Introduction to the Capabilities of cpanel & WHM

Transcription

1 Introduction to the Capabilities of cpanel & WHM V cpanel, WebHost Manager and WHM are registered trademarks of cpanel, Inc All rights reserved. Page 2

2 Table of Contents Explanation of the cpanel & WHM interfaces... Page 6 cpanel WHM Levels of Access... Page 8 Root-Level User Reseller Website Owner (cpanel User) Tour of the cpanel Interface... Page 10 Ease of Use Comprehensive File Management Website Editing Web Disk Backups Virus Protection One-Click Software Installations Statistics and Logs Multiple Domain Support Comprehensive Management Spam Protection Mail Filtering Mailing Lists Mail Authentication Improved MX Entry Editor Databases Sripting Support Security DNS Management Advanced Functionality Tour of the Web Host Manager (WHM) Interface... Page 20 VPS Optimized vs. Accelerated Easy Apache Page 3

3 Table of Contents Security Brute Force Considerations XSRF Protection Forcing Encrypted Logins Mail Server Curbing Incoming Spam Installers Service Management Mail, IM and Pager Notifications Service Configuration CPU Usage and Background Process Detection Disk Usage Software Upgrades, Updates cpanel Build Types Account Migrations DNS Functionality Language Files Server Backups Account Management Enhancing Automation with Packages Removing Functionality with Feature Manager Automating Account Management with Billing Software Shell Access No Shell Access Jailed Shell Access Normal Shell Access Skeleton Directory Manage cpaddons Branding Customer Contact Pages Web Template Editor Resellers Page 4

4 Table of Contents Software Modules... Page 40 cpanel DNS ONLY cpanel GS (cpgs) Customizing cpanel Software... Page 42 cpanel is Flexible cpanel Has an Active Developer Community For More Information... Page 44 Page 5

5 Explanation of the cpanel & WHM interfaces

6 cpanel provides an intuitive interface to help website owners manage their sites, while WebHost Manager (WHM) automates server management tasks for server administrators. Together, they reduce overhead by simplifying complex tasks and allowing customers to manage their own accounts. Professionals and novices alike love the power cpanel & WHM offers, including the ability to activate new web technologies with the click of a mouse. This allows anyone to meet the needs of today s hosting customers with minimal effort. cpanel cpanel, our website control panel interface, is designed for website owners. cpanel simplifies tasks such as: Uploading and managing web pages Creating accounts Installing web-based applications such as blogs, shopping carts, and forums Backing up data Protecting a site s content and bandwidth Generating and viewing statistics about visitors Reviewing error logs to locate broken links and other problems WHM WebHost Manager (WHM), our server control panel interface, is designed for server administrators and web hosts. WHM makes it easy to: Set up and modify customer accounts Receive alerts from your server Install applications and programming language modules Create and apply hosting plans Block spam Integrate new web technologies Brand customers cpanel interfaces with custom logos Page 7

7 Levels of Access

8 Root-Level User Root-level users have access to every feature in cpanel & WHM. Root-level users also have access to all accounts on the server. Other users can be granted rootlevel access via the Reseller Center in the WHM interface. This is useful for allowing technical staff full access to cpanel & WHM, without having to share a single root password.!"# Reseller Reseller accounts have full access to cpanel, but limited access to WHM. A reseller s access to WHM is limited to creating new cpanel hosting accounts and managing existing accounts. Resellers can only manage cpanel accounts they own, preventing them from modifying accounts owned by other resellers on the server. Resellers cannot create additional reseller accounts. Website Owner (cpanel User) A website owner only has access to the cpanel interface. They can manage all aspects of their account and domains, but do not have any access to the WHM interface. The website owner can also create FTP sub-users and Mail sub-users, but cannot create additional cpanel hosting accounts. Page 9

9 Tour of the cpanel Interface Page 10

10 Ease of Use The cpanel interface was designed by a team of interface experts to ensure ease of use. Its intuitive nature helps to reduce support requests from customers who are unfamiliar with cpanel. For inexperienced hosting customers, cpanel includes a Getting Started Wizard. This wizard assists new website owners with configuring basic account settings. Additionally, context-sensitive video tutorials and on-screen documentation help to ensure that website owners will be able to easily use our software. Page 11

11 Comprehensive File Management Perhaps the most important part of managing a website is being able to upload and edit web content. Website owners can upload files using FTP, FTPS, SFTP, Web Disk (our implementation of DAV), and our built-in File Managers. Often, a website owner may hire a professional web designer to build a site. With cpanel, a website owner can easily set up an additional FTP account for a contractor. This allows contractors access to the website without knowing the cpanel password. Website Editing File Manager has an integrated visual (WYSIWYG) HTML editor to assist novice website owners in creating and customizing their websites. File Manager also includes a code editor that allows programmers to quickly modify troublesome code. Web Disk The Web Disk feature allows website owners to easily maintain their websites using an interface that integrates with their personal computer or mobile device. Publishing and updating websites is as easy as dragging and dropping files. Page 12

12 Backups Comprehensive file management would be incomplete without backups. cpanel comes with a wizard to assist users with creating backups of their account. The backup interface is easily accessible. From there, a user can easily select which areas of a site to back up or download. Virus Protection cpanel lets server administrators easily enable virus protection. While viruses rarely infect servers running cpanel & WHM, and websites served by cpanel/whm servers are sometimes used as means to propagate viruses to vulnerable systems. cpanel s virus protection scans incoming mail for possible viruses. Individual website owners can also scan an entire account for any files that may contain viruses. Page 13

13 One-Click Software Installations It s easy to install popular website applications such as WordPress, phpbb, and oscommerce in cpanel. And with our free cpgs plug-in, website owners can even run their own online gaming servers. cpanel also makes it simple for experienced website owners to install popular applications and Ruby Gems. Statistics and Logs Building a website is the first step; next, the site owner needs to make the site easy to find. cpanel provides several tools for monitoring how visitors discover a site, and where those visitors are located. Easy-to-read graphs let a website owner spot trends; from there, she can modify her site accordingly. Search engine optimization (SEO) professionals may also wish to download raw logs to insert into their own log interpretation programs. These logs can be viewed and downloaded via the cpanel interface or FTP. Web developers will be glad to know that they can easily access Apache error logs via the cpanel interface in real time. Additionally, developers can monitor the bandwidth and browsers used to access the site. This helps website owners make informed decisions about further website optimization. Page 14

14 Multiple Domain Support An individual cpanel account has the ability to host multiple domains. To have multiple domains serve the same website content, you can use the Parked Domains feature. This feature allows you to park multiple domains on your main domain. As a result, when a visitor accesses the parked domain, he sees the content of the main site. cpanel also supports hosting completely separate websites within the same cpanel account. Addon domains allow a separate domain to work on the same account, but serve a different website. The addon domain could be a directory within the main website, or a separate website, inaccessible from the main website. cpanel also provides a Redirects feature. Members of an affiliate program may want to redirect visitors to a website on another server whenever a visitor accesses a domain or subdomain they own. The website owner can use redirects to automatically bring those visitors to the desired affiliate website. Page 15

15 Comprehensive Management is a critical function of most contemporary websites. cpanel allows website owners to create many accounts and forwarders. An forwarder functions as an automatic relay from one address to another. This can be useful if, for example, you wish to receive company at a personal address. If a website owner needs to create many addresses or forwarders at once, he can put them into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or CSV file and use the Import Addresses/Forwarders feature to create those addresses. All accounts that are not forwarders can be accessed via the common mail protocols: IMAP and POP, their more secure and encrypted siblings IMAPS and POP3s, and a webmail interface. To assist with setting up an client, cpanel supports automatic configuration of select clients. A website owner simply clicks on a link and opens a file, and the mail client is automatically configured. For hosting accounts with multiple domains, domain forwarders can be handy. They forward all from one domain to a corresponding address on another domain. For example, setting up a domain forwarder for example.net to example.com would result in mail addressed to user@example.net being sent to user@example.com. Page 16

16 Spam Protection cpanel comes with SpamAssassin at no additional cost. This helps curb spam by identifying common patterns in spam messages, then specifying the likelihood of the message being spam. This likelihood is quantified as a spam score. Those who use IMAP or webmail can use SpamBox, a feature that will automatically deposit spam into its own folder. For additional spam protection, you can enable BoxTrapper. BoxTrapper can be enabled either for all addresses in this cpanel account, or for individual addresses. BoxTrapper is a challenge response system, where an unknown person sending a message must respond to a verification before the message is delivered to the recipient. Mail Filtering Mail filters allow the server to automatically sort and discard mail before it is delivered. This is most useful for those who travel frequently and access their mail via IMAP or webmail. In the cpanel interface, clicking the Account Level Filtering icon allows the site owner to create an filter that affects all accounts associated with that cpanel account. Mail filters can also be created on the individual account level. Mailing Lists With the cpanel interface, users can create mailing lists that use the popular Mailman software. Mailman offers great flexibility, allowing for everything from newsletter distribution to discussion groups similar to those found on Google or Yahoo. Mail Authentication To help ensure reliable delivery of , cpanel supports the latest mail authentication standards such as SPF and DomainKeys. Mail authentication can determine whether mail is from someone pretending to be from a domain hosted on the cpanel server. Enabling these authentication methods is a simple matter of clicking the appropriate icon and enable button. These features require no changes to any mail client s configuration. Improved MX Entry Editor With the changing landscape of services, it is increasingly common for individuals to have their mail hosted on a remote service such as Gmail for Domains. As a result, cpanel now has an improved MX Entry editor to give website owners more control over how their is routed. Archiving Archiving allows users to save incoming, outgoing, or mailing list messages for a specified amount of time. Archived messages are stored under the mail directory in the user s home directory. Page 17

17 Databases In today s world of blogs and content management systems, even novice website owners need to be able to create databases. As a result, cpanel has wizards to assist website owners with properly creating databases and database users, as well as issuing the appropriate permissions to database users. Experienced website owners will enjoy the phpmyadmin and phppgadmin integration. These tools provide quick, simple management of MySQL and PostgreSQL databases. With cpanel, website owners can grant remote access to their databases. This is useful for small businesses that run programs requiring a centralized SQL server. Scripting Support cpanel/whm natively supports several scripting languages, including CGI Perl, PHP, and Ruby on Rails. FrontPage extensions continue to be supported in cpanel/whm despite that technology officially having reached end of life according to its manufacturer. Page 18

18 Security While much of cpanel & WHM s security capabilities are handled at the server level, some security measures are better managed by individual website owners. Website owners can password protect directories, then enable leech protection to ensure no one is sharing passwords. Webite owners who find their sites using excessive amounts of bandwidth can enable HotLink Protection to prevent others from hotlinking images directly from their hosting account, thus wasting their bandwidth. DNS Management cpanel allows website owners to manage their own DNS zones. This is useful for web design experts that need the ability to modify their DNS. For example, some remote mail hosting solutions require the creation of a custom DNS zone for accessing their services. Advanced Functionality Thanks to cpanel s Advanced features, even expert designers and programmers will only rarely need to contact their system administrators for assistance. cpanel allows these individuals to easily customize several advanced behaviors of their websites, including the appearance of web server error pages and how directory listings should appear in Apache. Experienced website owners can also create their own cron jobs to automatically execute a script at pre-determined times. Page 19

19 Tour of the Web Host Manager (WHM) Interface Page 20

20 The WHM interface is a powerful yet easy-to-use interface for managing a server. Like the cpanel interface, it also has a Getting Started Wizard to assist system administrators with properly creating a working server configuration. After this process is complete, the system administrator can create accounts so the server can begin hosting websites. VPS Optimized vs. Accelerated cpanel & WHM comes in two possible optimizations: VPS Optimized and Accelerated. Both offer identical functionality; the difference is how the software is optimized. VPS Optimized is configured for VPS environments where RAM is not as abundant as on dedicated servers. Accelerated is designed for dedicated servers and thus adjusts itself to make the most efficient use of those resources. cpanel/whm automatically detects whether it is being installed on a dedicated or virtual server, and installs the appropriate optimization of cpanel/whm accordingly. Page 21

21 Easy Apache EasyApache is a tool that offers great flexibility with regards to adding support for additional server technologies, such as Tomcat. It also makes recompiling Apache and PHP, and their modules, very easy. In a typical Unix environment, recompiling Apache and PHP can be a daunting and error-prone task even for an experienced system administrator. But the WHM interface with EasyApache makes this as easy as clicking a few mouse buttons. EasyApache allows the installation of additional specific PHP modules as needed, with the ability to remove modules when they are no longer needed. This architecture allows a web server to run only the programming code required by websites on that server, thus optimizing the server s resource consumption and performance. Also, it offers the flexibility to easily migrate among versions of Apache and even run PHP 4 and 5 simultaneously, if desired. To assist novice administrators, EasyApache will prevent the installation of modules known to conflict with one another. Uptime is improved with EasyApache, since all configurations set via EasyApache are automatically tested before being applied to the server. The automated nature of EasyApache also reduces the Apache downtime caused by these configurations to mere seconds, even on the busiest of servers. Experienced system administrators can opt to run EasyApache via the command line as: /scripts/easyapache. Page 22

22 Security The WHM interface provides a myriad of security tools for securing a server. Combining these with server-hardening technologies available via EasyApache will help protect the server against potential attackers. Many of these security tools can be found in the Security Center section of the WHM interface. Page 23

23 Brute Force Considerations When enabling brute force protection, an administrator may add her own IP address to the Trusted IPs list within the cphulk utility; this is handy in case an administrator forgets her password, since it curbs the ability of a system administrator to lock herself out of her own server. XSRF Protection XSRF protection prevents malicious websites from taking advantage of the fact that you are logged into a cpanel & WHM server to trigger actions on that cpanel & WHM server. We recommend that you enable this protection; you can do this from the WHM Tweak Settings screen. However, be mindful that scripts that have not yet been updated to make use of the APIs available since the initial release of cpanel 11 may stop functioning as a result of enabling XSRF protection. If you need assistance with bringing your own scripts up to date to use our APIs, contact our technical analysts for assistance. Forcing Encrypted Logins Unencrypted logins via HTTP can be quite vulnerable to a hacker sniffing traffic over an unsecured Wi-Fi network. Without encryption, passwords are broadcasted in plain text, allowing anyone to read them. WHM s Tweak Settings feature can force all logins to cpanel, WHM and webmail to be performed over an encrypted SSL connection. However, if these settings are enabled, we strongly recommend that you also set up an SSL certificate for the cpanel/whm/webmail service itself. Otherwise, novice website owners may become frightened when seeing an error in their web browser about the server using a self-signed SSL certificate. One SSL certificate for the cpanel/whm/ webmail service can be installed via the Manage Service SSL Certificates screen in WHM s Service Configuration section. This screen can also be used for installing SSL certificates for other services. Keep in mind that these services do not automatically inherit any SSL certificates set up for websites at this time. Page 24

24 Mail Server cpanel & WHM uses Exim for its SMTP services. Exim also emulates support for sendmail, so all scripts that rely on sendmail capabilities will work on a cpanel & WHM server. For optimal performance, cpanel & WHM uses the maildir format of storing , rather than the older mbox format. This also assists in the performance of webmail and IMAP on the server. cpanel & WHM uses Dovecot for offering POP3 and IMAP capabilities, but Courier remains supported. Curbing Incoming Spam WHM allows even a novice system administrator to implement powerful mail server capabilities, such as blocking spam before the server ever processes it. This is implemented by means of several settings, including rejecting mail which has very high SpamAssassin Spam Scores or mail coming from an IP address on a Realtime Black List (RBL). RBLs are lists of IP addresses that are known as, or likely to be, sources of spam. By blocking spam before the server ever processes it, resource utilization is noticeably reduced. WHM supports 2 RBLs by default, but additional RBLs can be added. Page 25

25 For experienced system administrators, WHM offers the Advanced Exim Configuration Editor, to allow for manual modifications to the Exim configuration. Curbing Outbound Spam WHM offers many tools to curb the server from becoming blacklisted because it is sending spam. The first line of defense if the SMTP Tweak tool mentioned above on the Security Center screen of WHM. This sends website owners mail through the server s official mail server, forcing them to obey any rules set by the system administrator. A good indicator that someone is spamming is if they are sending excessive amounts of . In Tweak Settings, WHM offers a couple of useful settings: A common setting for number of s per hour is 100. Also, since suphp and suexec are used by default on new cpanel/whm servers, there is no legitimate reason for the nobody user to send . Therefore, on servers running suphp and suexec, you may block nobody from sending so that any malicious activity can be easily tracked to the appropriate user. Since blacklists operate on the basis of IP addresses, it may be prudent to allocate a dedicated IP address to resellers and clients who send large quantities of . Then, you can enable settings in the Exim Configuration Editor that force mail to be sent from an individual IP address, rather than the server s primary IP. While this does not prevent blacklisting, it quarantines the impact of individual users sending spam. Page 26

26 Installers WHM allows server administrators to install software and modules via its graphical interface. Installing RPMs, Perl modules and code modules for other languages (e.g. PHP, PECLs, and Ruby Gems) can all be accomplished via the Software section of the WHM. When you enter one of these pages, you will be prompted for the module to install. Then, WHM will handle the installation. For installing modules in Apache or modules for PHP itself, use EasyApache. Service Management WHM allows you to browse swiftly through the status of the server s services, as well as restart any service as you desire. WHM maximizes uptime by automatically restarting any service that goes offline. During this process, the WHM server will contact the server administrator about the service failure in case manual intervention is required. Mail, IM and Pager Notifications The WHM interface offers flexibility regarding notifications about notable events taking place on the server. These events include notifications about disk integrity, kernel crashing, account suspensions, and more. The server administrator can be notified via , pager/sms, as well as via AIM and/or ICQ. These preferences can be set in the Server Contacts section of the WHM interface. Service Configuration WHM offers experienced administrators the ability to customize the behavior of many of the services employed in a cpanel & WHM environment. Page 27

27 CPU Usage and Background Process Detection WHM makes monitoring CPU loads easier than ever by placing the load stats at the top of the interface. This shows the server s load over the past 1, 5, and 15 minutes. WHM s in-depth tools also allow tracking CPU usage to individual processes and website owners. Background Process Detection allows you to disable risky services (such as Eggdrop) from running on the server. Disk Usage WHM also allows for quick monitoring of the server s disk space consumption and other disk I/O statistics. This is useful for determining whether additional disk space needs to be added to the server. Software Upgrades, Updates By default, WHM is set up for automatic updates. This will ensure the server receives all the latest security patches and functionality. WHM will automatically update any software that can be safely upgraded without supervision. This can include automatically updating MySQL 5.0 to the latest 5.0 build, updating cpanel & WHM to the latest build, and so forth. cpanel & WHM can be safely updated and upgraded without having to make a full server backup beforehand. cpanel/whm remains fully operational during an update or upgrade. Also, no server reboots or restarts are required after a cpanel/whm update or upgrade. cpanel s stringent quality standards ensure that all software introduced into a cpanel environment is tested before being put into production use. Automatic updates can be disabled as well as customized via the Update Preferences screen in the WHM interface. Page 28

28 cpanel Build Types There are 4 primary build types of cpanel & WHM. The illustration below shows how an update propagates through the build types, being more thoroughly tested as it propagates: Page 29

29 Account Migrations Whether you need to transfer 1 account or all of the accounts on a remote server, the WHM interface can assist. Its transfer interface can be used for moving accounts between servers, or for migrating from certain other control panels to cpanel/ WHM. To migrate customers from another hosting provider, simply have them send you their full cpanel backup file. You can then place this backup in the /home directory of the destination server, and restore the backup. If you are migrating from another cpanel/whm server to which you have root access, you get several additional features. WHM offers the ability to skip the home directory, which is very useful for multimedia-intensive websites which can have their files migrated by other means. For these transfers, DNS on the remote cpanel/whm server will be updated to point to the new server once the account has been migrated, reducing downtime caused by DNS propagation. Compression is now done in-stream to reduce the hard disk resources required to migrate accounts from an overloaded machine. If you are migrating accounts from another control panel to which you have root access, feel free to make use of our migration assistance. More information is available at Page 30

30 DNS Functionality WHM will automatically handle all DNS functionality for accounts maintained via the cpanel & WHM interfaces. However, the WHM interface does allow customization of DNS templates and DNS records, as well as other DNS management. WHM supports BIND by default. However, smaller servers (e.g. VPS servers) hosting only a few websites will benefit from our support for the lighter weight NSD software. WHM also allows DNS clustering with other servers running either cpanel/whm or cpanel DNS ONLY. cpanel DNS ONLY is currently available at no cost. Page 31

31 Language Files WHM is bundled with a myriad of language files for translating the cpanel interface. However, in case cpanel & WHM does not come with the language you need, WHM provides tools that make it very easy to translate the cpanel interface yourself. Server Backups WHM allows for automatic server-wide backups which can be stored locally or remotely. Administrators can control when backups are run and what types of backups are made. One can even exclude specific users from having their accounts backed up. This is useful if you host multimedia-intensive websites that can easily contain over a terabyte of data. Page 32

32 Account Management The WHM interface provides the ability to allocate accounts and terminate accounts, among many other account management functions. All cpanel users are created as standard Unix users. Account functions are divided into 3 sections of the WHM interface. First, Account Information provides information about accounts hosted on the server. Page 33

33 Second, Account Functions allows modification of an individual account. Lastly, Multi-Account Functions allows you to perform a single operation with multiple accounts. Page 34

34 Enhancing Automation with Packages You can automate the creation of accounts with similar privileges by means of packages. Packages are the internal WHM representation of a hosting plan, and can serve as templates for new accounts. These packages can also be used by thirdparty billing software that integrates into cpanel & WHM. Removing Functionality with Feature Manager The Feature Manager lets you enable or disable any icon in the cpanel interface. This allows you to create hosting plans with a minimal set of features, which can help avoid overwhelming novice website owners. Later, you can up-sell customers to more feature-rich hosting plans. Feature Manager offers precise control with regards to user privileges. Root users have access to two special feature lists. The default feature list is used for any account that is not assigned a package, or is assigned a package without its own custom feature list. The other special feature list is the disabled feature list. This list is handy for preventing subordinate users from accessing a given feature. Features in the disabled feature list cannot be re-enabled by means of creating another feature list. Automating Account Management with Billing Software While cpanel & WHM is not bundled with billing automation functionality, there are many third-party billing automation solutions known to work with cpanel & WHM. Thus, you do not need to perform these tasks. Contact the cpanel sales team at sales@cpanel.net for assistance with finding billing automation software to suit your needs. Shell Access cpanel & WHM offers varying levels of shell access: No Shell Access The default and recommended option. The website owner will be completely unable to log in via SSH, but still able to use the secure SFTP (FTP via SSH) functionality of the cpanel & WHM server. Page 35

35 Jailed Shell Access The website owner will be able to log in via SSH, but will be restricted to limited functionality deemed to be relatively safe in a shared hosting environment. This should only be given out on an as-needed basis. Normal Shell Access Other than the restrictions of standard Unix user permissions, a normal shell access user would be able to do anything they desire on the server. It is generally considered poor practice to offer normal shell access to a hosting customer. Skeleton Directory Just as a skeleton serves as the basis for the human body, a skeleton directory provides a basis for new websites to build upon. Your skeleton directory will contain all the default files to be placed on every new account you, or your billing software, creates. This can be useful for customizing a website owner s initial homepage, or for providing more advanced functionality, such as implementing custom.htaccess rules by default. Manage cpaddons CPAddons is the name of the system cpanel/ WHM uses to allow one click installations of many popular web application and e-commerce packages. In the cpanel interface, this is simply called Site Software. However, cpaddons goes beyond merely installing these applications. The cpaddons system is designed to encourage the use of up-to-date software. This is critical, as many older versions of these applications may have known security vulnerabilities that were resolved in newer versions. If an application is out of date, the website owner will be sent an automatically informing him to click a button in the cpanel interface to automatically upgrade the software. The power of the cpaddons system comes from the ability to administer such applications at a server-wide level. Server administrators can specify which applications they wish to offer, select whether they wish to moderate installation requests for those applications, and force upgrades to all website owners running outdated software. This additional focus on system administration is what makes the cpaddons system unique. Page 36