General Settings

The General Settings page configures core system settings: organisation details, the default language and timezone, branding, the hostname and its certificate, sign-in security, and the support contacts your clients see. Navigate to Settings > General > General Settings, or open Settings in the sidebar, which lands here.

Overview

URL: /admin/settings/general-settings

Since panel 1.9.3, the page has five tabs: General, Branding, Hostname & SSL, Security, and Support. The hostname and its certificate are on the Hostname & SSL tab, which replaces Networking, and the nameservers and DMARC are on their own page, DNS Settings.

Every tab has its own address, so you can link to one directly and reload the page without losing your place:

Tab	Address
General	/admin/settings/general-settings?tab=general
Branding	/admin/settings/general-settings?tab=branding
Hostname & SSL	/admin/settings/general-settings?tab=hostname
Security	/admin/settings/general-settings?tab=security
Support	/admin/settings/general-settings?tab=support

Opening the page without a tab value shows General, and the old ?tab=networking address opens Hostname & SSL. Each tab saves on its own, so use the button on the tab you edited.

Since panel 1.9.3, some former tabs are pages of their own, and their old addresses still work:

Former tab	Since panel 1.9.3
Networking	The Hostname & SSL tab. ?tab=networking opens it.
DNS	DNS Settings, Settings > DNS > DNS Settings, /admin/settings/dns-settings.
Redis instances	Redis instances, Settings > Databases > Redis instances, /admin/settings/redis-settings.
Plan limits	Plan limits, Customers > Hosting Packages > Plan limits, /admin/customers/hosting-packages/plan-limits.
Web Server	Removed. ?tab=web-server opens General.

1. General

Configure your organisation's basic information. The screenshot above shows this tab.

Organization Information

• Contact Email (required) - The primary contact email address for the organization.
• Organization Name (required) - The name of your organization.
• Country - The country where the organization is located.
• City/Locality - The city or locality of the organization.

Language and region

Since panel 1.9.3. These are the defaults for users who have not picked their own.

• Default language - the language of the admin, reseller, and client panels for a user who has never chosen one in the language switcher. A language a user picks there wins over this default.
• Timezone - "Dates and times in the panel are shown in this timezone." It changes how dates and times are displayed, not the server clock, which is set on Server Time.

Click Save Settings to apply changes.

2. Branding

Customize the panel's visual identity.

• Brand Name - The name displayed in the panel interface.
• Brand Logo URL - URL to the logo image displayed in the panel. Recommended size is 200x50px.
• Brand Logo URL (Dark Mode) - URL to the logo image used when dark mode is active.
• Default theme - in the Appearance section, since panel 1.9.3. Light, Dark, or System, for users who have not switched the theme themselves, in the admin, reseller, and client panels. Until you choose, the panels open in Light.
• Favicon URL - in the Appearance section, since panel 1.9.3. The address of the icon shown in the browser tab of all three panels. Leave it empty for the AdminBolt icon.
• Login page message - in the Appearance section, since panel 1.9.3. Up to 500 characters, shown above the login form of the admin, reseller, and client panels. Leave it empty for none.
• Footer text - in the Appearance section, since panel 1.9.3. Up to 500 characters, shown at the bottom of every page of all three panels. Leave it empty for none.
• Hide the free temporary domain from all customers - in the Client Dashboard section. Hides the server's free temporary domain on every customer dashboard, whatever the plans' Feature Lists say. With it off, each plan decides through its Free temporary domains option. Available since panel 1.9.0.
• Temporary domain - in the Client Dashboard section, since panel 1.9.4. A domain of your own under which customers get their temporary names, in place of the server's free <ip-with-dashes>.myboltip.com domain. See Temporary domain.

Temporary domain

Since panel 1.9.4, Temporary domain sets the domain under which Create Account suggests a temporary domain for a new hosting account, and which the client dashboard shows as the free temporary domain. Leave it empty, as it is by default, for the server's free myboltip.com domain.

Serve the domain from your own DNS, not from a hosting account on this server, with a wildcard A record for every name under it pointing at this server. For temp.example.com, that is an A record for *.temp.example.com. The panel creates the zone of each customer's name as for any other domain.

Before it saves the field, the panel looks the wildcard record up in public DNS and refuses the domain, with the reason, when:

Message	What to do
Add a wildcard A record *.domain pointing to address, then save again.	Add the record in your DNS.
*.domain points to addresses, not to this server (address). Change the wildcard A record, then save again.	Point the wildcard record at this server.
*.domain has an AAAA record to address, which is not this server. Remove it or point it at this server, then save again.	Remove the wildcard AAAA record or point it at this server, so visitors over IPv6 reach it too.
domain is hosted in an account on this server.	Remove the domain from the account and serve it from your own DNS.
The DNS records of domain could not be checked. Try again in a moment.	Save again later.

A myboltip.com name is refused too: leave the field empty for the free domain. Saving the other fields of the tab with the domain unchanged does not look the record up again.

Only what customers are offered moves to the new domain. The panel's own address and the server hostname stay as they are. Create Account never suggests a service name such as www, mail, or ns1 under it.

The administrator REST API has the same setting: GET /api/settings/temporary-domain returns the domain you set (null when none), the effective domain in use, and the server's free default domain. PUT /api/settings/temporary-domain with {"domain": "temp.example.com"} sets it after the same DNS check and answers 422 with the reason when the check fails. An empty string or null goes back to the free domain.

Colours

Since panel 1.9.3, Colours sets the colours of the admin, reseller, and client panels, with a separate palette for the light and the dark theme.

• Colour scheme - AdminBolt, Ocean, Indigo, Violet, Forest, Teal, Rose, or Graphite, each with a light and a dark palette, or Custom once you change a colour by hand. Picking a scheme saves it at once and recolours the open page, with the notification Colour scheme applied. It replaces all ten colours below, including any you set by hand. AdminBolt is the scheme the panel ships with; picking it reloads the page.
• Light and Dark - five colours for each theme:
  • Main Colour - buttons, links, highlights, and focus.
  • Page Background - the surface everything else sits on.
  • Cards and Sidebar - cards, tables, the sidebar, and the topbar.
  • Borders and Separators - card edges and dividers.
  • Secondary Text - descriptions and hints under headings.
• Preview - the light and the dark palette side by side, drawn from the values in the form.

A colour you change by hand turns the scheme into Custom and shows on the page straight away. Save Settings keeps it; leaving the page without saving drops it.

Appearance

The Appearance section applies to the admin, reseller, and client panels. Since panel 1.9.3 it holds three choices that are saved and applied as soon as you pick them, without Save Settings:

• Corner style - how round buttons, fields, and cards are: Square, Compact, Default, or Rounded.
• Font - the typeface of all three panels, headings included: DM Sans (the default), Inter, Manrope, Plus Jakarta Sans, Outfit, IBM Plex Sans, Open Sans, Roboto, Rubik, or System font. Each option is shown in its own face.
• Sidebar width - one size for each panel, under Admin panel, Reseller panel, and Client panel: Narrow, Compact, Standard, or Wide. The size each panel had before 1.9.3 is marked (default): Standard for the admin panel, Compact for the reseller panel, and Narrow for the client panel. A new admin panel width also resizes the page you are on.

Logo

Since panel 1.9.3, a logo set in Brand Logo URL is fitted into the top of the sidebar whole, keeping its proportions, instead of being cropped. In the reseller and client panels the Reseller or Client badge sits beside the logo, in the brand colour. When Brand Logo URL (Dark Mode) is empty, the dark theme uses the light logo.

Click Save Settings to apply changes.

3. Hostname & SSL

Before panel 1.9.3, this tab was called Networking.

The server hostname and the certificate it serves. The panel, mail (SMTP, IMAP, POP3), and FTP answer on the hostname. Since panel 1.9.3 this tab replaces Networking. It has three parts: Status, Hostname, and Certificate.

Status

Whether the hostname works for the panel, mail, and FTP, in three rows, each with a badge. Check now checks the hostname in public DNS at once and reports the result in a notification.

Row	What it shows
DNS	Points here with the addresses the hostname resolves to, Not ready with the cause and the next step, Unknown when the last check could not conclude, or Not checked. The hostname is checked every hour.
Certificate	The issuer and the expiry date, with Valid, the days left when expiry is near, Self-signed, Wrong name when the certificate does not cover the hostname, Expired, or Missing. When the certificate is not valid, the row offers Issue certificate (or Install purchased certificate while a purchased certificate is in use).
Reverse DNS	Whether the PTR record of the server's public address names the hostname: Matches, Does not match, or Missing, with the fix when it does not match. Mail from a server whose reverse DNS does not match is often marked as spam.

Since panel 1.9.3, a hostname that does not resolve to this server also raises a finding on Health.

Since panel 1.9.4, a fresh install checks the hostname and its reverse DNS within minutes of the install, so the rows do not read Not checked for the first hour. A check that ran but could not conclude reads Unknown with the cause, not Not checked.

Hostname Configuration

The Hostname section holds System Hostname, the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the server. It must contain at least 3 sections, for example server.example.com, and at most 60 characters.

Change hostname asks for confirmation, then applies the new hostname. Point the hostname's A or AAAA record at this server first. What the change does, including to the system mail and the DNS zone of the previous hostname, is described in Change System Hostname.

Since panel 1.9.3, saving a hostname also checks it in public DNS without blocking the save. When the hostname does not resolve to this server yet, a Hostname DNS check notification names the cause, this server's addresses, and the next step.

Hostname certificate

The Certificate section shows the certificate the panel, Postfix, Dovecot, and vsftpd serve for the system hostname:

• Source - Automatic (ACME) for a certificate AdminBolt orders and renews, or Operator supplied for a purchased certificate you installed, with the date you installed it.
• Issuer - the authority that issued the certificate, marked Self-signed when it is one.
• Expires - the expiry date and the days left, or Expired once it has ended.
• Covers hostname - Yes when the certificate is valid for the system hostname, No when it is not.
• Renewal - "Automatic, every night at 03:00." for an automatic certificate, or "Manual" for a purchased one.

Before any certificate is installed, the section says that there is none yet. Since panel 1.9.3 the section shows the certificate actually being served. When a new automatic certificate has been issued but is not served yet, a note says so: "The hostname's own certificate is ready but not served yet; the next nightly certificate run applies it."

Issue SSL for hostname

Issue certificate, or Renew certificate once a certificate is installed, is in the header of the Certificate section while the hostname certificate is automatic. It requests a certificate for the system hostname and applies it to the panel, mail, and FTP. Save the hostname first, and point it at this server in DNS.

• Force re-issue (ignore existing certificate) - requests a new certificate even when one is already present, and goes ahead even when the hostname does not pass the DNS check.

The nightly certificate run renews the automatic certificate. Since panel 1.9.3 it also replaces a self-signed hostname certificate. While no certificate authority could validate the hostname, for example because it does not exist in public DNS, has no A or AAAA record, or resolves only to private addresses, the run orders nothing and the current certificate stays in place. Once the hostname resolves, the next run orders the certificate, or you order it at once with Issue certificate.

When an issuance fails, Health shows the cause until a certificate is issued.

Panel certificate for the server IP address

A browser that opens the panel by the server's IP address, for example https://203.0.113.10:8443, sends no name, so before panel 1.9.4 it got the hostname certificate and warned that the certificate does not match the address. Since panel 1.9.4 the panel port shows a trusted Let's Encrypt certificate issued for the server's public IP address, on new installs and on servers updated to 1.9.4. Opened by the hostname, the panel keeps showing the hostname certificate.

The panel orders the certificate on its own and renews it before it expires. Let's Encrypt issues certificates for an IP address only for a short time, so the renewals are frequent; nothing needs to be done for them. The address must be reachable from the internet on port 80 for the certificate authority's check.

When the certificate cannot be issued, the address keeps the hostname certificate, so the panel still opens with a browser warning, and Health shows the cause. A server without a public IP address keeps the hostname certificate for its address.

Install a purchased certificate

Since panel 1.9.1, you can install a certificate you bought from a commercial authority for the system hostname, with Install purchased certificate in the header of the Certificate section.

1. Save the hostname in the Hostname section first.
2. Paste the certificate into Certificate (PEM) and its key into Private key (PEM).
3. If the authority delivered the intermediate certificates separately, paste them into Certificate chain (PEM, optional).
4. Click Install certificate.

AdminBolt checks the certificate, the key, and the chain before anything changes. If the check fails, the notification gives the reason and the current hostname certificate stays in use. Once installed, the certificate is used by the panel, mail, FTP, and the web server, and Source shows Operator supplied.

If the server cannot apply the new certificate, the notification says whether the certificate in use before was put back.

While a purchased certificate is installed

• The automatic hostname renewal keeps the purchased certificate in place and never replaces it with an automatic one. Issue certificate is hidden.
• Renewing it is up to you: when the authority issues the renewed certificate, install it the same way.
• AdminBolt warns 30, 14, 7, and 1 days before the certificate expires, and again once it has expired. The warnings appear in the notification bell and go out through the channels set on System Notifications, as long as the SSL certificate approaching its expiration date and SSL certificate has expired events are switched on there.
• If the certificate on the server was replaced outside the panel, the section says so. Install that certificate here so the record matches, or switch back to automatic SSL.

Switching back to automatic SSL

Switch back to automatic SSL asks for confirmation, then orders a new automatic certificate for the hostname. The purchased certificate is replaced only once the new one has been issued. If the order fails, the notification gives the reason and the purchased certificate stays in use; try again once the cause is cleared.

Hostname certificate history

Installing a purchased certificate and switching back to automatic SSL are recorded on the Executions tab of Logs (/admin/logs?tab=execution) as Upload hostname SSL certificate and Switch back to automatic SSL. Since panel 1.9.3 each row records the actual outcome: Warning when the certificate is in place but a service did not reload it or the web server could not be updated, with the text you were shown, and Failed with the cause in Details. Hover over Details to read the full text.

When the server cannot reach the certificate authority, or cannot verify the authority's own certificate, the message says so and asks you to check outbound HTTPS and DNS on the server, or DNS, the hosts file, and any proxy for outbound HTTPS.

4. Security

Since panel 1.9.3, the Security tab sets how users of all three panels sign in and who can reach the admin panel. Click Save Settings to apply changes.

Sessions

• Session lifetime (minutes) - how long a signed-in user stays signed in without activity, in the admin, reseller, and client panels. The field accepts whole minutes from 5 to 43200 (30 days). Leave it empty for the configured default, which the empty field shows.

Two-factor authentication

• Require for admins, Require for resellers, and Require for clients - make two-factor authentication mandatory for that kind of user.

A user who must use two-factor authentication and has not set it up is sent, after signing in, to the page where they set it up, with the notice "Two-factor authentication is required. Set up an authenticator app or a passkey to continue." They cannot open other pages of the panel until they have done so. Administrators set it up on their Security page, resellers on their Security page, and clients on Password & Security. An administrator impersonating a reseller or a client is not stopped.

Admin panel access

• Admin IP allowlist - the addresses that can open the admin panel, one IP address or CIDR range per line, for example 203.0.113.10 or 198.51.100.0/24. Leave it empty to allow every address. The help text under the field shows the address you are connecting from.

The list covers the whole admin panel, its login page included: any other address gets "This address is not allowed to open the admin panel." instead of the login form. The reseller and client panels are not affected, and neither is the admin REST API, which works with API keys.

Saving checks the list first:

• an entry that is not an IP address or a CIDR range is refused with "Not an IP address or CIDR range:" and the entry,
• a list that does not include your own address is refused with "The list must include your own address (...), or you would lose access to the admin panel."

Warning: Add every address you and the other administrators work from. If your address changes later, for example on a dynamic connection, the admin panel stops answering you.

5. Support

Since panel 1.9.3, the Support tab sets the contact details and legal links your clients see. They are shown on the client login page, under the form, and at the bottom of every page of the client panel once a client is signed in. Empty fields are not shown, and the admin and reseller panels do not show them.

Support contacts

• Support URL - shown as a Support link.
• Support email - shown as the address, opening the client's mail program.
• Support phone - shown as the number, which a phone can dial.

Legal

• Terms of Service URL - shown as a Terms of Service link.
• Privacy Policy URL - shown as a Privacy Policy link.

Click Save Settings to apply changes.

DNS Settings

Until panel 1.9.2, the nameservers and the default DMARC record were the DNS tab of this page. Since panel 1.9.3 they are on their own page, DNS Settings, under Settings > DNS > DNS Settings. An old link to the DNS tab opens that page.

Web Server (removed)

Panel 1.9.3 removes the Web Server tab. Its Domain Created Page and Domain Suspended Page fields did not change the pages the server serves. An old link to the tab opens General.

Redis instances

Until panel 1.9.2, the server-wide limits of account Redis instances were the Redis instances tab of this page. Since panel 1.9.3 they are on their own page, Redis instances, under Settings > Databases > Redis instances. An old link to the Redis instances tab opens that page.

Plan limits

Until panel 1.9.2, the enforcement of disk, inode, database storage, and bandwidth allowances was the Plan limits tab of this page. Since panel 1.9.3 it is the Plan limits tab of Customers > Hosting Packages. An old link to the Plan limits tab opens that tab.