If your cPanel account is giving you the error “Sorry the domain is already set up,” it’s probably due to one of two different reasons. On it’s own, this error simply means that the domain in question still exists within the virtualhost in the apache httpd.conf configuration file. In the following guide, we’ll cover the two most likely reasons why you’re receiving this error message as well as the steps needed to resolve the issue.
Troubleshooting cPanel
The following are two possible explanations for why you might be receiving this error:
- Explanation One – The first possible explanation, is that the domain you are trying to create is already being used as a primary, addon, or parked domain for another account.
- Explanation Two – Alternatively, it may be possible that you are facing a technical issue associated with the domain. For instance, if the domain was previously associated with another account and was removed using the removing function, it’s possible that it wasn’t removed completely from the system.
If the error is due to the first reason, you can easily remove the domain name from the cPanel account. Even if it is not removed, it should produce the following error:
Error from park wrapper: Sorry, you do not control the domain
Fixing the cPanel Error
To resolve this issue, follow these steps:
- First, you should find out who owns the domain. To do so, enter the following command:
/scripts/whoowns example.com
*Note: you will of course need to replace the “example.com” shown above with the name of the domain in question.
- Even if the above command produces no results, enter the following command string:
grep example.com /var/cpanel/users/*
- This will generate a result that looks something like the following:
root@server [~]# grep example.com /var/cpanel/users/*
/var/cpanel/users/exam:XDNS1=example.com - This information shows the owner of the domain example.com. Now that you know which account the domain is currently associated with, the next step is to update the following files with the new user and remove the lines associated with the previous domain.
/var/named/example.com.db
Remove the virtualhost for example.com from /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
/var/cpanel/users/username [remove entries related to the domain]
/etc/userdomains
/etc/localdomains
vim /etc/named.conf [remove entries related to domain]
Remove DNS entry in WHM
Run /scripts/updateuserdomains as root on the server.
And there you have it!
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