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Michael O.28 Feb 2018Updated 23 Jul 2025Servers & VPS1 min read

How to Set Up WHM/cPanel DNSONLY for a Dedicated Nameserver

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Looking to streamline your DNS management without the full weight of a complete cPanel license? cPanel DNSONLY is a lightweight, license-free solution that lets you run a dedicated nameserver while maintaining DNS clustering and high availability. This guide covers what WHM/cPanel DNSONLY is, who it's for, and how to set it up step by step for optimal performance.

Installing cPanel DNSONLY

The installation process for cPanel DNSONLY is fairly straightforward:

  1. To start, you must configure your server to allow traffic through ports 53, 953 and 2087. You can also enable email notifications from the DNSONLY server by opening port 25.
  2. You then want to run the “cd /home” command in order to open the /home directory.
  3. For the next step, you must fetch the newest cPanel installation files. These are found on the official servers, and they can be accessed using the “curl -o latest-dnsonly -L https://securedownloads.cpanel.net/latest-dnsonly” command.
  4. All that’s left is to run the installation files using the command “sh latest-dnsonly”.

Contact HostAfrica for more information on WHM/cPanel and how to setup cPanel DNSONLY successfully.

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Michael O.

The Author

Michael is the founder, managing director, and CEO of HostAfrica. He studied at Friedrich Schiller University Jena and was inspired by Cape Town's beauty to bring his German expertise to Africa. Before HostAfrica, Michael was the Managing Director of Deutsche Börse Cloud Exchange AG, one of Germany's largest virtual server providers.