How to Install cPanel/WHM on CentOS 7

When setting up a new CentOS 7 server, you may find yourself looking for control panel software that will allow you to manage your websites and web applications in a graphical user interface. One of the most popular web hosting control panel solutions is cPanel/WHM. This software gives you a comprehensive control panel interface that allows you to manage and customize many different aspects of your server in a user-friendly environment.

In this article, we will outline how to prepare your CentOS 7 server and install cPanel/WHM using the command-line interface. Before performing the steps in this guide, please ensure that you have set up root SSH access on your server.

Topics Include:

• Preparing for Installation
• Installing cPanel/WHM

Warning: You should only install cPanel/WHM on a panel-free environment like bare metal servers or cloud VPS hosting. Backup your server, or take a server snapshot, before proceeding.

Prepare for Installation

Before you can install cPanel/WHM on CentOS, you will first need to disable your server’s firewall, the Network Manager, and SELinux.  

1. First, stop the service using the following command:
   systemctl stop firewalld.service
2. Then, disable the server using the following command:
   systemctl disable firewalld.service
3. After disabling the firewall, you will need to stop the Network Manager service using the following command:
   systemctl stop NetworkManager
4. Once the service is stopped, you can disable Network Manager using the following command:
   systemctl disable NetworkManager
5. Next, you will need to disable SELinux by editing the following file with the nano command:
   nano /etc/selinux/config
   
   With the file editor open, you can disable SELinux by changing the line that reads SELINUX=enabled to SELINUX=disabled.
6. Next, you will need to install the programming language perl using the following command:
   yum install perl -y

Once perl is installed, you can then proceed with the next steps to install cPanel/WHM on your server.

Install cPanel/WHM on the Server

1. Next, change directory into the /home/ folder with the following command:
   cd /home
2. Next, download the latest release of cPanel/WHM using the following curl command:
   curl -o latest -L https://securedownloads.cpanel.net/latest
3. Once the file has downloaded, you can run the installation script with the following command:
   sh latest
4. After the process finishes, cPanel/WHM should now be installed on your system.

Congratulations, you have successfully installed WHM/cPanel on CentOS 7!