Managing domain aliases in cPanel

Domain aliases make your website available from another domain name. For example, you can make www.example.net and www.example.org show content from www.example.com

Location Under cPanel

cPanel > Home > Domains > Aliases

Overview

Domain aliases are domains that you own, but which do not contain any content. Instead, they point to the contents of another domain or subdomain on your account. This is useful, for example, to hold a domain that you will later sell, or to redirect traffic to another domain.

Important:

Unless your hosting provider enables the Allow Remote Domains option in the Tweak Settings interface (WHM >> Home >> Server Configuration >> Tweak Settings), you must perform the following actions before you attempt to create a domain alias:

• You must register the domain name with a valid registrar.

• You must point the domain to your account’s nameservers.

Create a New Alias

To add a domain alias, enter the domain name in the text box and click Add Domain.

To open the alias domain’s home directory with the File Manager interface (cPanel >> Home >> Files >> File Manager), click the link that corresponds to that alias under the Domain Root column of the Remove Aliases table.

When you create an addon domain, parked domain, subdomain, or main domain, the system will attempt to automatically secure that domain with the best-available existing certificate. If no certificate exists, the system will generate a self-signed certificate to secure the new domain.

If AutoSSL is enabled for the account that owns the new domain, the system will add a request for an AutoSSL certificate to secure the new domain and install it when available.

Note:

You can create email accounts for domain aliases. For more information, read the Alias domain email accounts section below.

Enable or disable domain alias redirection

To enable or disable redirection of a domain alias, perform the following steps:

1. Click Manage Redirection for the domain alias that you wish to manage.

2. To redirect the domain, enter the link to which you wish to redirect the domain alias in the text box.

3. Click Save. To disable the redirection, click Disable Redirection.

Remove Aliases

Notes:

• We strongly recommend that you create a full account backup before you perform this action.

• This action only removes the domain alias, its vhost entries, and its DNS entries. The system retains the alias’s directory contents.

To remove an existing domain alias, perform the following steps:

1. Click Remove for the alias that you wish to remove.

2. Click Yes to confirm that you wish to remove the domain alias. To retain the domain alias, click No.

Search aliases

To search through the list of domain aliases, enter the search criteria in the Search text box and click Go. Results that match your search criteria will populate the table.

Domain alias email accounts

To add new email accounts, use cPanel’s Email Accounts interface (cPanel >> Home >> Email >> Email Accounts), or run the /scripts/addpop script from the command line.

• To move one email account under a domain, run the following command:

  mv /home/old_account/mail/domain_name/email_account /home/new_account/mail/domain_name/

  When you run this command, the system creates the /home/new_account/mail/domain_name/ directory.

• To move all of the email accounts under a domain, run the following command:

  mv /home/old_account/mail/domain_name /home/new_account/mail

• After you move the files, change the new account’s ownership with the following command:

  chown -R new_account:new_account /home/new_account/mail/domain_name

  Note:

  Make certain that you verify ownership of the email account after you move it.

If you remove the domain alias, its email accounts will no longer appear in the Email Accounts interface (cPanel >> Home >> Email >> Email Accounts). However, the email accounts’ contents still exist in the mail folder of the user’s home/username/mail/ directory.

• If you add the domain again, to the same account as the primary domain, an addon domain, or an alias, the email accounts reappear in the interface.

• If you change the account’s primary domain name to the un-aliased domain name, the email accounts reappear in the interface.

  • You or your hosting provider can perform this action in WHM’s Modify an Account interface (WHM >> Home >> Account Functions >> Modify an Account).
  • When you perform this action, the former primary domain name’s mailboxes will not appear in the Email Accounts interface (cPanel >> Home >> Email >> Email Accounts). However, the files will still exist.
• If you move the domain to a different account, you must add the email accounts manually and move the contents of the email accounts manually.

  Note:

  The email accounts must follow the same name and domain formats that they previously followed.

Addon vs. alias domains

Characteristic	Addon domains	Alias domains
The main domain appears in the address bar.	Yes	No
The domain uses the following Apache directive:	VirtualHost	ServerAlias
The domain uses separate logs.	Yes	No
The domain uses separate stats.	Yes	No
The system treats the domain as a subdomain (other than the URL).	Yes	No
This type of domain is ideal for multiple domains that share the same address.	No	Yes