Override OS in directadmin.conf

Should you have a need to upgrade an operating system on your server with Directadmin or want to move to another release, and you don't have an access to directadmin control panel to change OS in a license. Here you will find out how to correctly deal with it.

What is it all about?

Directadmin supports various OS releases, it's distributed as a pre-compiled binary and is a platform-dependant software. If you have a binary for FreeBSD%20it won't work on Debian, CentOS. Even a binary for CentOS 6 won't work correct on CentOS 7. So it's very important that you have a match of the binary to the OS for which it is compiled for.

Every directadmin license is bind to an OS release, and in the earlier days we could change it only via a ticket to a support team. That's how it used to be until now. It's changed these days... 

How to change OS in Directadmin

Sure, if you purchased your license directly from Directadmin and have access to a client portal, you should go to directadmin site and update OS version in a license.

Don't have access to client area?

Since Directadmin version 1.53 you can override OS on your server's side without a need to change the operating system in a license, and directadmin will update its version with a correct binary whenever a new release is available.

Check the link:

• Ability to set DA binary OS in directadmin.conf
  

It's said that you need to add os_override= with your URL-encoded value in directadmin.conf, i.e. all white-spaces should be replaced with %20 code. Example: ES 6.0 64 should be changed ES%206.0%2064.

Example of possible values (a full list of possible values can be found at the bottom of the article):

os_override=ES%206.0%2064
os_override=ES%207.0%2064
os_override=FreeBSD%2011.0%2064
os_override=Debian%209%2064

So let's say you have a License for CentOS 6 and run a box with CentOS 7. Here is how you can override OS in directadmin's settings. Run the following command:

echo "os_override=ES%207.0%2064" >> /usr/local/directadmin/conf/directadmin.conf
service directadmin restart

You should control it with:

/usr/local/directadmin/directadmin c | grep os_override

It's OK if you see:

os_override=ES%207.0%2064

That's it. Now you can update your directadmin binary to CentOS 7.

You can use our script to update binary:

• A simple script to update Directadmin from beta/stable channel per your needs
  

p.s. List of possible values:

RedHat 7.2
RedHat%207.3
RedHat%208.0
RedHat%209.0

Fedora%201.0
Fedora%203
Fedora%204
Fedora%205
Fedora%207
Fedora%209

ES%203.0
ES%204.0
ES%204.4
ES%204.1%2064
ES%205.0
ES%205.0%2064
ES%206.0
ES%206.0%2064
ES%207.0%2064

FreeBSD%204.8
FreeBSD%205.1
FreeBSD%205.3
FreeBSD%206.0
FreeBSD%207.0
FreeBSD%207.1%2064
FreeBSD%208.0%2064
FreeBSD%209.1%2032
FreeBSD%209.0%2064
FreeBSD%2011.0%2064

Debian%203.1
Debian%205
Debian%205%2064
Debian%206
Debian%206%2064
Debian%207
Debian%207%2064
Debian%208%2064
Debian%209%2064