CelikPanel

Domains and websites

For everyone

Everything you host lives under a domain: the website, its mail, its databases and its DNS. This chapter covers adding a domain, its overview, its hosting settings and its certificate.

The domain list

Domains in the menu lists your domains with their type, disk usage, traffic and status. Choose a domain, or Manage, to open its page. Visit site opens the website; Delete removes the domain with its site, mail and databases for good. Take a backup first (see Backups).

Adding a domain

  1. Press Add domain.
  2. Type the Domain name without www, for example example.com. A subdomain is added the same way: shop.example.com.
  3. Under What is this domain for? choose Website, or DNS only (no website) if the site is hosted elsewhere.
  4. Leave Enable SSL (Let’s Encrypt) ticked if the domain already points to this server.
  5. Press Create domain.

If you asked for a certificate, the window waits for it, up to about a minute. Leave it open; nothing is sent twice. When the certificate could not be issued, the site is still created and works without HTTPS; request it later as described in Certificates and HTTPS.

The overview

The line under the domain's name shows its Type, PHP version, SSL, Disk usage and Traffic this month.

Connecting this domain says whether the name points to this server. Until it does, nothing hosted here answers for it. It offers two routes; enter the values at the company you bought the domain from:

  • Route A hands DNS to this server's nameservers. Mail records and certificates are then managed for you.
  • Route B keeps DNS at your current provider; you add only the address records shown.

A change at the registrar can take from minutes to several hours to spread. The card checks again by itself every half minute for 30 minutes; Check again checks at once. Do not change the records again while it says the change is spreading.

Hosting settings

The Hosting tab groups the website's settings:

  • General: the Document root, Redirect to www and Domain aliases, extra names that show the same site.
  • Hosting type: the Project type: PHP, Static, Node.js, Proxy or Forwarding. Choose one and press Apply.
  • Protected folders and Redirects, if your plan includes them.
  • PHP and SSL/TLS, below.

PHP version

A new website starts as a static site. To run PHP, open Hosting type, choose PHP, pick a version and press Apply. To change the version later, open PHP, choose it under PHP version and press Apply. Only versions installed on the server are listed; if PHP-FPM is missing, the administrator installs it from Components.

Certificates and HTTPS

Open Hosting, then SSL/TLS:

  1. On Free certificate (ACME), check the Email address and keep Enable automatic renewal on.
  2. Press Get certificate.

The certificate authority must reach the domain at this server, so finish Connecting this domain first. A free certificate renews by itself. Custom certificate takes a certificate you bought: paste the Certificate (PEM) and the Private key (PEM) and press Upload certificate.

Force HTTPS sends every visitor to https://. Turn on Enable HSTS only when HTTPS works for good.

If SSL says Configured — needs attention, the certificate exists but the web server or mail server does not use it yet. Open SSL/TLS and press Retry activation.