About cPanel
cPanel is a used to manage servers via a GUI interface rather than through the conventional command line. Though cPanel installation is quite simple, the script does takes a number of hours while running.
Notes
- Once cPanel is installed it is not possible to remove it from the server without full server restore. it does not have feature to uninstall cPanel.
- Furthermore, cPanel is liable to be subjected to a licensing fee.
Setting up
Two carefull steps needs to be taken before installing cPanel on the droplet
First of all, we should ensure that Perl is deployed on the server
sudo yum install perl
After installation of perl, an additional preliminary step needs to be taken.
cPanel ensures the need of the Fully Qualified Domain Name in the server. So we will provide a valid hostname to it. If you skip this step then you’ll get this very general error as shown below:
2012-11-01 16:00:54 461 (ERROR): Your hostname () is not set properly. Please 2012-11-01 16:00:54 462 (ERROR): change your hostname to a fully qualified domain name, 2012-11-01 16:00:54 463 (ERROR): and re-run this installer.
However, the solution to this problem is very easy. In case you possess a FQDN, then you can enter it with the following command:
hostname your FQDN
Alternatively, you can provide a temporary hostname in case you don’t have FQDN for deplyoing cPanel. On completion of installation of cPanel, on the first setup pages itself, you would be able to modify the hostname to the permanent one.
hostname host.example.com
Installation of cPanel
Although installation of cPanel is just few steps away, it does takes quite a long time. Though utilization of program “screen” is not mandatory for installing cPanel, but it can help a lot during the installation process. where intermittent internet issues is major cause or in case you need to pause the tedious installation process.
First of all, install screen with command as follow:
sudo yum install screen
On screen installation, start a new running session:
screen
Following opening the screen, you can start installing cPanel with a DNS only cPanel version or WHM.
- To install cPanel through WHM:
wget -N http://httpupdate.cPanel.net/latest
- The install cPanel with the DNS only version:
wget -N http://httpupdate.cPanel.net/latest-dnsonly
On downloading of the requested packaged, we can move forward and begin the script running:
sh latest
Now close out of the screen. The script will continue to run in the backdrop even on closing out of the server as it may require one to two hours in completing.
For detaching screen type: Cntrl-a-d
to reattach to your screen:
screen -r
On final installation of cPanel, login can be accessed by visiting your domain (for instance.com:2087) or IP address:2087 (like 12.34.45.678:2087l).
The login credentials will be as follows:
username: your_server_user password: your_password
You can create cPanel user from here and thus login in at domain/cpanel or ipaddress/cpanel.
