Tweak Settings — Domains | cPanel & WHM Documentation (2025)

Allow users to park subdomains of the server’s hostname.This setting allows users to park subdomains on your server’s main domain. For example, for a user creating the subdomain.server.example.com alias on the server.example.com FQDN, On would cause the action to succeed.

• On — Allow creation of subdomains on the server’s hostname.
• Off — Don’t allow creation of subdomains on the server’s hostname. If a cPanel user tries to create a subdomain, they receive an error message.

OffAllow cPanel users to create subdomains across accountsThis setting allows a cPanel user to create an addon domain or subdomain on a domain that another user owns. For example, if a user owns the example.com domain, another user could create the store.example.com subdomain.

• On — Allow creation of subdomains across accounts. Do not enable this option. It can cause serious security issues.
• Off — Don’t allow creation of subdomains across accounts. If a cPanel user tries to create a subdomain on another account, they receive an error message.

OffAllow WHM users to create subdomains across accountsThis setting allows WHM users tocreate an addon domain or subdomain for a domain that another user owns. For example, if a cPanel user owns the example.com domain, a WHM user could add a DNS zone for the store.example.com subdomain.

• On — Allow creation of subdomains across accounts. Do not enable this option. It can cause serious security issues.
• Off — Don’t allow creation of subdomains across accounts. This is the default setting.

OffAllow Remote DomainsThis setting allows the creation of parked domains (aliases) and addon domains that resolve to other servers.

• On — Allow creation. Do not enable this option. It can cause serious security issues.
• Off — Don’t allow creation.

OffAllow resellers to create accounts with subdomains of the server’s hostname.This setting allows resellers to create accounts with subdomains on your server’s main domain. For example, if your hostname isserver.example.com, enable this setting to redirectuser.server.example.comvisitors to thereseller’s website.

• On — Allow creation.
• Off — Don’t allow creation.

OffAllow unregistered domainsThis setting lets users add domains without assigning any nameserver records to them.

• On — Allow creation.
• Off — Don’t allow creation.

OffAutomatically add A entries for registered nameservers when creating a new zoneThis setting controls whether to add A entries automatically for a domain’s nameservers when a user creates a domain.

• On — Create.
• Off — Don’t create.

OnReplace service SSL certificates that do not match the local hostnameThis setting changes how the /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/checkallsslcerts script functions. If you enable this, the system replaces SSL certificates that don’t match the server’s hostname. The system replaces them with a cPanel-signed certificate. This also applies to wildcard certificates.

• On — Replace the certificates.
• Off — Retain the certificates.

OnPrevent cPanel users from creating specific domainsThis setting prevents creating domains whose names appear in the /var/cpanel/commondomains file. If you enable this, cPanel users can’t create any domains (addon or parked) that exist in the /var/cpanel/commondomains and /usr/local/cpanel/etc/commondomains files.

• On — Prevent creation.
• Off — Allow creation.

OnCheck zone syntaxThis setting allows the system to check zone file syntax each time it saves or syncs DNS zone files.

• On — Check the syntax.
• Off — Don’t check the syntax.

OnCheck zone ownerThis setting allows the system to check a DNS zone’s owner whenever it saves or syncs DNS zone files.

• On — Check the owner.
• Off — Don’t check the owner.

OnEnable DKIM on domains for newly created accountsDKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) verifies a message’s sender and integrity. It allows an email system to prove that a message is valid, not forged, and came from the specified domain. This setting allows you to specify whether to enable DKIM for new accounts by default.

• The /scripts/enable_spf_dkim_globally script allows you to enable SPF and DKIM for accounts that exist on the server, and to create the appropriate DNS records for their domains. For more information, read our The SPF and DKIM Global Settings Script documentation.

• On — Enable DKIM.
• Off — Don’t enable DKIM.

OnEnable DMARC on domains for newly created accountsA DMARC record sets a policy that tells servers how to handle mail based on the domain’s SPF and DKIM records. This setting allows you to specify whether to enable DMARC for new accounts by default.

• On — Enable DMARC.
• Off — Don’t enable DMARC.

OnEnable SPF on domains for newly created accountsSPF (Sender Policy Framework) keeps spammers from sending email that shows your domain as the sender (spoofing). This adds addresses to a list of computers that you authorize to send mail from your domain. It verifies that your domain’s sent messages come from the listed sender. This reduces the amount of backscatter that you receive. This setting allows you to specify whether to enable SPF for new accounts by default.

• The /scripts/enable_spf_dkim_globally script allows you to enable SPF and DKIM for accounts that exist on the server, and to create the appropriate DNS records for their domains. For more information, read our The SPF and DKIM Global Settings Script documentation.

• On — Enable SPF.
• Off — Don’t enable SPF.

OnDNS request management applicationThis setting determines which application handles DNS management requests.

• dnsadmin, auto-detect SSL — Use dnsadmin.
• Select the text box and enter the path to another application.

dnsadmin, auto-detect SSLService subdomainsThis setting gives users access to cPanel & WHM through standard HTTP ports (80 and 443).

• If you enable this setting, the system creates an entry in the httpd.conf file.
• Do not manually disable the mod_rewrite, mod_headers, or mod_proxy settings in the httpd.conf file.

If you enable this setting, the system creates these service subdomains, where example.com is the domain:

• cpanel.example.com directs users to cPanel’s Home interface.
• whm.example.com directs users to WHM’s Home interface.
• webmail.example.com directs users to the Webmail interface.
• webdisk.example.com directs users to cPanel’s Web Disk interface (cPanel » Home » Files » Web Disk).

The settings in the Redirection section below do not apply to service subdomains. For more information about service subdomains, read our Service and Proxy Subdomains documentation.

• On — Allow ports and create service subdomains.
• Off — Don’t allow.

OnThunderbird and Outlook autodiscover and autoconfig support (enables service subdomain and SRV record creation)This setting creates the autodiscover and autoconfig service subdomains when you create a domain. It also creates autodiscover and autoconfig SRV records.

• Local domains require these for Microsoft Outlook® and Thunderbird.
• If you set the Service Subdomains option to Off, the system disables this setting.
• If you disable this setting, your users may have issues when they set up their email, calendars, or contacts.

For more information about service subdomains, read our Service and Proxy Subdomains documentation.

• On — Create service subdomains.
• Off — Don’t create service subdomains.

OnPreferred mail service to configure to use for Thunderbird and Outlook autodiscover and autoconfig supportThis setting lets you choose the email transfer method to use with Thunderbird and Outlook for Autodiscover and AutoConfig support.

• imap — Use IMAP.
• pop3 — Use POP3.

imapHost to publish in the SRV records for Outlook autodiscover support.The Microsoft Outlook® Autodiscover service searches DNS records. It searches for the SRV record for a domain that points to a particular Autodiscover server. This setting lets you take these actions:

• Choose the host to publish to the SRV records.
• Change the default host to an SSL-enabled host with a CA-signed SSL certificate.
• Use your own server for Outlook® Autodiscover. Enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) in the available text box.

• Click to view…

  cpanelemaildiscovery.cpanel.net
• A valid hostname.

Click to view…

cpanelemaildiscovery.cpanel.net

Overwrite custom A records used for service subdomainsThis setting removes A records that match your service subdomains.

• For more information about service subdomains, read our Service and Proxy Subdomains documentation.
• If you set the Service subdomains setting to Off, the system disables this setting.

• On — Remove A records.
• Off — Don’t remove A records.

OffOverwrite custom SRV records used by Outlook AutoDiscover supportThis setting removes SRV records when adding or removing Outlook Autodiscover support.

• On — Remove SRV records.
• Off — Don’t remove SRV records.

OffService subdomain overrideThis setting creates cPanel, Webmail, Web Disk, and WHM subdomains that override the default service subdomains. For example, a user could direct cpanel.example.com visitors to mycontrolpanel.example.com. For more information about service subdomains, read our Service and Proxy Subdomains documentation.

• On — Create subdomains.
• Off — Don’t create subdomains.

OnRestrict document roots to public_htmlThis setting keeps users from creating addon domains and subdomains outside of their public_html directory. For example, if you enable this option and create the example.com addon domain, the system creates the /home/username/public_html/example.com directory and not the /home/username/example.com directory.

• On — Prevent creation outside of the public_html directory.
• Off — Allow creation in other locations.

OnShare the document root by default when creating a domainThis setting automatically selects the Share document root checkbox in the Create a New Domain interface within cPanel’s Domains interface (cPanel » Home » Domains » Domains).

• On — Automatically select the checkbox.
• Off — Automatically deselect the checkbox.

OnAlways use authoritative (registered) nameservers when creating a new DNS zone.This setting lets a new domain use authoritative nameservers. If you enable this setting, the server won’t use the nameservers you set when creating the domain.

• On — Allow authoritative nameservers.
• Off — Don’t allow.

Off