any previously flagged template is cleared in the same operation.
A filled star icon - "Unset as default": clears the flag.

A blue "default" badge marks the active row.

Only global templates (Type: global in the list) can be marked default. If a template is later converted to private, the default flag is cleared automatically so it cannot become an orphan.

Setting the default via configuration

If you cannot mark a default through the UI, set dns.default_zone_template in config/settings.php. The value is either the template id or its name:

'dns' => [
    'default_zone_template' => 'Standard',  // by name
    // 'default_zone_template' => 7,        // or by id
],

The DB-backed default (set via the UI) takes precedence over the config setting; the config setting is the fallback when no template is flagged in the database.

When the configured template is the active default but no row carries the DB flag, the list view shows a "default (config)" badge - a hint that the value comes from settings.php and cannot be cleared from the UI.

Edge cases

If the configured name resolves to multiple global templates (template names are not strictly unique in the database), the setting is ignored and a warning is logged. Either rename one of the duplicates or use the template id.
If the configured template no longer exists, the form silently falls back to "none" and a warning is logged. Update or remove the setting to clear the warning.
Personal templates cannot be the default. Setting dns.default_zone_template to a private template id has no effect.

Configuration

Template display in zone listings can be controlled via the interface.display_template_in_zone_list setting in your configuration file.

The default zone template is configured via dns.default_zone_template (see Default Zone Template above).