Tutorial cP100: Getting Started with cPanel

cPanel Support often receives tickets asking how to "get started" after cPanel is installed.

This guide is meant to explain what the difference between WHM and cPanel is as well as how to quickly get started with cPanel. I will also provide direct links to Documentation within this Guide as our Documentation is constantly updated and is very useful.

What is WHM?

WHM (WebHost Manager)

If you are a root user you will be dealing quite a bit with WHM.

WHM is considered the "root interface" which lets you do things to manage your server such as:

• Manage your web server (Apache)
• Create new user (cPanel) accounts
• Create new reseller (WHM) accounts
  
• Manage your email server (Exim/Dovecot)
• View your server information (disk usage, memory usage, etc)
• Reset cPanel passwords
• Much more!

Documentation: WHM FAQ

How do I get to WHM?

There are actually a few different ways to get to WHM:

Note: You will need to replace "198.51.100.1" with the IP Address OR Hostname of your server.

• Navigate to https://198.51.100.1/whm
• Navigate to https://198.51.100.1:2087

Once you navigate to the URL, you will see a Login page, you will need to login with the username "root" and the password will be the root password of your server.

Once you are logged in, you will need to accept the EULA and run through the setup screen. Once this is complete, you will then see the main WHM interface.

You will likely first want to ensure that your nameservers are correctly setup, that is not within the scope of this post however, we do have a KB article regarding this and a forum post below:

KB: How to Set Up Nameservers in a cPanel Environment
Forum: [Tutorial] Nameserver configuration on cPanel servers

How do I create my first user/cPanel account within WHM?

Documentation: Create a New Account

You can create a new cPanel account by navigating to WHM > Account Functions > Create a New Account.

Once you create the new user account, you want to give your Customer the cPanel Link which is below "How do I get to cPanel"

What are Packages and how do I create them?

Documentation: Add a Package

Packages are essentially "Plans" that allow you to quickly set your limits and features that an account receives when creating a new account.

You can create new packages by navigating to WHM > Packages > Add a Package

Below are some of the things that are set within a Package:

• Disk Quota
• Monthly Bandwidth
• Max FTP Accounts
• Max Email Accounts
• Max Email Lists
• Max Databases
• Max Sub Domains
• Max Parked Domains
• Max Addon Domains
• Maximum email per hour
• Maximum failed or deferred messages per hour

What are Resellers?

A reseller is a cPanel account owner that also sells cPanel accounts to other users. A reseller purchases system resources from a hosting provider, and then allocates the resources to the cPanel accounts that they sell.

A reseller account is a cPanel account with additional privileges. The system allows reseller accounts access to a limited version of the WHM interface, which allows them to manage the cPanel accounts that they sell.

Click to expand...

Documentation: Guide to Reseller Accounts

How do I bill my Customers?

While there is no "Feature" within WHM or cPanel to automatically bill your customers, there is a well known third-party application that is widely used in the industry that integrates tightly with cPanel called WHMCS. For more information regarding WHMCS, visit their Website.

What is cPanel?

If you do not have root (or reseller) access to the server, you will only be dealing with cPanel.

cPanel is the interface utilized to make changes to your hosting account such as:

• Create and Remove email accounts
• Create and Remove FTP accounts
• Manage your files
• Create MySQL databases
• Select your PHP version
• Create and Manage Addon/Subdomains
• Much more!

How do I get to cPanel?

There are actually a few different ways to get to cPanel:

Note: You will need to replace "198.51.100.1" with the IP Address OR Hostname of your server.

• Navigate to https://198.51.100.1/cpanel
• Navigate to https://198.51.100.1:2083

Once you navigate to the URL, you will see a Login page, you will need to login with the username and password that you have either created within WHM or that your hosting provider has provided you.

I want to know more!

We understand that learning new software can be hard. We offer several tech and sales courses and certifications at cPUniversity all of which can be verified!

This post will be updated as needed and is subject to change.
Revised: 7/27/2016