WHM - Initial Configuration

This guide will go over our recommended initial configuration steps after logging in to WHM, If you haven't logged in yet, please refer to our Accessing WHM guide first.

We recommend going through the following initial configuration steps to ensure your WHM/cPanel server is set up correctly:

Note: This step is only required for Self Managed VPS users, as our Fully Managed VPS users will have this set up for you. We recommend changing the hostname of your VPS from the default cPanel-generated hostname, to one you would like to use. To do this, go to WHM > Networking Setup > Change Hostname and enter your desired hostname. A hostname should be a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) such as vps.yourdomain.au. Please also set an A record on your domain that matches your VPS hostname and points to your VPS's IP address to ensure that the hostname resolves correctly and an SSL certificate can be issued.

We recommend setting a PTR record on your VPS IP address that matches your hostname to ensure that emails sent from your server are not marked as spam. You have to contact our support team to do this.

If you intend on setting up your own custom nameservers for your customers to use on their domains to link up with your reseller hosting/VPS service, you’ll need to set them within Basic WebHost Manager Setup. This will mean any account you create will be set up by default to refer to those nameservers. To do this, you will need to create two nameservers, typically ns1.yourdomain.au and ns2.yourdomain.au, and set them to point to your VPS IP address. This can be done by creating a Glue Record or Registry Host with your domain registrar. You can then enter these nameservers in WHM > Basic WebHost Manager Setup > Nameservers and click Save Changes.

Optionally, you can set your contact information in WHM to receive important notifications about your server. To do this, go to WHM > Server Contacts > Contact Manager and click on edit next to your preferred communication type (e.g., Email, Slack.). Enter your contact details and save the changes. You can also fine-tune which notifications you receive by clicking on the Notifications tab and adjusting the settings as needed.

The Customisation area will allow you to apply your own company name/logo to cPanel accounts in your service. When one of your customers logs in, they’ll see your business name/logo on the header of all pages within cPanel rather than the generic cPanel theme logo.

Once you have gone through those steps, you should be all good to go with creating cPanel packages and accounts and start hosting! This guide is a part of our "getting started" series with WHM. If you would like to check out our recommendations on what to do next, you can peruse our Creating Packages guide. All our getting-started with WHM guides are listed below:

If you have any additional questions or queries about this, we recommend contacting us, as our support team will be happy to answer any questions you may have.