Troubleshooting

The UI cannot connect to PowerDNS

Check that PDNS_API_URL is reachable from the machine or container running PowerDNS Web UI. From that environment:

curl -H 'X-API-Key: your-key' \
  "$PDNS_API_URL/api/v1/servers/$PDNS_SERVER_ID"

If this fails, fix networking, the PowerDNS webserver configuration, or the API key before debugging the UI.

The value of PDNS_API_KEY must match api-key in pdns.conf. Restart PowerDNS after changing pdns.conf.

Check PDNS_SERVER_ID. Most installations use:

PDNS_SERVER_ID=localhost

If your API exposes a different server ID, use that value.

Inside a container, localhost means the container itself. Use a reachable host instead, such as:

PDNS_API_URL=http://pdns:8081

for another Compose service, or a host bridge address when PowerDNS runs on the Docker host.

Confirm that PowerDNS is configured for ALIAS expansion:

resolver=[::1]:5300
expand-alias=yes

The resolver must not point back to the authoritative server itself.

Check the primary zone metadata and network path: