Description
The cPanel is a basic interface to control a variety of aspects of a hosting environment.
Login
To access the cPanel for any of the sites under the Chiaribridges banner, you browse to [cPanel]https://server.chiaribridges.org:2083/ and enter the appropriate credentials depending on the site you want to modify.
The first panel on cPanel is the email panel. The primary use is for the creation of email users and forwarders. Email users can be created and will have a mailbox on the host; a forwarder allows for an alias so that any email coming to that address can be forwarded to one or more addresses. One example Chiaribridges uses forwarders for is the alias "webmaster@chiaribridges.org" so that support requests can be sent to all administrators of the site.
Files
The files section has two essential tools: the File Manager, which gives a view for the files in the environment, and Git, which controls the version control of the theme. This allows for changes to be reversed should a fatal error be made and an old version to be restored without restoring a backup.
It's important to note that Backup is not used in the cPanel at all; all backups are processed through [[WHM]] and not through the individual account. Since WHM is not configured to allow individual users do any backups, the only function possible is to restore an individual backup.
Databases
There are two key items within the databases panel, and that is myphpadmin and MySQL Databases. The myphpadmin gives access to all of the databases hosted within the account and allows for SQL to be executed against a particular database. It also shows the structure of the tables and columns of the databases. The MySQL Databases tool does the setup of an individual database and components of it. This is where database users are created, passwords managed and users are assigned to a database. It also allows for a database repair and a check for database errors. If the wp-config.php file needs modification for the basic site parameters, it's likely this will need to be used to enact those changes.
Domains
This panel allows, in particular, for subdomains to be created. An example subdomain would be testsite.chiaribridges.org; it allows for the document root to be set for the installation and the apache server to be configured. After adding a subdomain, the DNS should be updated and the subdomain should be accessible. In most cases, however, Bluehost must be contacted to make the domain active. The individual zones can also be edited in this panel.
Metric
This panel gives statistics on the site; while there are a lot of detailed statistics available, there is no easy way to download the stats for analysis. Thus this panel is not used often.
Security Panel
There are two items in this panel that are primarily used, although not frequently. The first, SSH Access, is used to enable a particular keypair to be enabled for access to the system via SSH. This is normally only done for a new user and the existing users already have this completed. The other aspect of SSH Access is to generate a keypair to allow access via SSH. In essence, the keypair is created and the private key will be downloaded. Assuming the pass phrase is blank, any user can login with the private key. If a pass phrase is used, it must be entered before access is granted. The other item that can be useful is the SSL/TLS status. If a particular domain doesn't work with SSL/TLS correctly, it can be checked here.
Software
There are a number of tools that are used for the support of the sites in this panel. The first is WordPress Manager, which allows for a simple installation of WordPress in a given domain. It will create the database user as well as any directories necessary to support a wordpress install. MultiPHP Manager is used to enable the version of PHP used, which is presently PHP 8.2. To get new versions of PHP, it's necessary to add the packages via [[WHM]] and explained there. MultiPHP INI Editor allows for various PHP settings. There are three settings that are critical when operating a WordPress site, namely enable_dl, which allows the download of files to the site (or uploading plugins), max_execution_time (defaults to 30, presently set to 300) is the number of seconds before a script times out, post_max_size which is the largest post size. It defaults to 2M, but since it also affects uploads to the site, it should match upload_max_filesize, which also defaults to 2M. Both parameters are set to 128M. When changing the parameters, there are two selections to keep in mind. The first is the configure basic settings, which is what the screen defaults to. The second is the domain (or home directory) selected. The more specific selection of domain is applied to a particular site. If a parameter isn't set for the domain, the Home Directory settings are applied. If Editor Mode, rather than Basic Mode is selected, individual parameters can be added/deleted from the php.ini file and again, each domain is controlled separately and if the domain doesn't have any settings, the top level Home Directory settings are applied.
Advanced
This panel allows for functions that are generally easiest from the command line however can also be used under cPanel. All of the options are self explanatory.
Preferences
This panel controls various aspects of the particular users environment. The options are self explanatory here as well.
Softaculous Apps Installer
This panel shows the available software that can be installed via cPanel. It shows the scripts that are available as well as the categories of scripts. Most of the time this panel is unused but can be interesting to browse to see the sorts of things available. The one aspect of the Apps Installer is to NOT use it to update installations. While it seems to be easy to do a one-click update for an installation, it generally results in catastrophic failure and requires recovery from backup. While more involved, reading the release notes for a particular installation is always the best plan for an update. Specifically, there is a phpBB installation that is not used any longer and shows that there is an upgrade however phpBB in particular is prone to issues when upgraded and not recommended.