Tag: cpanel

Set Time in Cpanel Server
In Cpanel Server, you can set Time Zone in WHM once you logged in as user root. If you have WHM reseller access you won’t be able to set server time. You need to contact the server administrator with root access to set the time.

Go to
```
Home > Server Configuration > Server Time
```
You can also use the search box on the top-left corner of WHM. Search for “time”.

On the Server Time page, you can change the server time zone.

From the Dropdown menu, select the desired time zone you want.

Click the button “Change TimeZone” to change the time zone.

If you have customers from different countries, it is better to select time zone UTC (GMT + 0) as it is universal time Most PHP applications have the option to offset time from UTC and display the local time for users.

Once the time zone is set, click on the button “Sync Time with Time Server”. This will update server time.

Back to Cpanel Server Setup
October 10, 2021
How To See Currently Running Processes in Cpanel/WHM Server
To see the currently running process on Cpanel/WHM server, log in to WHM.

Search for “process” on the left-top corner search box.

Under System health, click on “Process Manager”
```
WHM > System Health > Process Manager
```
This page list all running process. On the left of each process, you have the option to kill a process and trace.

The “trace” option allows you to see what the process is doing. It uses strace command to attach a process and show the result.

kill option allows you to kill a process. There is an option to kill all processes owned by a specific user.

On the left menu, there is another link “Show Current Running Processes”, this just shows a read-only process list. You won’t be able to interact with it.

Another option is to search for “terminal” in WHM, click on Terminal Link. This will open the Terminal connection to the server, here you can run Linux commands. You can use the following Linux commands to see the running process.
```
ps aux
top
```
Back to Cpanel Server
October 7, 2021
Disable catch-all email on Cpanel Server
To disable catch-all email address for all sites hosted on Cpanel Server, run
```
sed -i 's/^\*: [^ ]*$/*: :fail: ADDRESS DOES NOT EXIST/g' /etc/valiases/*
```
Back to Cpanel Server
October 2, 2021
How to fix Cpanel Server shared IP address show customer site
On a Cpanel Server, when you visit a shared IP address used by multiple websites, you will see the website of the first VirtualHost entry. This is not good when you have multiple customer websites as your other customers may visit the IP and see the site associated with the first VirtualHost entry and complain about this. I had customers reporting that their site is hacked when this happened to them.

The solution is to add a VirtualHost entry for the IP address. So when visitors use IP address, that VirtualHost shows up.

On Cpanel Server, you can do this by editing
```
vi /etc/apache2/conf.d/includes/pre_virtualhost_global.conf
```
Add content
```
DocumentRoot /var/www/html



DocumentRoot /var/www/html

suPHP_UserGroup nobody nobody


AllowOverride All


SSLEngine on

SSLCertificateFile /var/cpanel/ssl/cpanel/cpanel.pem
SSLCertificateKeyFile /var/cpanel/ssl/cpanel/cpanel.pem
SSLCertificateChainFile /var/cpanel/ssl/cpanel/cpanel.pem
SSLUseStapling Off



SecRuleEngine On
```
In the above code, replace YOUR_SERVER_IP_HERE with your actual server IP address. If you have multiple IP addresses, repeat the code above for each of your IP addresses.

Now restart Apache
```
systemctl restart httpd
```
See Cpanel Server
September 7, 2021
CPanel SSL Renew on password protected site
We have a site where we host demo websites that we do for our customers. We don’t want search engines to index these sites or strangers to see them. So it is password protected. The problem is Cpanel Auto SSL needs to access URI like /.well-known/ for SSL domain validation. With password protection, SSL domain verification fails and you won’t be able to renew the SSL certificate.

In this post, I am doing it for domain demo.hostonnet.com with Cpanel username hostond.

Redirect HTTP to HTTPS

I want to force all buy SSL verification requests to get redirected to HTTPS. For this, i created a folder
```
mkdir -p /etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/std/2_4/hostond/demo.hostonnet.com/
```
Now create a file
```
vi /etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/std/2_4/hostond/demo.hostonnet.com/force-ssl.conf
```
Add following content to it.
```
RewriteEngine On 
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/\.well-known/
RewriteRule ^/?(.*) https://%{SERVER_NAME}/$1 [R,L]
```
This will redirect all requests that do not start with URI .well-known to HTTPS.

Password Protect site

Since HTTP only allows domain validation (pages inside folder .well-known) and redirects all other requests to HTTPS, we only need to password protect the HTTPS side of the website.

First, create a directory
```
mkdir -p /etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/ssl/2_4/hostond/demo.hostonnet.com/
```
Create file
```
vi /etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/ssl/2_4/hostond/demo.hostonnet.com/password.conf
```
Add following content
```
    AuthType Basic
    AuthName "Restricted Content"
    AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/demo-hon-htpaswd
    Require valid-user
```
Setting Password

HTTP Basic authentication password is stored in file /etc/apache2/demo-hon-htpaswd. To set password, use htpasswd command.

To create a user, use
```
htpasswd -c /etc/apache2/demo-hon-htpaswd admin
```
This will create a user with the username “admin”. You will be asked to enter a password.

Now restart apache
```
systemctl restart httpd
```
See Cpanel Server
August 19, 2021

Cpanel Mail Server

To see the current mail server setup on the Cpanel server, run

[root@server78 ~]# /scripts/setupmailserver --current
Current mailserver type: dovecot
Current storage format: maildir or mdbox
[root@server78 ~]#

Cpanel Provide Following Mail servers

SMTP: exim
POP/IMAP: courier, dovecot

Roundcube mail logs in Cpanel

tail -f /var/cpanel/roundcube/log/errors

See exim mail server, Cpanel Server

June 14, 2021

How to Enable WordPress Toolkit in Cpanel/WHM
WordPress Toolkit in Cpanel/WHM allows you to easily install and manage WordPress websites.

To install WordPress Toolkit, log in to WHM as user root.

Go to
```
WHM > WHM Marketplace
```
On the Next page, you have the option to install WordPress Toolkit.

Methood 2: Usuing command line

To install WordPress Toolkit in Cpanel server, login to SSH as user root, then run the following command.
```
curl https://wp-toolkit.plesk.com/cPanel/installer.sh | sh
```
After installation, you will be able to see WordPress Toolkit in CPanel.

You can enable/disable WordPress toolkit under Feature Manager in WHM.
```
WHM > Packages > Feature Manager
```
How to install WordPress using WordPress Toolkit

This video will show how to install WordPress using WordPress Toolkit in Cpanel Server.

Uninstall WordPress Toolkit

If you want to remove WordPress Toolkit, run
```
rpm -e wp-toolkit-cpanel
```
See Cpanel Server, WordPress
March 29, 2021

Check if Cpanel Server need reboot from command line

To check if Cpanel/WHM server need reboot from command line, run

whmapi1 system_needs_reboot

Example

On a server with latest kernal

[root@ns522466 ~]# whmapi1 system_needs_reboot
--- 
data: 
  details: {}

  needs_reboot: 0
metadata: 
  command: system_needs_reboot
  reason: OK
  result: 1
  version: 1
[root@ns522466 ~]#

On a server that need reboot

[root@server22 ~]# whmapi1 system_needs_reboot
--- 
data: 
  details: 
    kernel: 
      boot_version: 3.10.0-962.3.2.lve1.5.42.el7.x86_64
      running_version: 3.10.0-962.3.2.lve1.5.39.el7.x86_64
    updates: 
      glibc: 2.17-323.el7_9
      linux-firmware: 20200421-80.git78c0348.el7_9
      openssl-libs: 1:1.0.2k-21.el7_9
  needs_reboot: 1
metadata: 
  command: system_needs_reboot
  reason: OK
  result: 1
  version: 1
[root@server22 ~]#

See Getting WHM Access from SSH on Cpanel Server

March 20, 2021

How to Disable Mailman in cPanel?
Mailman is a mailing list management software that comes by default on Cpanel Servers. Most websites don’t need this feature. Most small sites don’t need email discussion features provided by Mailman, mostly used by large scale open-source software for email discussion.

To disable Mailman, login to WHM

Method 1

In WHM, search for “service manager”, click on “Service Manager” link. On next page, make sure checkboxs right side of Mailman is not checked.

Method 2

Go to
```
WHM > Server Configuration > Tweak Settings
```
Search for mailman.

Set value for “Enable Mailman mailing lists” to Off. Scroll down, click the “Save” button.

See Cpanel Server, Cpanel Server Setup
December 28, 2020
Red Hat Killing CentOS Linux, Fight for CentOS clone

RedHat, parent company of CentOS Linux announce it will stop supporting CentOS 8, the latest version of CentOS. CentOS is build from the source code RHEL, making a free version of stable and well-tested enterprise ready RHEL Linux. CentOS 7 will keep getting security updates until it reaches End Of Life June 30th, 2024. For Red Hat, maintaining CentOS wont help with their business. Now they don’t need to maintain CentOS, this will force many users to pay for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

The new version of CentOS known as CentOS Stream is a rolling release. It will be used as a staging version of RHEL. Red Hat expect CentOS Stream to be stable and allow community participation as users will be able to contribute to CentOS Steam. With CentOS, community contribution was limited because it was a copy of RHEL.

CentOS is populary used in web hosting servers as cpanel only supposed RHEL based Linux. With death of CentOS 8, cpanel have announced they will accelerate investment in development efforts to support additional operating systems. cPanel will suport Ubuntu LTS and expect to deliver a production-ready version in late 2021. After Ubuntu LTS, they will look into supporting Debian. Ubuntu is very popular with Cloud Servers as it come with latest software compared to CentOS. With many developers already using Ubuntu on their Desktop, supporting Ubuntu is wise decision by cpanel.

With CentOS 8 unexpected demise, many users will be looking for alternative OS. This opens up market for next CentOS clone.

Rocky Linux

CentOS co-founder, Gregory Kurtzer announced he will be releasing his own Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) replacement Rocky Linux. No ETA on release date yet.

https://rockylinux.org

You can join discussion on their reddit.com/r/RockyLinux/

Project Lenix

Igor Seletskiy, CloudLinux CEO and founder said they will make their own RHEL patch to patch compatible Open Source Linux – Project Lenix.

CloudLinux is a CentOS based commerical Linux, that is popular amoung web hosting providers as it allow resource limit per user and user isolation with CageFS. They also have support for kernel update with out reboot.

CloudLinux will be investing more than a million dollar into Project Lenix. CentOS 8 users will be able to convert into Project Lenix or CloudLinux easily with out reboot. In the announcement Igor Seletskiy said “Red Hat’s announcement has left users looking for an alternative with all that CentOS provides and without the disruption of having to move to alternative distributions. We promise to dedicate the resources required to Project Lenix that will ensure impartiality and a not-for-profit community initiative. CloudLinux already has the assets, infrastructure, and experience to carry out the mission, and we promise to be open about the process of developing Project Lenix”.

See CentOS

December 17, 2020
Disable cPHulk Brute Force Protection
Cpanel Servers have a bruceforce attack detection module called cPHulk Brute Force Protection. In case your server have another bruteforce detection software like ConfigServer Security & Firewall, you may need to disable cPHulk Brute Force Protection as you don’t need 2 software for same purpose running on the server.

To disable cPHulk Brute Force Protection, run
```
/usr/local/cpanel/bin/cphulk_pam_ctl --disable
```
You can also use
```
https://SERVER_IP:2087/scripts2/doautofixer?autofix=disable_cphulkd
```
Or login to WHM, Go to
```
WHM Home > Security Center > cPHulk Brute Force Protection
```
click OFF button to disable cPHulk.
December 11, 2020

Modify Apache Virtual Host for a site in Cpanel Server

On Cpanel server Apache configuration file get recreated every time you modify or add a new web site. In cause you need to modify VirtualHost entry for a web site hosted in cpanel, you should not edit /etc/apache2/conf/httpd.conf file.

If you open /etc/apache2/conf/httpd.conf and check virtual host entry for a web site, you will see line like

# Include "/etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/std/2_4/USERNAME/DOMAINNAME/*.conf"
# Include "/etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/ssl/2_4/USERNAME/DOMAINNAME/*.conf"

in non-ssl and ssl virtual host entry for a domain. To modify virtual host entry, you need to create the folder, then create a file with extension .conf

Then rebuilt httpd.conf by running

/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/rebuildhttpdconf

During rebuild, the script will check for the conf file, if found the line get uncommented (remove # from beginning of Include line).

For a web site, i need to protect it with password. This is a feature available in cpanel, but i want it done on server side, so no one accidently make this site public by deleting .htacess.

To do this, i created folders

mkdir -p /etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/std/2_4/serverok/demo.serverok.in/
mkdir -p /etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/ssl/2_4/serverok/demo.serverok.in/

In this cause, cpanel user name is “serverok” and the web site url is demo.serverok.in

I created .conf file in both folders

vi /etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/std/2_4/serverok/demo.serverok.in/password.conf
vi /etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/ssl/2_4/serverok/demo.serverok.in/password.conf

Add content

AuthType Basic AuthName "Restricted Content" AuthUserFile /etc/apache2/serverok-htpaswd Require valid-user Now rebuild httpd.conf with

/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/rebuildhttpdconf

Restart Apache with

systemctl restart httpd

Now when i visit the web site, it ask for password. We have not yet created password file, so create it with

htpasswd -b -c /etc/apache2/serverok-htpaswd USERNAME_HERE PASSWORD_HERE

See Cpanel Server, Apache

December 9, 2020

Tag: cpanel

Redirect HTTP to HTTPS

Password Protect site

Setting Password

Methood 2: Usuing command line

How to install WordPress using WordPress Toolkit

Uninstall WordPress Toolkit

Method 1

Method 2

Rocky Linux

Project Lenix