You should now have access to your dedicated or VPS server. Depending on the policies of the company you obtain your server from, it may already have cPanel and WHM installed. However, even if that is the case, you should review the items that we will cover in this chapter to make sure nothing was missed. We will discuss how to install cPanel and WHM on your server, and also how to finish initial configuration in WHM.
If you are certain you have this covered already, you can move on to Chapter 3, where we will discuss other settings that you should check before moving on to setting up Apache, PHP, and databases in Chapter 4.
Accessing Your Server for the First Time and Determining if You Need to Install cPanel and WHM
No matter how or where you host your server, the company that hosts it should provide you with basic information about how to connect to your server so that you can begin working with it.
You should have the following information:
- The main IP address of your server
- A list of any additional IP addresses your server has been assigned as well as netmask information, if you are going to be expected to bind these extra IPs to your server yourself
- The root password of the server (or information about where you can find it)
- Confirmation that you do have a cPanel/WHM license, and that it has been activated
If you are missing any of this information, contact your host to obtain it.
Getting the Tools You Need to Access Your Server
Our first order of business is to access the server and figure out what we need to do to get cPanel and WHM working. To do this, you will need two tools: an SSH client and a web browser (and Internet access, of course).
If you are running Windows on the computer you will be accessing your server from, then you will need to download and install an SSH client. One good free one is PuTTY: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
On the download page, there are a number of different applications and sub-projects available for download. If you've never used an SSH client before and don't know what you might need, you should probably download the Windows installer version that installs most of the tools available on this site (called putty-VERSION#- installer.exe). Just run the installer, and follow the recommendations.
On Mac OS X and Linux, your operating system most likely includes a full-featured SSH client. Linux/Unix users can also choose to install PuTTY if they prefer. PuTTY is not available natively for Mac OS X, though you might be able to get the Unix source to build.
On Mac OS X, you can use the Terminal to access the command line and use it for SSH. Typically, you will find the Terminal application here: /Applications/Utilities/Terminal
Once you've identified the SSH client you are going to use, you will also need a graphical web browser. Any modern web browser should work fine: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Konqueror, Netscape, Opera, etc. The only thing you should be sure of before beginning is that you are using the latest version of whatever web browser you choose. Old or discontinued web browsers may not work properly with WHM and cPanel.
Log into Your Server
Now that you have the required tools, you can log into your server for the first time. Start up your SSH client or Terminal or whatever method you choose to use.
You will be logging into the server as the user called root, which is the master administrator account for machines running Linux/Unix.
You do need to be careful when logged into your server as root, because unless you have a VPS, the root user can do anything on the machine, including removing critical files that the operating system needs to operate thus causing your server to fail, and perhaps even requiring all data to be removed and the operating system to be reinstalled. Think before you act when you are logged in as root! |
Installing cPanel and WHM in your Server # 2
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Installing cPanel and WHM in your Server # 3
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This chapter is from the book "Web Host Manager Administration Guide", published by Packt Publishing.
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