cPanel Setup

Hmm… apparently not many Linoders using cPanel? Maybe a good reason for that. I have some clients who are accustomed to it. I've noticed that installation problems seem to be plentiful at other unmanaged VPS hosts, but maybe it is due to lack of experience. I was wondering if the install (and updates) might push the boundaries of the allocated RAM (say 512 MB)?

Did you try searching? I know from reading posts people have setup cPanel, Webmin, ISPConfig, etc

You don't mention which Linode plan you are on. I've never installed cPanel or anything like it before, but from reading here and knowing what those things do, I can only assume it would eat considerable resources on the smaller plans.

I did find this old post

http://www.linode.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=8856#8856

Hi Waldo,

Thanks for your reply. I did some searches, but didn't find the particular post you did. I was thinking of installing it on a Linode 540, but it appears that might not be practical. I'm not married to cPanel, however some of my clients are. I have about 30 sites to host, but most of them are static and low-traffic. I may try it in the next tier up.

Or maybe depending on how much the clients are paying, get each on their on 360 ;) , though availability is pretty low at this point in time:

http://www.linode.com/avail.cfm

What do they need/want cPanel or anything like that for? Perhaps you can find other alternatives.

email - use Google

DNS (sub-domains, etc), if each had their own Linode, they could take care of that it in the Linode manager. I think you could use Linode's API to do pretty much anything you need there so you wouldn't need to give them access to the LM.

File manager? There are others out there you could set them up with.

One-click installs of software? Screw that. Nobody keeps that stuff up to date. Instruct/guide your clients on manually installing WordpPress, Drupal, etc.

Just a couple of examples.

You could (I think) get a separate Linode and setup cPanel or some other control panel on a dedicated node. So those resource pigs aren't consuming the money maker box ;)

Looks like cPanel has a VPS version, but it still appears pretty dang hungry:

http://www.cpanel.net/products/cpanelwh … ments.html">http://www.cpanel.net/products/cpanelwhm/system-requirements.html

Seems to me cPanel has only had their programmers work on polishing the front end interface and can't figure out how to code the back end for efficiency. Yes, it does a lot, but I don't understand why it needs so many resources. In my mind it should really be a polished front end to some scripts that do work. It should be pretty dang light weight.

http://www.cpanel.net/products/cpanelwh … mized.html">http://www.cpanel.net/products/cpanelwhm/vps-optimized.html

Lots of options though. I've used hosts that use cPanel and those that have home-grown solutions. I've always preferred the home-grown solutions over cPanel as an end-user.

I have a VPS running CPanel. However this isn't with linode as it's a geographically local host for a few local (Australian) domains.

That'll change when linode get their Australian data center up and running (obviously bandwidth limits will be much lower than US, but still..) ;-)

The following is with a hardened Centos setup with the latest CPanel. It's only running two light traffic domains at the moment, having gone live only last week.

mark@controlpanel [~]# free

total used free shared buffers cached

Mem: 768508 734540 33968 0 44616 426440

-/+ buffers/cache: 263484 505024

Swap: 2031608 68 2031540

I can't say for Linode but I've had no problems with cPanel/WHM on a VPS in the past. Right now I have a Linode 360 with Webmin plus Virtualmin (GPL) and Usermin, works well. Its not the control panel that matters, just what you run on it.

A little late, but I am running CPanel on a 1080 with CentOS 5.3. We host roughly 50 low volume domains on it.

You could probably get away with a 720. No real issues to speak of.

I really thought my biggest concern would be disk space, but even that is going just fine.

I did install ASSP Deluxe, that keeps the cpu up a little since there is a decent amount of email coming through. But overall no issues.

I currently run a 540 with cPanel, for about a month now, and it hasn't even used it's swap space once. It's extremely easy to install and works just fine.

I would recommend using the ConfigServer Firewall. It's free and saves you a lot of working securing your VPS.

I ran cPanel on a colo4jax vps with similar specifications to the 540 Linode. It ran without any problems.

There is a VPS optimized cPanel available. It is more efficient and has a lower cost as well.

Jeff

n00b question: Is cPanel different from Linode manager?

@Rahul:

n00b question: Is cPanel different from Linode manager?
Yes. Look here.

Thanks for the reply. So cpanel and linode manager are two different programs that essentially do the same job? I also wanted to know, does linode completely manage server administration? I have no idea about server administration but want to host my website here. Would linode qualify as "managed server"

Thank you!

R

@pclissold:

@Rahul:

n00b question: Is cPanel different from Linode manager?

Yes. Look here.

They do two different jobs – the Linode Platform Manager allows you to control the system itself (the environment in which your kernel is running, basically), while cPanel is used to manage things running inside your system (web hosting, e-mail, etc).

And no, Linode is an unmanaged service; you have the freedom and the responsibility to build and maintain your own system.

Thanks - hoopycat. So, I guess cPanel makes it a bit easier. What is the cost of running and installing cPanel? And can web hosting, email, etc. be run without cPanel?

Thanks again -

R :D

I can't produce any statistics, but most of the other customers I know don't use a control panel at all (myself included), and I can't think of anyone specifically using cPanel. There's probably at least someone out there, though :-)

You can get information on cPanel's pricing here:

http://www.cpanel.net/products/cpanelwhm/pricing.html

@Rahul:

Thanks - hoopycat. So, I guess cPanel makes it a bit easier. What is the cost of running and installing cPanel? And can web hosting, email, etc. be run without cPanel?

Thanks again -

R :D

You can get cPanel VPS-optimised for $15 per month from one of their partners.

Yes you can do webhosting, email, DNS etc. on your linux box without cPanel, it's just that cPanel et. al. save you a lot of time manually setting stuff up with config files etc.

Why thank you hoopycat and Mr Nod - Now I understand.

I also wanted to know, what made you guys not choose cpanel (or any other similar program) if it makes hosting easier? I'm asking because cpanel hype is all over the forums everywhere - I never heard of people getting by without cpanel…

And how "hard" is it to get by without cpanel for one static website?

thanks!

R

cPanel is the 'standard' for shared hosting services, so its what many people are familiar with. Also, many people aren't comfortable with running their own server, but want to get off shared hosting.

Its pretty easy to get by without a control panel. Once the server is setup you really don't have to do much with it other than to keep the software updated.

If your not the tech savy type, there are some people on the irc and forums (myself included) who can help you to setup your server for probably less than what that cpanel license is going to cost you over a year.

Thanks for your great response, H3LR4ZR.

Yes, I'm very tech-savvy, but I don't want to bite more than I can chew :wink: However, judging from posts on this forum, I feel everyone is helping everyone out. I've been researching affordable VPS hosting for the past 3 months and linode really stands out - so I'll move my stuff on a linode during my vacation ~ end of this year.

Thanks again!

R

@Rahul:

I also wanted to know, what made you guys not choose cpanel (or any other similar program) if it makes hosting easier? I'm asking because cpanel hype is all over the forums everywhere - I never heard of people getting by without cpanel…

R

IMHO cPanel would be a waste of money for just 1 static site - you'll get by easily doing it yourself.

The other option is to check-out virtualmin GPL which will do mostly everything you'll require. I personally use virtualmin because it does all I want.

Mr Nod you are absolutely right - cpanel is ridiculously expensive and I just realized it after visiting their website. I also looked at virtualmin GPL - it might work for my website. Thanks for the info.

R

@Rahul:

Mr Nod you are absolutely right - cpanel is ridiculously expensive and I just realized it after visiting their website. I also looked at virtualmin GPL - it might work for my website. Thanks for the info.

R

I'd like to disagree with you here. I don't think cPanel is ridiculously expensive, really, the VPS license is extremely cheap. You get a fantastic and complex piece of software for only $15 a month! That's really a low price to pay not to have to manage everything by command line.

Virtualmin has been mentioned several times, but I thought I would mention that webmin/virtualmin (free) is great for managing both sides of server hosting. You can do pretty much all server maintenance through webmin, and with virtualmin gpl, every client can have their own control panel for which to control their 'account'.

Virtualmin even offers a install script for people who are unskilled with linux (or prefer to have things automated), while I recommend coming to terms with the linux cli…

With the install script for virtualmin which installs everything needed to run an LAMP server. You'd only need to copy and paste the commands needed to run the script, everything else can be done from the web gui.

I realise virtualmin can do a lot, but I do think that cPanel Inc have a lot more experience with creating server management products and that cPanel/WHM offers a lot more functionality that virtualmin. Though I have to emphasise that the basics may very well be done with virtualmin. If you'd need a more advanced, grown up panel, you'd need to pick cPanel (or DirectAdmin, more lightweight, less advanced).

If you're looking for advanced and grown-up, why use a panel?

I feel quite defensive about webmin because it helped me so much when I first set up my server, but I am aware of how popular cpanel is, and I have used the user end of it before.

I am however completely unaware of what features cpanel gives you to the server management side of the game.

From what I've seen of directadmin, (i've played with the demo panel) the feature set seemed limited to the very basics.

Virtualmin is a commercial product as well as a free one, with many features only becoming available in the paid product, but virtualmin gpl stands strong on its own. The paid version for example adds an extra tier to virtual hosting, with reseller accounts. Compare.

The webmin component (can be installed without virtualmin) is a full control panel with quite an array of 3rd party plugins. My webmin is standing at having 120 modules installed. It has its own mysql manager, you can edit disk mapping, network interfaces… It has full modules to control things like bind, sendmail, apache, postfix, ldap… and at least 8 modules managing clustered solutions.

@gnummep-martin:

cPanel/WHM offers a lot more functionality that virtualmin. Though I have to emphasise that the basics may very well be done with virtualmin. If you'd need a more advanced, grown up panel, you'd need to pick cPanel (or DirectAdmin, more lightweight, less advanced).

I have used all three and presently use Virtualmin Pro. I don't know about the GPL version of VM, but I can say that VM Pro offers vastly more functionality than either cPanel or DirectAdmin.

It does what it does very well too. Virtualmin 'Pro' is an extremely 'grown up' product, as is Webmin (which sits underneath VM on the server).

@Rogi:

@gnummep-martin:

cPanel/WHM offers a lot more functionality that virtualmin. Though I have to emphasise that the basics may very well be done with virtualmin. If you'd need a more advanced, grown up panel, you'd need to pick cPanel (or DirectAdmin, more lightweight, less advanced).

I have used all three and presently use Virtualmin Pro. I don't know about the GPL version of VM, but I can say that VM Pro offers vastly more functionality than either cPanel or DirectAdmin.

It does what it does very well too. Virtualmin 'Pro' is an extremely 'grown up' product, as is Webmin (which sits underneath VM on the server).

Does it offer more than cPanel/WHM from the sysadmin point of view or the end user/shared hosting client point of view? I've always found virtualmin (not pro) lacking in the latter, though that was about a year ago.