For cPanel & WHM 56

This page was last updated on: Apr 18, 2018 13:48

Upgrade blockers

New features

Team: Cobra

To collect any commissions from cPanel Market purchases through providers that offer commissions, server administrators must perform the following actions:

• Link their WHM account to a valid cPanelID.
• Enter their email address in the Commission ID text box on WHM's Market Provider Manager interface (Home >> Market >> Market Provider Manager).

SSL/TLS Wizard

In cPanel version 56, we added the SSL TLS Wizard interface to cPanel (Home >> SSL/TLS >> SSL/TLS Wizard), which simplifies the process to purchase an install SSL certificates for domains. After you purchase certificates, the server will automatically configure and install the certificates on your domains.

Required features for SSL certificates

The SSL/TLS Wizard interface requires the following three features in WHM's Feature Manager interface (Home >> Packages >> Feature Manager):

• market — cPanel Market.
• tls_wizard — SSL/TLS Wizard.
• sslinstall — SSL Host Installer.

Command line calls of API functions

In cPanel & WHM version 56, you can now call cPanel API 1, cPanel API 2, and UAPI functions from the command line.

We have added examples of how to perform a command line call to each function.

More information is available under the following SDK guides:

• Guide to cPanel API 1
• Guide to cPanel API 2
• Guide to UAPI

Integrated upgrades links

We added the upgrade option to the implements parameter in WHM API 1's create_integration_link integration function. The context-sensitive Upgrade link will appear in the appropriate interfaces when the user runs out of a resource, such as:

• A link to upgrade disk space in the Disk Space interface
• A link to add databases in the MySQL Databases interface
• A link to upgrade bandwidth quota in the Bandwidth interface.

This allows your customers to use your billing system automation system to upgrade their account's resources and billing without the need to ask the system administrator for assistance.

DNS resolver performance monitoring

In cPanel & WHM version 56, the server now monitors the performance of your DNS resolvers, and it will send a notification when a resolver responds slowly or is unresponsive.

Security Advisor change notifications

In cPanel & WHM version 56, the system will send a notification when the state of a Security Advisor alert changes .

New notification templates

In cPanel & WHM version 56, we added more notifications to the new system. The following alerts are now available in WHM's Contact Manager interface (Home >> Server Contacts >> Contact Manager):

• • cPanel Market Purchases and Notices — A user purchases an SSL certificate or other product through the cPanel Market.
    

  • DNS Resolver Performance Issues — The server's DNS resolvers respond slowly or do not respond at all.
    

  • Installation of Purchased SSL Certificates — The system installed SSL certificates that a user purchased through the cPanel Market.
    
  • Security Advisor State Change — The Security Advisor feature detected new issues with high importance.
  • Uncategorized Notifications — A notification that isn't already handled by an existing notification type and template.
  • Update Blocker - Service Deprecation Notice — The cPanel & WHM update failed because of a deprecated service.
    
  • Upgrade Required - Service Is Outdated — cPanel & WHM will automatically upgrade a service.
    

For the full list of available alerts, read our Contact Manager and Notification Templates documentation.

We strongly recommend that you review your Contact Manager settings to ensure that you will receive important server notices.

Team: Honey Badgers

Team: Loose Cannon

Reset password for Subaccounts

With the introduction of Subaccounts in cPanel &WHM version 54, we have expanded the Reset Password feature to include Subaccounts. The Reset Password feature uses the Subaccount user's contact email address to process the password reset request. You can set each Subaccount user's Contact Email Address in cPanel's User Manager interface (Home >> Preferences >> User Manager). You can enable the Reset Passwords for Subaccounts feature in WHM's Tweak Settings - System interface (Home >> Server Configuration >> Tweak Settings). For more information, read our How to Reset a cPanel Subaccount Password documentation.

New Subaccount invites

cPanel's User Manager interface (Home >> Preferences >> User Manager) now allows you to send a welcome email to new Subaccounts during user creation. To use this feature you must enable the Reset Passwords for Subaccount option in WHM's Tweak Settings - System interface (Home >> Server Configuration >> Tweak Settings) and set the Subaccount's Contact Email Address in cPanel's User Manager interface.

Team: Phoenix

Site Publisher

cPanel's new Site Publisher interface (Home >> Domains >> Site Publisher) allows novice cPanel users to create simple websites from templates. 

• cPanel & WHM version 56 includes three cPanel-provided templates that users can access. The root user and resellers can also create customized templates for their users. For more information, read our Guide to Site Publisher Templates documentation.
• System administrators can use the Site Publisher setting in WHM's Feature Manager interface ( Home >> Packages >> Feature Manager ) to enable or disable this feature.

New script

The /scripts/process_site_templates script processes template files and user-provided data to create an Site Publisher website.

cPanel Feature Showcase

A new Feature Showcase section will display above the Search text box the first time that users log in to cPanel after the server upgrades to cPanel & WHM version 56. We plan to use this section to showcase new and improved features in cPanel. To dismiss this section, click the X icon in the top corner.

Team: Release Team

Override customized installation settings

As of cPanel & WHM version 56, the installation process preserves the system defaults and user customizations in the /etc/bashrc, /etc/issue, and /etc/issue.net files. To override these settings, run the /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/copy-etc-files script.

New script

The usr/local/cpanel/scripts/copy-etc-files script overrides the system defaults when you install cPanel & WHM.

Team: Spider-Pig

Implemented Convert Addon Domain to Account feature

In WHM version 56, we added the Convert Addon Domain to Account interface (Home >> Transfers >> Convert Addon Domain to Account).

This function allows root users and resellers to convert an addon domain into a cPanel account. When you convert an addon domain into a stand-alone cPanel account, you gain more control over the domain’s resources, such as databases, FTP accounts, SSH access, etc.

This release, the Convert Addon Domain to Account feature migrates the following account data:

• DNS records
• Document root
• Email data 
  • Accounts
  • Autoresponders
  • Forwarders
  • Mailing lists
  • User filters
• MySQL databases and users
• Redirects

Team: ZeroCool

EasyApache 4

CloudLinux

EasyApache 4 now supports CloudLinux versions 6 and higher. If you wish to use EasyApache 4 with CloudLinux, read our How to Install or Uninstall EasyApache 4 documentation and CloudLinux's blog post. 

RPM update notifications

We created mailing lists and a notification system for EasyApache 4 RPMs so you can receive change notifications for our development and production branches. To subscribe to our mailing lists and receive updated information about EasyApache 4 RPMs, read our The EasyApache 4 git repository and build updates documentation for more information. 

Updated features

Team: Code Monkeys

Dormant mode

To reduce unnecessary memory consumption, we have expanded the availability of dormant mode for cPanel & WHM services. We have also updated both the new and existing dormant mode capabilities to ensure that Tailwatch checks do not wake dormant services or prevent dormant mode. If you have enabled dormant mode for a service, that service will immediately enter dormant mode whenever you reboot your server or restart the service.

You can now enable or disable the Dormant services setting in the Software section of WHM's Tweak Settings interface (Home >> Server Configuration >> Tweak Settings) for the following services:

• cpdavd — cPanel's WebDav daemon.
• cphulkd — cPanel's brute force protection daemon.
• cpsrvd — The cPanel & WHM service manager daemon.
• dnsadmin — cPanel's DNS management daemon.
• spamd — The Apache SpamAssassin™ daemon.

Improved dnsadmin functionality

In order to properly handle it, we have updated the way in which cPanel & WHM manages the dnsadmin service.

• You can enable or disable monitoring for the dnsadmin service via the cPanel DNS Admin Cache setting in WHM's Service Manager interface (Home >> Service Configuration >> Service Manager). The upgrade will enable this setting by default.
• Because cPanel & WHM now always runs the dnsadmin service via a daemon and no longer runs it as a compiled binary, we have removed the following settings:
  • The dnsadmin_as_daemon and use_compiled_dnsadmin settings from the /var/cpanel/cpanel.config file.
  • The Use compiled dnsadmin setting from the System section of WHM's Tweak Settings interface (Home >> Server Configuration >> Tweak Settings).

Updated Perl environments and modules

We now compile cPanel binaries against Perl 5.22 instead of Perl 5.14.4. We have also updated all cPanel-included CPAN modules to ensure compatibility with Perl 5.22.

Team: Cobra

Purchase and Install an SSL Certificate interface changes

We changed WHM's Purchase and Install an SSL Certificate interface (Home >> SSL/TLS >>  Purchase and Install an SSL Certificate), which in earlier versions of WHM allowed the system administrator to purchase and install certificates from Trustwave®. System administrators who wish to purchase certificates for a user's website will now use this interface to select that user's account. The system will redirect them to the cPanel user's SSL/TLS Wizard interface (Home >> Security  >> SSL/TLS Wizard) in order to continue the purchase process.

External Authentication many-to-many

In cPanel & WHM version 56, you can link an external account to multiple cPanel accounts, WHM accounts, and Webmail accounts.

If your external account links to multiple system accounts, a new selector interface will appear after you click the Log In button for the external account. Select the linked system account that you wish to access or click Link Another Account to link a additional external account.

For more information, read our How to Access cPanel & WHM Services documentation.

New identity provider modules

In cPanel & WHM version 56, we changed the Amazon, Google, and Facebook external identity provider modules from samples to normal modules. We have also added a PayPal provider module.

You can configure and activate these modules in WHM's Manage External Authentications interface (Home >> Security Settings >> Manage External Authentication).

Manually add External Authentication links

You can now manually add an External Authentication link to an account with the following two new API functions:

• link_user_authn_provider — This function adds an External Authentication authorization link to an account.
• ExternalAuthentication::add_authn_link — This function adds an External Authentication authorization link.

MariaDB username length

On servers that use MariaDB instead of MySQL, the following conditions apply:

• Database usernames now can contain up to 47 characters.
• MariaDB uses the entire cPanel account username and the underscore character ( _ ) as a database prefix on servers that use a database prefix.
• The system no longer requires that the first eight characters of cPanel account usernames be unique among accounts that exist on the server.

Suspended accounts cannot send outbound mail

When you suspend a cPanel account on cPanel & WHM version 56, the mail server no longer allows that account's users to send outbound email through the mail server.

Also, the mail server will force all mail currently in the outbound message queue from that account's users to fail.

If the system administrator unsuspends the cPanel account, the mail server will allow that account's users to send mail again.

New UAPI and cPanel API 2 filter type

We added the ne filter type to UAPI and cPanel API 2, which allows you to filter output columns that do not equal the match value.

Feature and system performance improvements.

We improved the performance of the following features and systems:

• Paper Lantern render times in cPanel.
• Network configuration response times.
• Locales performance.

Transfer Tool session timeout

In cPanel & WHM version 56, we added a control for Session Timeout to WHM's Transfer Tool interface (Home >> Transfers >> Transfer Tool). This sets the amount of time that the system will maintain an SSH connection to run without transfer activity.

In earlier version of cPanel & WHM, the session timed out after 15 minutes, which did not allow many source systems to properly package accounts. This setting now defaults to 30 minutes, and you can set a maximum value of 2 days.

Team: Honey Badgers

The cpconftool Script

Transfer Tool (TT)

Team: Loose Cannon

Reset Password

We have made significant improvements to cPanel's Reset Password feature. You can independently allow cPanel users and Subaccount users to reset their password. The password reset process includes a security improvement that requires the user to verify their contact email address. Additionally, the user can set their own password at the end of the reset process. You can enable the Reset Password feature for cPanel users and Subaccount users in WHM's Tweak Settings interface (Home >> Server Configuration >> Tweak Settings). For more information, read our How to Reset a cPanel Account Password or How to Reset a cPanel Subaccount Password documentation.

Team: Spider-Pig

Two-Factor Authentication no longer hidden by default in the WHM interface

We removed the restriction that hid the interface for Two-Factor Authentication in WHM. The icon and interface for the feature now appear to all users.

Team: ZeroCool

Team: Loose Cannon

User Manager

cPanel's User Manager interface (Home >> Preferences >> User Manager) now allows you to unlink preexisting services from a Subaccount. For example, if you linked an existing FTP account to a Subaccount, you can unlink that FTP account in the User Manager interface. However, you cannot use the unlink option once you change the Subaccount's password and the interface will not display the Unlink option.

Team: Phoenix

Updated Feature Manager interface

WHM's Feature Manager interface (Home >> Packages >> Feature Manager) now includes links to quickly edit cPanel & WHM's default feature lists.

Updated Calendars and Contacts interface

cPanel's Calendars and Contacts Client Configuration interface (Home >> Email >> Calendars and Contacts Client Configuration) is now the Calendars and Contacts interface (Home >> Email >> Calendars and Contacts).

Team: Release Team

SquirrelMail ships as an RPM

As of cPanel & WHM version 56, SquirrelMail ships as an RPM. To customize your SquirrelMail RPM, follow the directions in the How to Build and Install Custom RPMs documentation.

Team: ZeroCool

EasyApache 4 Interface

We streamlined the EasyApache 4 user interface (Home >> Software >> EasyApache 4) to make it easier to use. 

Team: Adjective Animal

Manage2 interface

Manage2 now includes a setting to disable the cPanel Store as a provider in WHM's Market Provider Manager interface (Home >> Market >>  Market Provider Manager) interface. You also can block the installation of free cPanel-signed hostname certificates. You can configure these settings in Manage2's Update Company Information interface (Dashboard >> Company >> Update Company Information).

Deprecated and removed items

Team: Release Team

Removed Feature Manager option

We removed the legacy Statistics Program Manager setting from WHM's Feature Manager interface (Home >> Packages >> Feature Manager).

Removal of the Cpanel::Hulkd::Action file

In cPanel & WHM version 56, we removed the Cpanel::Hulkd::Action file.

Team: Spider-Pig

Removed Guess Email Addresses interface

We removed the Guess Email Addresses section from the Email All Users interface of WHM (Home >> Account Functions >> Email All Users). We deprecated this functionality in a previous release, and now the user interface reflects that change.

Deprecated Scripts

Appendix A: Provided third-party applications