Installation Guide - System Requirements

Overview

Before you install cPanel & WHM or cPanel DNSONLY, make certain that your system meets all of our minimum requirements for new installations.

License

If you do not already own a license for cPanel & WHM, you must obtain one for your IP address before you attempt the installation. Each cPanel & WHM server requires its own license. To obtain a cPanel & WHM license, visit the cPanel Store.

Networking requirements

/etc/init.d/iptables save
/etc/init.d/iptables stop
/sbin/chkconfig --del iptables

iptables-save > ~/firewall.rules
systemctl stop firewalld.service
systemctl disable firewalld.service

service NetworkManager stop
chkconfig NetworkManager off
chkconfig network on
service network start
service ipaliases start

systemctl stop NetworkManager.service
systemctl disable NetworkManager.service
systemctl enable network.service
systemctl start network.service 
systemctl start ipaliases.service

Hardware requirements

Hardware considerations

When you choose a server, consider the following questions:

• How many sites do you plan to host?
  Servers that host a large number of websites with associated email addresses and databases require more processing power, disk space, and RAM.
  
• What kind of web hosting do you plan to do? 
  You can run cPanel & WHM with the minimum requirements below, but servers that host videos, music, or high-volume applications require more processing power, disk space, and RAM.

Operating systems

wget http://repo.cloudlinux.com/cloudlinux/sources/cln/cldeploy
sh cldeploy -i
reboot

Disable SELinux

If your server runs an operating system from a source other than the cPanel & WHM installer, you must disable SELinux to make your system compatible with cPanel & WHM.

To disable SELinux security features, use one of the following methods:

• Use the graphical interface to disable SELinux while you configure your operating system, and then reboot the server.

• Edit the /etc/selinux/config file to set the SELINUX parameter to disabled, and then reboot the server.

   The contents of the /etc/selinux/config file should resemble the following example...

  # This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
  # SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
  # enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
  # permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
  # disabled - No SELinux policy is loaded.
  SELINUX=disabled
  # SELINUXTYPE= can take one of these two values:
  # targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
  # strict - Full SELinux protection.
  SELINUXTYPE=targeted

  Important:

  Make certain that the number sign ( # ) does not precede SELINUX=disabled. If a # precedes this configuration option, the system ignores the option.

IPv6 kernel support

cPanel & WHM and cPanel DNSONLY require that your kernel includes the ipv6 module, or includes that functionality directly within the kernel.

• If your kernel does not include it in the ipv6 module, the AF_INET6 address family must also be available.
• Most distributed kernels include this support by default. However, some users of custom kernels may experience problems.

Perl installation

Perl must exist on your server before the installation script for cPanel & WHM can run successfully. If Perl does not exist during installation, the cPanel & WHM installer attempts to install Perl via the yum -y install perl command.

• If you see errors during this step of the installation process, read our Troubleshoot Your Installation documentation.
• For more information about Perl on your server, and which versions of Perl ship with specific operating systems, read our Guide to Perl in cPanel & WHM documentation. cPanel & WHM servers use multiple Perl environments.

Filesystems

When you install your operating system (OS), we recommend that you use the following filesystems:

• CentOS, CloudLinux, and RHEL 7 — Use the XFS® or ext4 filesystems.

• All other supported operating systems — Use an ext filesystem (ext3 or ext4).

Partitions

Inodes

In Linux, an inode is a filesystem object that contains the owner, permissions, and other important metadata. Every file, image, directory, email, and symbolic link on your server requires an inode.

• On average, files on webservers are usually smaller than on other types of servers. Therefore, we recommend that you allocate more than the default number of inodes on your server's partitions.
• If you install everything on a single partition, the base cPanel & WHM or cPanel DNSONLY installation requires at least 1,000,000 inodes, plus at least 50,000 inodes per cPanel account that you plan to host.

Virtual environments

cPanel products support the following virtual environments:

Compatible browsers

We specifically test cPanel & WHM with certain browsers to ensure compatibility. Other browsers will likely function, but may display differently or experience issues with certain features.

We develop and test cPanel & WHM to function with the latest versions of the following browsers:

• Chrome (Mac®, Windows®, Linux)
• Firefox (Mac, Windows, Linux)
• Internet Explorer (Windows)
• Safari® (Mac)

Mobile versions of Firefox, Chrome, and Safari are also compatible with cPanel & WHM.

Additional documentation