Getting Started

Getting Started

Introduction
Welcome to the WiredTree starter guide to your new server. This guide is great for those that are new to cPanel, making the move from shared/reseller hosting or those looking to get a refresher of what WHM and cPanel has to offer. The main goal of this guide is to get your website up and running on your new server using WHM and cPanel. As you will see the WHM is stocked full of other options that are not covered in this guide. Please note that a lot of the options that are in the WHM are for system administration and can be safely ignored since they are taken care of by WiredTree's server management. If you wish to learn more about the complete functionality of cPanel you can visit their online documentation at the URL below. http://www.cpanel.net/support/docs/index.htm

Getting Started
Your server comes with cPanel pre-installed. This is a powerful tool that allows you to manage your server and websites via an easy to use web based interface. cPanel comes in two separate sections. The first is called the Web Host Manager (WHM). This is the system administration back-end of your server where you can create accounts and perform other system functions. The second part is the customer facing cPanel interface. This interface is where you perform account specific functions such as creating email accounts, mySQL databases and FTP accounts etc. Keep in mind that cPanel is the name of the entire software package that comes installed on your server but it has two sections: WHM (system administration back-end interface) and the cPanel (customer facing interface). The WHM controls your server and the cPanel is used for controlling domains that are hosted on your server. The WHM always uses the root username to log into it where the cPanel uses usernames from the accounts you create on your server.

Logging into WHM

The first thing you will want to do is log into the WHM of your new server. This information is contained in the welcoming email that we sent you when your server was first setup. The WHM link ends with the port number of 2087. See example:

https://<IP ADDRESS>:2087

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This will prompt you to accept two SSL security warnings. This is because the WHM uses self-signed SSL certificates. These certificates can be replaced with signed certificates at a later date. Just click OK to both of the warning messages that appear and then you will be prompted with a login box. This is where you will enter in your root username and password. This information is also contained in the welcoming email. Once you are logged into the WHM you will want to list the accounts that are currently on your server. This is done via the Account Information section under the "List Accounts" link.

Listing Accounts
Account Information >> List Accounts For VPS and Hybrid accounts you will see that we have already created a cPanel account for the main domain name that you signed up with. For Dedicated accounts you will need to skip down to the Creating Accounts section of this guide. For all other accounts you will need to set a new password for this account by going to the Account Functions section of the WHM under the Password Modification link.

Password Modification
Account Functions >> Password Modification

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Once this is done you can log into the cPanel for this account by going to the IP address of your server on port 2083. See example: https://<IP ADDRESS>:2083 You can also use the username and password (that you just updated) to log in via FTP with your IP address as your hostname. Once DNS is setup for the domain in question you can use the below shortcut to access the cPanel for that domain. http://example.com/cpanel

Creating Accounts
Creating cPanel accounts is very simple. Just navigate to the following in your WHM: Account Functions >> Create a New Account

This will load a form that you will need to fill out. The next page contains a short breakdown of all of the fields on the form.

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Domain Information Domain: UserName: Main domain name for the account. Username for the account. Password for the account. Email address where information is sent from the server.

Password: Contact Email:

Resources Package: If you have created packages you can select the package here. Total Amount of disk space the account can use. Total amount of bandwidth the account can use per month. Max number of FTP accounts they can create. Max number of email accounts the account can create. Max number of mailing lists the account can create. Max number of SQL databases the account can create. Max number of subdomains the account can create. Max number of parked domains the account can create. Max number of addon domains the account can create.

Manual Options (Click "Select Options Manually" to view the below options) Disk Space Quota (MB): Bandwidth Limit (MB): Max Ftp Accounts: Max Email Accounts: Max Mailing Lists: Max SQL Databases: Max Sub Domains: Max Parked Domains: Max Addon Domains:

Settings Ip: Set the account up with its own IP address. This is mainly used with accounts that need SSL certicates. Only enable it for accounts that absolutely need shell access. Leaving this disabled is best for security. Check this to give the account Frontpage Extensions. Check this to give the account CGI access. Select a cPanel theme. x3 is the best choice.

Shell Access:

Frontpage Extensions: Cgi Access: cPanel Theme:

Reseller Settings Reseller accounts are special cPanel accounts that can create new cPanel accounts that are under their control. Give Reseller Privileges: Owns their account: Reseller accounts are special accounts that are able to create new accounts. Check this only if you want to give modication privileges to this account.

DNS Settings Use domain registry nameservers: Overwrite Existing Dns Zones: Check this if the domain name for the account is going to be its own nameservers that are not located on your new server. Check this to overwrite any existing DNS zone for this domain.

The next page contains a screenshot of a recommended cPanel account setup.

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Example New Account Creation Page

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Please note that for Dedicated servers we only create a DNS zone for the domain name that you used when you placed your order. This means if you want to create a cPanel account for that domain name that your server has been setup for you will need to select the Overwrite Existing DNS Zones option from the Create a New Account link under the Account Functions section.

Accessing cPanel
Accessing the cPanel for this new account by going to following address.

https://<IP ADDRESS>:2083

Just replace <IP ADDRESS> with your server's main IP address. Below are some of the major features that cPanel provides. Once DNS is propagated you can access this link by going to https://domain.com/securecpanel. Just replace domain.com with your domain name that is on the server. Also if you are using the x3 skin it should have tutorials for a lot of the features contained in the cPanel. Main cPanel Features Addon domains: Backup: Change password: Cron Jobs: Disk Usage: Error Log: Error Pages: File manager: FTP manager: Hotlink protection: Mail: MySQL Databases: Network Tools: Parked domains: Raw Access Logs: Redirects: Subdomains: Add a domain to a subdirectory off a main cPanel account. Create and Download a backup of your cPanel account. Change your cPanel Account password. Create Cron Jobs to be run under your cPanel account. View your cPanel account's current disk usage. View the Apache error log. Edit the Error Pages for your domain name. A web based le manager that allows you to upload and download les. Create, Edit and Remove FTP accounts. Add Hotlink protection to prevent unauthorized image linking. Create, Edit and Remove Email accounts. Also has links to WebMail. Create, Edit and Remove mySQL databases and mySQL database users. Various network tools. Park or point a domain name to your main cPanel domain name. View your raw access logs for your domain name. Create, Edit and Remove mod_rewrite redirects. Create, Edit and Remove subdomains.

Password Protect Directories: Create, Edit and Remove password protection to directories on your account.

For more detailed information on the full features of cPanel please visit the cPanel documentation site at the URL below.

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http://www.cpanel.net/docs/cpanel/

Accessing your site through FTP

Once you create your new account you can then use the username, password and IP address of your server to FTP your content to your account. You will put all of your website files in the public_html directory. Anything inside this directory will be accessible via the Internet.

Previewing your site

After your website has been uploaded you can view your website without changing the DNS over. Just follow the below format: http://<IP ADDRESS>/~username/ You will replace the <IP ADDRESS> section with your server's first IP address and the username section with the username of the domain name you are trying to view. Please note that some websites are coded to use the domain name so your website might not function 100% correctly when being viewed via this temporary URL. Ensuring that your websites use relative links would correct this issue.

Re-Add DNS A Entries for Dedicated Servers ONLY

After you create the account for your main domain name you will want to redo the DNS settings for your dedicated server. This step is only needed if you created a cPanel account and overwrote the DNS settings that we preconfigured for your at setup. VPS and Hybrid Dedicated accounts can skip this step since the main cPanel account has been created for you by default with the correct DNS settings already applied. Below details out what you will need to do to re-add the hostname and nameserver A entries to your DNS zone file. Main >> Server Configuration >> Basic cPanel/WHM Setup

Click "Add an A entry for this nameserver" for both of the Primary Nameserver and Secondary Nameserver. This will assign the first and second IP addresses respectively to each one of your nameservers.

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Main >> Networking Setup >> Hostname

Leave the hostname the same under the change hostname field and click change. This will reset the hostname for your server and then prompt you to add an A entry in for your hostname. Just click the "Add An A Entry for your hostname" button to add it to your DNS zone.

Special note regarding hostnames for all accounts

If you choose to change your server's hostname you will first need to contact WiredTree support to inform them of the change. A lot of our internal systems use the hostname of your server and it is very important for us to have your current hostname on file. Changing it without notifying us first can cause issues with your WiredTree Grove account, and server monitoring. This applies to all accounts: VPS, Hybrid Dedicated and Dedicated.

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Creating cPanel packages

After you add accounts to your server you can create hosting packages that put limits on cPanel accounts. Creating these packages can save you a lot of time down the road if you plan on adding accounts in bulk. These packages allow for easy and fast creation of accounts with set limits on the features and account functionality. This step is totally optional and can be skipped if you don't plan on reselling webhosting packages. The current things that you can limit on are listed below and the packages section can be found at: Main >> Packages

New Package Name: Max FTP Accounts: Max Email Accounts: Max Email Lists: Max Databases: Max Sub Domains:

Name of the package you are creating. Max amount of FTP accounts that this package can create. Max amount of Email accounts that this package can create. Max amount of Email lists that this package can create. Max amount of Databases that this package can create. Max amount of Subdomains that this package can create. Max amount of Parked Domains that this package can create. Max amount of Addon Domains that this package can create. Give this account a Dedicated static IP address. Give this account SSH shell access. Access to the cgi-bin directory. Give this account frontpage extensions. Disk space quota. Zero is unlimited. Bandwidth Quota. zero is unlimited. Standard cPanel theme. We recommend using the x3 skin. What feature list to give them.

Max Parked Domains: Max Addon Domains: Dedicated IP: Shell Access: CGI Access: Quota MB: Bandwidth MB: cPanel Theme: Feature List:

Frontpage Extensions:

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Aside from the limitations that you can put on your accounts you can limit what features they can access via feature lists. You can view, create and edit the features lists in the Features Manager which is located at: Main >> Packages >> Feature Manager

Again you don't need to create packages or feature lists if you don't want to put limits on your cPanel accounts. If you setup your cPanel accounts with the x3 skin it comes with built in tutorials that give great instruction on how to best use your cPanel account.

Changing your DNS

From here you will want to look into switching over your DNS to your new server once your website has been setup correctly. Please view our DNS How-to PDF located at the following URL. http://wiredtree.com/docs/wiredtree-dnshowto.pdf We also have flash demos on each registrar for creating your own nameservers. They can be found at the URL below. http://wiredtree.com/docs/

Adding SSL certificates to your account

If you plan on using SSL on your website please view our SSL How-to at the following URL: http://wiredtree.com/docs/wiredtree-sslhowto.pdf

Questions?
If you have any questions regarding this guide or have any suggestions please open a ticket in our client portal via the URL below: https://grove.wiredtree.com

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