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Domain management - any tips or suggestions?
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Domain management - any tips or suggestions?

I have just enough domains, spread over just enough registrars, that checking them gets to be quite a chore. I would like to keep track of all their info. By info I mean more their expiration date or whois, but also info like where I'm hosting them at (IP, hostname, location on server like /var/www or /var/www/html or /srv), what I'm hosting per domain (which software, like Wordpress, Druap, etc.), and also their own various DNS info, including the email info (which company, the various DNS records, login info etc.). Making a spreadsheet, I think is the easiest way, but before I do that, does anyone have any advice or suggestions or best practices? For example, I came across domainmod.org, a self hosted domain management too which looks like it could handle all the info I need. IS a spreadsheet the best approach? Thank you.

Comments

  • Well, I use SS (spreadsheet) :lol:

    Thanked by 3plumberg scooke kkrajk
  • DPDP Administrator, The Domain Guy
    edited September 2020

    I use a spreadsheet too :D

    But on top of that, if you use Dynadot (like I do), they allow you to add domains on other registrars.

    You'll see them listed under "Manage Domains", which is where your domains at Dynadot will be, and a separate tab for other domains (Other Registrar) with basic details like "Domain", "Registrar", "Registered", "Expiration", "Status" and "Updated".

    Thanked by 2plumberg scooke
  • @thedp said:
    I use a spreadsheet too :D

    But on top of that, if you use Dynadot (like I do), they allow you to add domains on other registrars.

    You'll see them listed under "Manage Domains", which is where your domains at Dynadot will be, and a separate tab for other domains (Other Registrar) with basic details like "Domain", "Registrar", "Registered", "Expiration", "Status" and "Updated".

    I didn't realize this is possible. Thanks for sharing

    Thanked by 1scooke
  • DPDP Administrator, The Domain Guy

    @plumberg said:

    @thedp said:
    I use a spreadsheet too :D

    But on top of that, if you use Dynadot (like I do), they allow you to add domains on other registrars.

    You'll see them listed under "Manage Domains", which is where your domains at Dynadot will be, and a separate tab for other domains (Other Registrar) with basic details like "Domain", "Registrar", "Registered", "Expiration", "Status" and "Updated".

    I didn't realize this is possible. Thanks for sharing

    You’re most welcome 😃

    Thanked by 1scooke
  • https://dnmin.com is simple but good, I just wish it was open source and available as a self hosted version.

    Thanked by 2plumberg scooke
  • XiNiXXiNiX Member, Host Rep

    @scooke said:
    I have just enough domains, spread over just enough registrars, that checking them gets to be quite a chore. I would like to keep track of all their info. By info I mean more their expiration date or whois, but also info like where I'm hosting them at (IP, hostname, location on server like /var/www or /var/www/html or /srv), what I'm hosting per domain (which software, like Wordpress, Druap, etc.), and also their own various DNS info, including the email info (which company, the various DNS records, login info etc.). Making a spreadsheet, I think is the easiest way, but before I do that, does anyone have any advice or suggestions or best practices? For example, I came across domainmod.org, a self hosted domain management too which looks like it could handle all the info I need. IS a spreadsheet the best approach? Thank you.

    May be this :smile:

    https://codecanyon.net/item/web-studio-domain-hosting-manager/6807005

    Thanked by 1scooke
  • @thedp said:
    I use a spreadsheet too :D

    But on top of that, if you use Dynadot (like I do), they allow you to add domains on other registrars.

    You'll see them listed under "Manage Domains", which is where your domains at Dynadot will be, and a separate tab for other domains (Other Registrar) with basic details like "Domain", "Registrar", "Registered", "Expiration", "Status" and "Updated".

    Wait a minute... this allows me to also change the DNS too??!! If so, that is incredible. I could look at all my domains from this one dashboard.

  • What about something like https://domainmod.org/. It’s free and can be self-hosted even installable through Softaculous

    Thanked by 2Abd sandanista
  • risharderisharde Patron Provider, Veteran

    Nice tips, my tip isnt so much for domains as for subdomains, virtualmin dns manager has a textbox per subdomain where you can write notes / comments and I use one of my domains with subdomains to point to each of my (idle?) vpses

  • DPDP Administrator, The Domain Guy

    @scooke said:

    @thedp said:
    I use a spreadsheet too :D

    But on top of that, if you use Dynadot (like I do), they allow you to add domains on other registrars.

    You'll see them listed under "Manage Domains", which is where your domains at Dynadot will be, and a separate tab for other domains (Other Registrar) with basic details like "Domain", "Registrar", "Registered", "Expiration", "Status" and "Updated".

    Wait a minute... this allows me to also change the DNS too??!! If so, that is incredible. I could look at all my domains from this one dashboard.

    No you can't, unfortunately :)

    You can't manage domains on a remote registrar but I assume you're just allowed to add them so you don't forget that they exist or if you're after some domain somewhere else :joy:

    Thanked by 1scooke
  • Thanks everyone for your replies. I've gone ahead and started with a spreadsheet, but I have this problem... some of the cells info, like the DKIM keys, go on and on! I've looked up how to Hide and Unhide groups of cells, as well as how to manage how data fills a cell (auto-width, or "overflowing visually, or not having the cell change, but still only seeing that data that is visible in the cell (the rest stretches on invisibly unless I click on the cell). Is there any other trick someone uses to manage this? I've used Excel, by the way.

    I'm also debating about how to show the info. Currently each bit of info is in its own new column, making it nice and easy to see the domain names themselves, but perhaps I could actually insert 10-12 rows below each domain name and enter the DNS info there... but then it gets super busy. Hm. What to do, what to do.

  • @scooke said: Domain management - any tips or suggestions? ...would like to keep track of login info.

    KeePass database. One entry or folder for each domain.

    • Expiration dates can be set with alerts.
    • History/versioning is included. I found doing that in spreadsheets is really hard.
    • Hierarchical organisation. If a domain has multiple sites, I can make a folder for it and add sub entries for each sites.
    • Additional fields (IP, hostname etc) can be displayed in the columns for easy table-like view.
    • Can store notes and any additional file can be added (like whois records as txt, invoice for the domain).
    • Can securely manage login info for all my hosted software.
    • Convenient HOTP/TOTP integration. This is important for me as sometimes I don't have, don't want to have or don't need to have other hardware around, but want to use these types of 2FA methods.
    • Compatible clients available on all platform. Lightweight spreadsheet software that support encryption are rare.

    @scooke said: ... but then it gets super busy

    After getting used to the interface (especially the additional fields), I found KeePass fits more to the purpose than spreadsheets as frequent and mass manipulation of fields is not desired.

  • @soalnu said:

    @scooke said: Domain management - any tips or suggestions? ...would like to keep track of login info.

    KeePass database. One entry or folder for each domain.

    • Expiration dates can be set with alerts.
    • History/versioning is included. I found doing that in spreadsheets is really hard.
    • Hierarchical organisation. If a domain has multiple sites, I can make a folder for it and add sub entries for each sites.
    • Additional fields (IP, hostname etc) can be displayed in the columns for easy table-like view.
    • Can store notes and any additional file can be added (like whois records as txt, invoice for the domain).
    • Can securely manage login info for all my hosted software.
    • Convenient HOTP/TOTP integration. This is important for me as sometimes I don't have, don't want to have or don't need to have other hardware around, but want to use these types of 2FA methods.
    • Compatible clients available on all platform. Lightweight spreadsheet software that support encryption are rare.

    @scooke said: ... but then it gets super busy

    After getting used to the interface (especially the additional fields), I found KeePass fits more to the purpose than spreadsheets as frequent and mass manipulation of fields is not desired.

    Hmm, good idea. I just have logins for the actual site in Bitwarden, didn't think of adding all the other info there too. You put it in a Note then?and used folders to organized around each domain?

  • Besides notes and additional fields, KeePass can attach multiple files for each entry and has a built-in text, rich-text, hex editor.

    I can't comment on the product you mentioned. It seems to have a very different user interface and feature set.

    Thanked by 1scooke
  • I used to have a spreadsheet, but then moved on to notion.so

    I track domains and servers on different pages (or sheets), this lets me store different type of information in each sheet. Server sheet has information on CPU/RAM/HDD etc., and one column that links to the domains hosted on the server. This is clickable so you can drill down to specs of the domain (Registrar, expiry date, renewal amounts etc.). I link the reverse as well, so from the domain list I can click and find server specs.

    It is a SaaS platform so easy to sync between my phone and any web browser.

    Thanked by 1scooke
  • @ramesh_vish said:
    I used to have a spreadsheet, but then moved on to notion.so

    I track domains and servers on different pages (or sheets), this lets me store different type of information in each sheet. Server sheet has information on CPU/RAM/HDD etc., and one column that links to the domains hosted on the server. This is clickable so you can drill down to specs of the domain (Registrar, expiry date, renewal amounts etc.). I link the reverse as well, so from the domain list I can click and find server specs.

    It is a SaaS platform so easy to sync between my phone and any web browser.

    The sheets sounds handy. One troublesome bit I have with this spreadsheet approach is that for each domain I also need to indicate it's registrar, where is it being hosted at (which includes at a minimum the IP), but also how its email is being handled (with the DNS entries). I've ended up colour coding each domain to indicate which Registrar it is with (I use 5, no reason why, I just follow the discounts and coupon codes around renewal time), but the Host/IP plus those DNS records, PLUS the email info really makes for a sprawling mess of info. I discovered how to hide sections, but it's not the best work-around. I'll take a look at Notion.

  • @scooke you could go to https://www.honeycode.aws/ and create a simple **no code **app. Basically a table of your domain data linked to a form. Might make your life simple in tracking everything

  • If you can pay for the service, there is efty.com.

    Everything included that you are looking for. You can try it for 14 days (no card requirements) before committing.

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