WHM cPanel cheatsheet (configs, commands, fixes)

My handy reference page for common cPanel server commands and configurations.

License:

• Verify license /usr/local/cpanel/cpkeyclt --force – if this doesn’t work, check your license at https://verify.cpanel.net/app/verify

PHP:

• Change PHP version – go to WHM > MultiPHP Manager
• Change PHP settings – go to WHM > MultiPHP INI Editor

Modules:

• Manage them use EasyApache or module install – check and uncheck the ones you want.
• Need to install imagick? ea-php74-pecl install imagick to install imagick for php 7.4.
• WP-CLI – yum install wp-cli -y to install, then yes | wp cli update to update
• /opt/cpanel/ea-php74/root/usr/bin/php -v checks if ioncube installed for php 7.4. yum install ea-php74-php-ioncube10.x86_64 -y installs it for php 7.4.

Disk management:

• Recheck disk quotas /scripts/fixquotas – fixes the issue where user’s disk quota/usage aren’t updated immediately.

Backups:

• /usr/local/cpanel/bin/backup --force – manually force WHM backups
• /scripts/pkgacct username – manually backup single account
• use /etc/cpbackup-exclude.conf (globally) or /home/user/cpbackup-exclude.conf (local) file to exclude items from backup

Security & Firewall:

• WP-cron triggering “suspicious process” warnings – can go to WHM > Plugins > ConfigServer & Security Firewall > edit Isf ignore file > put in the rules as per the template is section 8 of this official CSF suite. Reference links: 1, 2
• blocking countries from certain ports (list of country codes)
• Change FTP port
• Disabling ConfigServer & Firewall alert emails. (Run service lfd restart if changes don’t take.)

SSH:

• Is pass auth or SSH key auth not working? – go edit vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config to allow permitrootlogin and pub key authorization.

DNS:

• Flush DNS – rndc flush

Database:

• Copy database from one to another (in phpmyadmin).
• To get mysql root password cat /root/.my.cnf
• /etc/redis.conf redis configuration file

FTP:

• Is it not working? Not listing the files or showing some weird errors. Try see if it need to allow the Passive Port Range in your firewall. I had to do this after enabling ConfigServer Security & Firewall (CSF).

Random Issues or Website down:

• Check your processes to see if your CPU is completely overloaded. (WHM > Process Manager).
• Check your available disk space (WHM > Show Current Disk Usage).
• Check your email to see if any services are down. Restart them if needed.

Logs:

• Comprehensive list of common logs.

Features & Packages:

• /var/cpanel/features directory has config files of all your Feature Lists.
• /var/cpanel/packages directory has config files of all your packages. Can quickly copy and rename to create new account packages.

Un-common issues (and fixes)

• Can’t create/transfer new user account because of existing user data, check for cruft left behind by old users/domains /usr/local/cpanel/3rdparty/bin/perl <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/CpanelInc/tech-acctinfo/master/acctinfo) domain.com --cruft (replace “domain.com” with your domain)…many places will be listed, check all carefully…you many have many entries under many hostnames, etc.