Setting up resellers on your dedicated server

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This guide was put together to help dedicated server customers create resellers in their root WebHost Manager (WHM), and assumes that you already have a dedicated server with us.

STEP 1 - Create the reseller's main account

Using the Create a New Account tool in your WHM, create a new account for your reseller. This will be the reseller's main account. Be sure to give this account a dedicated IP address, and take note of what that IP address is (you'll need it later). The other resources you give this account (storage space, bandwidth, emails, etc) are not relevant at this point.

Note 1: Let's assume the main account for the reseller is to be hisdomain.com, and that we assigned 123.45.67.89 as it's dedicated IP address.

Note 2: If your reseller will not be using private nameservers, and instead will just be using your server's main nameservers, then you do not need to assign a dedicated IP address to his main account.

STEP 2 - Reserve 2 IPs for the reseller

Under IP Functions, click on Show/Edit Reserved IPs.

1. Find the IP you used when you created the account in step 1, check the box beside it, and type ns1.hisdomain.com as the reason for reserving it. We'll be setting up this nameserver as the primary nameserver for all accounts he creates from his reseller plan.
2. Choose another IP address (let's say 123.45.67.90 for this example) that will be used for the secondary nameserver, check the box beside it to reserve it, and type ns2.hisdomain.com as the reason for reserving.
3. Be sure to write down the above two IP addresses, as you will need them in the next step.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Save to save your changes.

STEP 3 - Edit the main account's DNS Zone files

Under DNS Functions, click on Edit a DNS Zone.

1. From the list of accounts you're given, select hisdomain.com and click Edit. From here you'll want to add new entries to your Zone File, so that the custom nameservers will work.
2. In the section where it says Add New Entries Below this Line, type ns1 in the left column of the first line, and it's corresponding IP address (in this case, 123.45.67.89) in the field just after the A field. Leave the last field on the right blank.
3. Then in the second line, type ns2 in the left column (under ns1), and the IP address for ns2 (in this case, 123.45.67.90) after the A field.
4. When finished, click Save at the bottom of the page.

You've just added two entries to the hisdomain.com zone file, that define your reseller's two private nameservers, and associate them with their corresponding IP addresses. The following have just been created in the server:

Nameserver 1: ns1.hisdomain.com IP: 123.45.67.89
Nameserver 2: ns2.hisdomain.com IP: 123.45.67.90

STEP 4 - Assign reseller privileges to the reseller's main account

Under Server Setup, click on Reseller Center.

1. Under Add Reseller Privileges, select the hisdomain.com account, and click OK. You've just given hisdomain.com reseller privileges.
2. Under Edit Reseller Privileges, select the hisdomain.com account and click OK. The recommended reseller settings are as follows:

- Limit the amount of accounts the reseller can create by number to X - accounts (we use 100, but will increase as necessary).
- Allow Creation of Packages with Unlimited Disk Space
- Allow Creation of Packages with Unlimited Features
- Allow Package Edits
- Account Creation
- Account Modification
- Account Suspension
- Account Termination
- Account Upgrades
- Add Domains
- Add/Remove Packages
- Allow Creation of Packages with Addon Domains
- Allow Creation of Packages with Parked Domains
- Bandwidth Limiting Modification
- Delete Domains
- Edit DNS Entries
- Edit MX Entries
- Enabling/Disabling FrontPage Extensions
- Enabling/Disabling SSL Support
- Enabling/Disabling SubDomains
- List Accounts
- Never Allow Creation of Accounts with Shell Access
- Park Domain
- Password Modification
- Quota Modification
- Reset Shopping Cart
- Turn an Account into a Demo Account
- View Account Bandwidth Usage
- View Account Statistics
- View Server Status

3. Beside Primary Nameserver type ns1.hisdomain.com
4. Beside Secondary Nameserver type ns2.hisdomain.com
5. Click Save at the bottom of the page when finished.

Under Manage Reseller IP Delegation, select the hisdomain.com account and click OK. Then simply click the second choice that says Restrict IPs the reseller can use for accounts. If you are not giving the reseller any more IP addresses to use for creating dedicated IP accounts, then don't select any IPs at all. Just click Save at the bottom of the page. If you ARE going to give the reseller the use of certain IP addresses, then select them before clicking Save.

Under Manage Reseller Main Shared/Ipless IP, select the hisdomain.com account and click OK. Select the IP address you initially used in creating the hisdomain.com account (you also used this IP address for ns1.hisdomain.com), and then click Save.

STEP 5 - Assign ownership of the reseller's main account to the reseller

Even though you've assigned reseller privileges to the main account, that account is still considered a root-owned account. This means that the account is not assigned to any reseller on the server. You should change this, and assign it to the reseller so that when the reseller uses the List Accounts tool in his WHM, his main account will also be displayed. Follow these steps to accomplish this:

1. Under Account Functions, click Change Ownership of an Account.
2. Select hisdomain.com from the list of accounts and click Change.
3. Select this reseller's account name from the resulting list of resellers on your server, and click OK. The reseller will now be able to see his own reseller account in his WHM list of accounts.

Your reseller's reseller plan is now setup! Now what?

Now you will want to give your reseller information on how to login to his WHM as well as the CPanel for every account he creates.

To login to WHM, your reseller must type:

http://123.45.67.89:2086

Where 123.45.67.89 is the dedicated IP for his main account, AND the IP for his primary nameserver, ns1.hisdomain.com), followed by his username and password... which you set when you created his account.

To login to CPanel, your reseller must type

http://123.45.67.89:2082

... followed by the same username and password used above.

A Suggestion.....
So now you see that it is not a simple procedure when setting up resellers on your server. Our suggestion to you is this: Once you setup your first reseller, print out a copy of his reseller settings (from the "Edit Reseller Privileges" page) so you have something to look at when setting up future resellers. Also keep in mind that every reseller you setup, provided you set them up with their own private nameservers, will need two available IP addresses.