How does BackupWall work with DirectAdmin?
BackupWall works with DirectAdmin (tested on 1.697 and 1.710, Evolution skin). One plugin has two levels: administrators get the full console under Extra Features, and users get a self-service page for their own backups, restores and downloads.
Supported versions
DirectAdmin has no version check. PortWall tested 1.697 and 1.710, one server each, on AlmaLinux 9. DirectAdmin on Debian or Ubuntu was not tested. Only the Evolution skin was checked.
How BackupWall connects
The installer creates a non-expiring DirectAdmin login key named backupwall. BackupWall uses it to talk to DirectAdmin. If someone revokes it, backups fail until you run install.sh again. Treat it as a credential.
The plugin
Run bash directadmin-plugin/install.sh after the main install.
- Admin level: Extra Features → BackupWall opens the full admin console inside DirectAdmin, signed in by the DirectAdmin session.
- User level: Extra Features → BackupWall shows the user their own backups, restores and downloads. The user plugin holds no BackupWall key; it passes the user's DirectAdmin session, and BackupWall asks DirectAdmin who that is.
- There is no reseller level.
- The installer restarts DirectAdmin.
- If your DirectAdmin admin account is not called
admin, runDA_ADMIN=youradmin bash directadmin-plugin/install.sh.
Downloads
The installer also adds a timer, backupwall-download-proxy.timer, that sets up a /backupwall-download reverse proxy in whichever web server DirectAdmin uses (Apache, nginx, LiteSpeed and so on). That is how downloads resume. The timer re-applies the proxy every 5 minutes, so after you switch DirectAdmin's web server, downloads can fail for up to 5 minutes.
What BackupWall captures on DirectAdmin
Home directories, databases, mailboxes, DNS zones of every record type, domains and subdomains, FTP logins with their passwords, forwarders, catch-all, autoresponders, vacation messages and mail filters, majordomo mailing lists, each domain's HTTPS redirect, PHP version and suspension, and mailbox quotas. A suspended account is backed up and restored.
DirectAdmin-specific limits
- DNS record types DirectAdmin does not take (for example NAPTR, SSHFP, SPF and LOC) are not written back on a restore, and the restore names each one.
- Mailing-list archives and digests waiting to be sent are not backed up (the lists, their subscribers and settings are).
- A mailing list missing from a suspended account is not made again by an in-place restore, because DirectAdmin refuses it while the account is suspended. Switch the account on and restore again.
- DirectAdmin 1.712's own account delete can leave the FTP logins of the account's other domains in
/etc/proftpd.passwd. After deleting an account, check that file for its domains. - The cutover web proxy for a migration works with Apache only. nginx, nginx_apache, LiteSpeed and OpenLiteSpeed are refused, though DNS is still repointed.
- DirectAdmin takes DNS changes from a queue, so migrated records can appear about a minute late.