Setup Remote Access Key
A remote access key is used for automatic account creation scripts, external billing software, and various other applications that need to call WebHost Manager to create, remove, or modify accounts. A Perl and PHP module is available for applications using those technologies - refer to Using the Cpanel::Accounting Perl module and/or Using the Cpanel Accounting PHP module for more information. Refer to the external software provider for detailed instructions as to where and how the remote access key needs to be inserted for their application.



Service Status
Displays what services are running on your server, as well as server load, memory usage, swap usage, and hard drive space usage. Running services have a green circle next to them, while failed services have a red circle next to them. Services that are displayed here are apache, bind, exim, ftpd, mysql, webmail, server load, memory used, swap, and various drive partitions (/, /home, /usr, /var, /backup, etc).



Server Information
Displays information about the hardware and software configuration on your server. This includes processor type, and speed, memory information, system software, drive information, memory usage, and drive space usage. 



List Accounts
The List Accounts function displays all of the accounts on your server. It displays a variety of detailed information including the account's domain name, IP number, user name, contact email, partition location, and disk space quota. At the bottom of the list is the total number of accounts and a search function that enables you to search for specific types of accounts. 



Create a New Account
WebHost Manager enables you to quickly add new accounts - you simply fill in the fields to specify the account details. When you click on this link in your WebHost Manager, you'll be taken to a form that you must fill out to create a new account. In this form, you simply specify the new account's domain name, assign it a username and a password, give it the resources you want (i.e. storage space, # of POP3 email accounts, bandwidth limit, etc.) and click Create. The new hosting account will be created instantly, with it's own web-based control panel that your customer will be able to gain access to using the username and password you assigned.

Using Packages will speed up this process considerably - refer to Add Packages for more information.

Note: WebHost Manager does not support domains or usernames that start with numbers. Do not create accounts that start with numbers as you will not be able to use some functions on these accounts.



Skeleton Directory
The skeleton directory is what will be used as a skeleton for new accounts you create. Any files that are placed in the skeleton directory are automatically copied into new accounts. For example, if you placed an index.html file in the /public_html folder in your skeleton directory, all new accounts will have that automatically included in their directory.... and since it is an index.html file, it will automatically display once the domain name has propagated. Many resellers put a simple "website under construction" page in their skeleton directory.



Terminate an Account
You can terminate old or problematic accounts at any time. Terminating a problematic account should be a last resort, as you can always suspend an account until the problems are resolved. When an account is terminated, all files, email settings, databases, scripts, etc. that were in that account will be deleted, and cannot be recovered.

To terminate an account, simply click on this link in your WebHost Manager, and then select the account you want to terminate from a list of all accounts in your reseller plan. Once you select the account and click "Terminate", the account will be immediately removed from the server.



Modify an Account
This function allows you to modify the theme, # of emails, mailing lists, addon domains, parked domains, MySQL databases, sub domains and FTP accounts allotted to any account in your reseller plan. A quicker way of modifying accounts is to first create Packages (see Add Packages), and then use the Upgrade/Downgrade an Account tool (see below). 



Upgrade/Downgrade an Account
If sometime after you've created a hosting account you decide you want to changed the amount of resources allocated to it, this function allows you to do it. Before you can use this function however, you must have created at least one Package (click here to learn more about adding Packages). To upgrade to a larger package (or downgrade to a smaller package), simply click this link, select the account you wish to change, and then select the new Package you want for this account. All storage space limits, email limits, database limits, etc. will immediately be updated to the values as assigned when you created the Package.



View Bandwidth Usage
You can view a list of all accounts in your reseller plan, each showing the total amount of bandwidth used in any given month. When you first click on this link in your WebHost Manager, you'll be shown the bandwidth used in the current month. However, you can go back and view the bandwidth used in all previous months as well...... for all accounts in your reseller plan, AND the total used by all your accounts combined. This is a very handy tool for managing the bandwidth your customers are using, and to identify high-traffic users.



Limit Bandwidth Usage
You can set a bandwidth limit for every account in your reseller plan. Even though you would have set a limit when you created an account, that limit can be modified at any time using this link. All accounts in your reseller plan are listed alphabetically, so you can easily scroll up or down to the account for which you wish to modify the monthly bandwidth limit.

Example:
 Let's say you setup an account with an initial bandwidth limit of 2 GB. By the 20th of the month you get an email from your customer saying that his website is down, displaying a message to please contact the host administrator. You go to the View Bandwidth Usage link and see that his account has exceeded the allowable monthly bandwidth limit. The customer may then decides to purchase more bandwidth from you, and you can then change his bandwidth usage limit to a higher value. 



Suspend/Unsuspend an Account
WebHost Manager allows you to suspend problematic accounts. Suspension simply means that no web site pages are served to accounts, no FTP connections are accepted, and all email is blocked. Suspension should be the first step in dealing with problematic accounts. If the problems can not be resolved, the account needs to be terminated - refer to Terminating an account for more information.

Some reasons you may want to suspend certain accounts include non-payment of hosting fees, and abuse of terms (i.e. you may find adult content or catch them sending spam emails). Suspending or unsuspending accounts is done simply by choosing the appropriate account from an alphabetical list, then clicking either suspend, or unsuspend. The suspension/unsuspension happens immediately.

When you suspend an account it is a good idea to also note the reason for the suspension, in the Reason box. 



List Suspended Accounts
At any time you may view a complete alphabetical list of any/all accounts you have in suspension. The reason the account was suspended is also given, provided you entered a reason when you suspended it. 



Modify Suspended Accounts Page
The Suspended Account page is the HTML page that account holders will see when they attempt to log in to their account. You can modify the default page to appear however you want.



Quota Modification
Clicking on this link in your WebHost Manager brings up an alphabetical list of all hosting accounts in your reseller plan, the storage space each account is using, and the storage space quota that is assigned to each. You can change this quota either up or down, at your sole discretion. This tool is extremely useful in giving more storage space to an account that is running out. To change the storage space quota for an account, simply enter the new value (in megabytes) in the appropriate box, and click Change. 

Note: If you want to upgrade or downgrade an account instead.... that is, if you want to change other resource limits as well as teh storage space (i.e. bandwidth, # of emails, etc), then using the Upgrade/Downgrade an Account tool would be a better way to do this.


Show Accounts over Quota
A quick way to view a list of all accounts in your reseller plan who have maxed out their available storage space.



List Subdomains
Allows you to quickly view a list of all subdomains that have been created in your reseller plan



Password Modification
You can change the password for any account in your reseller plan, at any time. When you create an account, you assign it a password which you would then send to your customer (along with a username). If the customer ever loses their password, there is no way for you to retrieve it and give it back to them. Instead, you can simply assign a new password to the account, which will make the old password unusable (unless you change the password to the same thing as it was before).

Note: We recommend keeping a log of the usernames and passwords for every account you create for the purposes of troubleshooting your customer's accounts if the need should ever arise. However, your customers have the ability to change their own password from their control panel, so keeping a log of passwords doesn't always help (if the customer changes their password, the password you initially set them up with will no longer work). However, if they ever lose their password, you have this ability to change it back to whatever you (or they) want. You would then want to tell them what their new password is. 



Disable or Enable Demo Mode
You can use this feature to turn an account into a Demo account. This is useful if you want to grant people access to a control panel for the purposes of seeing how it works (i.e. before they purchase hosting from you), but also limits what tools can be used in the control panel. We've done this ourselves.... if you go to our CPanel help page and scroll down a little, you'll see a place where you can login to a demo control panel. That will give you an idea of what functions are turned off for demo mode.



Terminate Multiple Accounts
This is a quick way to delete several accounts at one time.... instead of having to delete each account separately.



Modify/Upgrade Multiple Accounts
This is a quick way to upgrade or downgrade several accounts to the same Package. A real time saver!



Install FrontPage Extensions
Although FrontPage extensions can be installed automatically when you create a web hosting account, you can also add them later, using this tool. FrontPage extensions are required for any customer that will be using Microsoft FrontPage to build their website. To install the FrontPage extensions, simply click on this link in your WebHost Manager, select the account for which you want the Frontpage extensions installed, and click Install. The extensions will be installed in the appropriate account within about 2 minutes. 

Note: Your customers also have the ability to install FrontPage extensions directly into their account, from within their Control Panel. 



Uninstall FrontPage Extensions
WebHost Manager allows you to uninstall FrontPage extensions from any account that has them installed. This is done using this link. 

Note: Your customers also have the ability to uninstall FrontPage extensions from their account, from within their end-user control panel. 



Install FrontPage Mail Extensions
Some of your customers may need FrontPage mail extensions installed. This function will find all accounts that do not have any mail extensions installed and will install the Frontpage mail extensions. This function is not typically used anymore, since the mail extensions get installed automatically when the FrontPage extensions are installed. 



Change WHM Theme
You can select a theme for WebHost Manager from the themes that you have installed. This theme only applies to the user name with which you logged in.



Feature Manager
The feature manager allows you to disable/enable features inside of each user's Control Panel. At the current time this feature only removes the links to each feature from the menu; Soon it will block manual access of each feature as well. Once you build a feature list you should edit the package you wish to assign it to and add the feature list. 

Two special feature lists called default and disabled will affect all users. 

• If you disable a feature in the default feature it will be disabled in every users' Control Panel, unless another feature list grants them the feature. 

• If you disable a feature in the "disabled" feature it will be disabled in every users' cPanel. Unlink the "default" feature list no other feature list will be able to override this and grant the feature. If you don't want anyone to be able to turn this feature on at all, disable it in this list.
  

Add Packages
Packages enables you to create your own custom web hosting plans and are a critical function in WebHost Manager. You can think of a package as "pre-defined settings for a given hosting plan". These packages form the core service of your web hosting business, and your pricing structure needs to be carefully thought out. WebHost Manager helps you in this process by allowing you to customize a large number of parameters, from disk space and bandwidth to the number of sub-domains and MySQL databases, as well as specifying whether CGI and FrontPage extensions are to be installed, and what CPanel default theme is provided. Once you have defined your packages (or web hosting plans), when you go to create a new hosting account in Create a New Account, all you have to enter is the domain name, username, password, and then select the appropriate package for that new account. When you create a new hosting account, although you can select a pre-defined package to speed up the setup process, you are still free to modify any of the individual settings before completing the setup. For example, you can setup a new hosting account with a pre-defined package, but then give that account more storage space than the package allows.

Without properly defined packages you can still create custom hosting accounts, but each time you create a new account you would have to select many more variables (# emails, # MySQLs, # sub-domains, storage allowance, bandwidth limit, etc.). So properly defining your packages up front will make setting up new hosting accounts later on, much quicker.

The variables you define when creating a new Package are as follows:

• Package Name: Choose a name like "Plan A", "Gold Plan", "Starter Plan", or whatever you like.... corresponding to the hosting plan you are selling. This is how you will identify the package when setting up a new account.

• Quota: The amount of storage space given to the account (i.e. 500 MB)

• Max FTP Accounts: The total number of FTP accounts you are allowing the customer to setup.

• Max Email Accounts: The total number of POP3 email accounts you are allowing the customer to create. Note: There are always an unlimited number of email forwarders and autoresponders available for every account. It is only the POP3 email accounts that you can set limits for. 

• Max Email Lists: The total number of Mailman mailing lists you are allowing the customer to setup.

• Max SQL Databases: The total number of MySQL databases you are allowing the customer to setup.

• Max Sub Domains: The total number of Sub Domains you are allowing the customer to setup.

• Max Parked Domains: The total number of Parked Domains (or Domain Pointers) you are allowing the customer to setup.

• Max Addon Domains: The total number of Addon Domains you are allowing the customer to setup.

• CGI Access: Check this box if you want your customers to have their own CGI-BIN directory for installing their own custom CGI scripts.

• FrontPage Extensions: Check this box if you want the FrontPage extensions installed in your customers account. Note: This can be overridden when setting up the individual hosting account. Also, customers have the ability to both install, and uninstall FrontPage extensions from their own end-user control panel.

• Bandwidth Limit: Use this to set a monthly bandwidth limit for each hosting account. Once a hosting account reaches the limit set here by you, it will stop working until either you increase the allowable limit (for this account) from your WebHost Manager, or until the month is over (bandwidth is calculated on a per month basis, and is reset to zero on the first day of each month).

• Control Panel Theme: There are several "themes" available for the end-user control panels that your customers use. We recommend the x theme as that is what all our documentation is based on. The theme you choose does not affect the features available to your customers in their control panels.... only the "look" of the control panel itself.
  

Delete Packages
Any package you create in your WebHost Manager, can be deleted here. Deleting packages does not affect hosting accounts that have already been setup using these packages, rather, it simple removes a pre-existing (or previously created by you) package so that it is no longer selectable when creating new hosting accounts. Click here for more information on creating or adding new packages.



Edit Packages
Use this tool if you ever want to change the properties of a Package you've previously created.



Edit Zone Templates
The Zone Template Editor will allow you to edit the default zones that are used when creating DNS entries. You should never have to edit these.

• simple - used for creating a zone with only an A entry for the domain.

• standard - used for creating a the default zone on a new account and parked/addon domains.

• standardvirtualftp - used for creating a the default zone on a new account with a virtual ftp ip.
  

Park or Point a Domain
WebHost Manager enables you to park a domain on top of another domain, which effectively points all HTTP and email traffic from the parked domain to the domain it is parked on top of. In other words, you can have more than one domain name resolving (or "pointing") to the same website. This is commonly referred to as "Domain Parking". Your customers have the ability to park a domain name from within their end-user control panels, ONLY if you granted them that privilege. However as the reseller, you always have the ability to park domains from your WebHost Manager. To Park a domain name on top of another, simply click this link, select the domain name you want to park on top of (from an alphabetical list of all accounts in your reseller plan), and then type in the domain name you wish to park. All website traffic and emails will be automatically redirected to the main account you're parking on.



List Parked Domains
You can list all domains that are parked on your server, sorted by the domains they are parked on top off. You can use this list to add mail configuration to the primary domain's control panel, which adds the domain so the account can modify forwarders and default address for that domain. You can also use this list to unpark domains that you've previously parked.



Add a DNS Zone
A DNS zone is a part of your domain name but it may contain different DNS information.
For example, if you added the DNS zone training.business.co.nz to business.co.nz (in other words, added a subdomain), you could edit the properties of the training.business.co.nz DNS zone to be whatever you wanted. Refer to Editing a DNS zone for more information about editing a DNS zone.

Note: Once you add a DNS zone to the system, you will typically have to wait a few hours for the new DNS zone to propagate. This is not the 24-48 hours of propagation that is required for domain names, rather just local propagation.



Edit an MX Entry
WebHost Manager enables you to alter MX (Mail Exchange Record) entries at any time. By altering an MX Entry you can point the email for a particular domain to another mail server, if required.

Note: Your customers can also alter their own MX entries from within their Control Panel.



Edit a DNS Zone
WebHost Manager enables you to change a wide variety of DNS information at any time. This function is not used very often by resellers. For more information about DNS zones, refer to the ISC's Bind web page.



Delete a DNS Zone
This function can be used to delete a DNS zone from your reseller account. BE CAREFUL with this if you are not sure what you are doing, as you could cause your (or your customer's) website(s) and accounts to be unavailable. 



Reset a Shopping Cart
You can refresh a shopping cart that is not resetting by itself. This command is only designed to be used with the shopping cart scripts that come pre-installed in your Control Panel, and not with any custom scripts you may have uploaded, and using instead. 



Branding
Allows you to brand your CPanel control panels so your customers see your company logo in their control panels. This isn't necessarily a good thing to do, particularly if you want your customers to be able to resell your hosting plans for you.



Modify Control Panel News
You can use this tool to broadcast messages to your customers. Whenever your customers login to their Control Panel's they'll immediately see what ever News you decide to put in this area.



Generate an SSL Certificate and Signing Request
Although you have free use of our own SSL secure certificate for viewing your webpages securely, you are free to purchase your own custom SSL certificate from an online vendor through this link. This is not an option that is used very often.... and would only be used if you want your own custom domain name to appear in the certificate.

Note: Installing your own SSL certificate is not necessary, since you have free use of our own server-wide certificate. We install an SSL certificate on every one of our servers for you to use. 



Install an SSL Certificate and Setup the Domain
Once you've generated an SSL certificate and signing request, and purchased your certificate, you can use this link to install the certificate into your account.

Note: Installing your own SSL certificate is not necessary, since you have free use of our own server-wide certificate. We install an SSL certificate on every one of our servers for you to use.