Are you having trouble with the “Domain already exists” error in DirectAdmin? You are in luck! Our DirectAdmin Support team is here to lend a hand with your queries and issues.

An Introduction to “Domain already exists” error in DirectAdmin

DirectAdmin can be described as a graphical web-based web hosting control panel that simplifies the administration of websites through a web browser. It can be configured to enable standalone, reseller, as well as shared web hosting from a single instance. In fact, the DirectAdmin control is built on sold LAMP stack technology, making it easier to manage every aspect of our website.

However, some of our customers have been running into the “Domain already exists” error while using the DirectAdmin control panel.

Interestingly, this error occurs when the domain you are trying to add is already present in the control panel as an active website, email account, or another service. This can happen if we accidentally added the domain twice or if someone else is already using the domain within your DirectAdmin account.

Two main solutions to the “domain already exists” error in DirectAdmin exists. The first option is to choose a different domain name that is not already in use within the control panel. In other words, we can bypass the error and create our website without any issues.

If we are set on using the existing domain, then we have to remove the existing domain from DirectAdmin and then add the desired domain again. Let’s take a look at the process:

• Check if the domain name is present in the named.conf file. We can locate the file at:
  • RedHat: /etc/named.conf
  • FreeBSD: /etc/namedb/named.conf
  • CentOS or CloudLinux: /etc/named.conf
  • Debian or Ubuntu: /etc/bind/named.conf

  Next, our experts recommend ensuring the domain is not added anywhere in DirectAdmin by navigating to All Accounts in the Admin panel.

  Now that we have confirmed this, we can manually remove the domain name from the named.conf file. Alternatively, we can opt to remove the zone from the DNS Administration section in the Admin Panel. Furhtermore, our experts recommend taking a backup of the zone to avoid losing DNS data.
• If you are using the Multi-server option, our experts recommend ensuring that the servers listed in the Multi Server Setup section on the Admin Level page do not have the domain in their named.conf files. We can easily resolve the issue by disabling the “Check Domain” option to prevent these servers from being queried
• Verify the domain name is not present in the following files:
  • /etc/virtual/domains
  • /etc/virtual/domainowners
  • /etc/virtual/domain.com
  • Any /var/named/*.nzf file in case we used rndc to add or remove zones,

Let us know in the comments which one of our troubleshooting tips helped you resolve the “Domain already exists” error.

[Need assistance with a different issue? Our team is available 24/7.]

Conclusion

To sum up, our Support Techs demonstrated how we can resolve the “Domain already exists” error in DirectAdmin.