DirectAdmin groups its tools into sections. Once you know which section a job belongs to, everything is two clicks away.
The fastest way to find anything
Use the search box at the top of the panel. Type part of a feature name — “DNS”, “email”, “PHP”, “backup” — and select it from the results. Every guide in this knowledge base names the section and feature, so searching for the feature name always works.
The main sections
| Section | What’s in it |
|---|---|
| Account Manager | Domain Setup, subdomains, DNS, SSL, FTP accounts, MySQL databases, Site Redirection |
| E-mail Manager | Email accounts, forwarders, autoresponders, vacation messages, email usage |
| Advanced Features | Cron jobs, password-protected directories and other advanced tools |
| System Info & Files | File Manager, backups, statistics and logs |
| Extra Features | phpMyAdmin, webmail, Softaculous |
Important: Domain Setup includes an option to change your account’s domain. Don’t use it: DNS Guard keeps checking the domain your account was set up with, so changing it can get the account suspended. DNS Guard: why your domain needs to point to Traxio
Where common jobs live
| Job | Where |
|---|---|
| Upload files | System Info & Files then File Manager |
| Create a mailbox | E-mail Manager then E-mail Accounts |
| Create a database | Account Manager then MySQL Management |
| Edit DNS | Account Manager then DNS Management |
| Check SSL | Account Manager then SSL Certificates |
| Change PHP version | Account Manager then Domain Setup, then select the domain |
| Install WordPress | Extra Features then Softaculous Auto Installer |
| Create a backup | System Info & Files then Create/Restore Backups |
| Read error logs | System Info & Files then Site Summary / Statistics / Logs |
Reading the usage figures
The dashboard shows disk space and bandwidth used against your 3GB and 100GB allowances, plus counts of domains, email accounts and databases. Disk use includes files, databases and email together. If it’s creeping up, see What’s using my disk space? How to free it up.
Note: Menu labels can vary slightly between DirectAdmin versions. If a name in a guide doesn’t match exactly, search for the key word.
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