Install cPanel & WHM on AWS EC2 Instance

Install cPanel & WHM on AWS EC2 Instance with CentOS 7 and set up Email and Security using Web Host Manager (WHM). This latest version simplifies the WHM setup in just two clicks compared to the installation of old cPanel version.

cPanel is a server management software for website owners which comes with a 15-day trial.

Click here to activate cPanel License

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Steps to install cPanel and WHM

1. Create an EC2 Instance
2. Setup Route 53 DNS
3. Configure Security Group
4. Set up Hostname on AWS
5. Install cPanel
6. Agree to Terms and Conditions
7. Setup Email in WHM
8. Activate cPanel

Cpanel and WHM can also be installed on other cloud platforms. You can choose anyone from the below.

Here are some options.

Platform	Machine Type	Cost (Monthly)
Digitalocean	4GB RAM – 2vCPU	$20
Google Cloud Platform	Standard 3.75 GB RAM	$25
Amazon Web Services	A1- Large 4 GB RAM	$35

Check how to install cPanel on Google Cloud Platform.

Create an EC2 Instance

Launch a new EC2 Instance with CentOS 7 Amazon Machine Image.

Choose atleast t2 micro instance type.

Add 40 GB of Storage to your root volume.

Configure Security Group by adding rules for these custom ports.

• SSH with source anywhere (You can also restrict it)
• HTTP with source anywhere
• HTTPS with source anywhere
• DNS (UDP) with source anywhere
• DNS (TCP) with source anywhere
• Custom TCP 2077 with source anywhere
• Custom TCP 2078 with source anywhere
• Custom TCP 2082 with source anywhere
• Custom TCP 2083 with source anywhere
• Custom TCP 2086 with source anywhere
• Custom TCP 2087 with source anywhere
• Custom TCP2096 with source anywhere
• Custom TCP 3306 with source anywhere
• Custom TCP 2525 with source anywhere

Create an instance by creating a new pem key to access your instance using SSH. Keep this key safe, without this key you cannot access the instance.

Setup Route 53

Create a new DNS Hosted zone for you domain name and update the nameservers of Amazon on your domain name.

In your DNS manger create a new A record with the name cpanel which points to the Public IP Address of the instance.

You can check your DNS records here by entering cpanel.yourdomain.com

Once everything is in place you can go ahead and install cPanel.

Install cPanel

Access your EC2 Instance with the PEM file you just downloaded.

Once you are connected to you instance enter the following commands one by one.

sudo -s
yum update
yum install perl
yum install wget

Then set the hostname with your domain name. Replace yourdomainname.com with your domain name.

hostname cpanel.yourdomainname.com

Download latest cPanel and install it by running the following command.

cd /home && curl -o latest -L https://securedownloads.cpanel.net/latest && sh latest

It will take around 30 – 40 min to complete the install. Don’t close the terminal until the setup is completed.

Once the setup is completed, you can set the root password by executing the following command.

passwd

Save your password safely, you will need that to login to your WHM.

Set up Hostname in AWS

AWS Instance won’t preserve the hostname (cpanel.yourdomainname.com) you set and changes it to default hostname automatically, so this may result in a locked cPanel & WHM license. To preserve the hostname follow the below simple steps .

cd /etc/dhcp/dhclient-exit-hooks.d/
sudo nano set-hostname.sh

Paste the following contents and hit Ctrl+X followed by Y to save the file. Remember to replace yourdomainname.com with your domain name

#!/bin/sh
hostname cpanel.yourdomainname.com
/scripts/fixetchosts

Set correct permissions to the file you created

chmod 744 set-hostname.sh

That’s all now your cPanel is installed and ready to finish the WHM setup

Setup WHM

Open your browser and navigate to https://cpanel.yourdomainname.com:2087 . At this point, some browsers show a warning message about HTTPS and don’t allow you to visit the WHM page. In this case, you can use your IP Address instead of the domain name (https://PUBLIC_IP_ADDRESS:2087). It will take some time for the SSL certificate to get issued by cPanel.

Enter username as root

Enter the password you created by running the command passwd

Now you will be logged into your WHM.

Click Agree to All.

Provide your email address.

Click Finish

Now you will be taken to the WHM home page.

Setup Email in WHM

In AWS port 25, which cPanel & WHM utilizes for email is not open. So you need to create an account with Mailgun or Sendgrid and integrate with WHM for emails or Configure Amazon SES.

Allow SMTP on Port 2525

Go to Service Configuration >> Service Manager

Tick both boxes next to Exim Mail Server (on another port)

Change Allow exim to listen on a port other than 25 to 2525

Click Save

Email Configuration

As the standard email port is blocked in Google Cloud, you need to configure a third party email service provider to send emails. Here we can use Mailgun to configure emails in cPanel.

Make sure you have these DNS records.

A record pointing to mail.domain.com

MX record with 0 priority pointing to mail.domain.com

Mailgun Configuration

Go to Service Configuration >> Exim Configuration Manager.

Click Advanced Editor tab.

In daemon_smtp_ports enter 465 : 25 : 587 : 2525

In the Section: AUTH box enter.

mailgun_login:
driver = plaintext
public_name = LOGIN
hide client_send = : Default SMTP Login : Default Password

In the Section: PREROUTERS box enter.

mailgun:
driver = manualroute
domains = ! +local_domains
transport = mailgun_transport
route_list = * smtp.mailgun.org::2525 byname

In the Section: TRANSPORTSTART box enter.

mailgun_transport:
driver=smtp
hosts_try_auth = smtp.mailgun.org

Activate cPanel

cPanel is a subscription based software, you can activate your license.

Save the configurations, that’s everything about cPanel & WHM on AWS.