In order to run the cPanel software you
must first be running a supported OS. cPanel lists their supported
operating systems on their website at http://www.cpanel.net.
Although there are many to choose from not every OS listed works
flawlessly. If you're looking to have the least amount of problems and
ease of administration we highly recommend you choose CentOS as your
distro. CentOS is a recompile of RedHat Enterprise, and our research
has shown that CentOS is the most widely used distro when running
cPanel. The following guide assumes you are using CentOS (or another
RPM/YUM-based distribution). If you are not, any commands referencing yum should instead reflect the package manager of your chosen OS, such as apt-get for Debian.
cPanel
also recommends that the server it is being installed on is a clean and
fresh install. This means that if you previously had done any
configuring or ran another control panel software that they recommend
you reinstall the server. IMPORTANT: If the server you plan to install
cPanel on is a live production server, STOP. cPanel's installer may overwrite your previous configurations and cause downtime for you or your customers!
cPanel has
made the installation process a simple one and only takes a few
commands to get the install going. Below are the steps:
1.
Log into your server as root via the console or SSH. If you are
installing cPanel via your VPS console, please see our guide here on using your VPS console.
2. Ensure your resolvers are working by trying to resolve cpanel.net
# nslookup cpanel.net
2.1. If nslookup does not work, giving a 'command not found' error, you can use yum to install the necessary packages
# yum install bind-utils.i386
2.2.
If you get an error about not being able to resolve the host, you need
to edit your /etc/resolv.conf and add proper resolvers. For servers in
our network, the following command will suffice. If you are not in out
datacenter, you will need to find out your host's DNS info:
# echo -e "nameserver 204.10.37.212\nnameserver 204.10.37.58" >> /etc/resolv.conf
3. Change directory into your /home
# cd /home
4. Satisfy cPanel's pre-requisites:
# yum -y install wget perl screen
5. Download cPanel's installer:
# wget http://layer1.cpanel.net/latest
6.
Start a screen session so you can resume the cPanel install at a later
time to check on it's status if you close the window or lose connection:
# screen -S cpanel_install
6.1 To resume the screen if you are disconnected:
# screen -r cpanel_install
7. Now run the installer using sh or bash:
# sh latest
The installer is now running and may take a hour to two depending on your servers hardware, OS, connection speed, etc.
Once
the installation is complete it's now time to log into the
WebHostManager (WHM) and go through the wizard. Point your browser to http://your_ip_here/whm or http://your_ip_here:2086/
. You will be prompted for a user/pass, enter root as the user and
enter your root password in the password field. The wizard will now
launch and ask you a few questions. Once complete your system is ready
to use!
