How to install cPanel and WHM on a VPS

What you need before you install cPanel

cPanel is strict about the server it goes on, so check these before you start. You need root access, a 64-bit server (ARM is not supported), a supported operating system that has just been installed, and a public, static IP address. cPanel licenses only publicly visible static IPs with working DNS, so a dynamic, reserved, sticky or internal address will not do.

Memory is a hard limit: the installer exits if there is too little. IPv6-only servers are not supported, and each server needs its own licence.

Which operating system to choose for cPanel

cPanel & WHM runs on AlmaLinux OS, CloudLinux and Ubuntu, and the requirements differ a little between them. Rocky Linux used to be supported, but cPanel's documentation now says new installs on Rocky Linux are no longer possible, so older tutorials that recommend it are out of date. Debian and other distributions are not on the list, so a VPS running them has to be reinstalled first.

If you have no strong preference, AlmaLinux 9 or 10 is the straightforward pick: it avoids Ubuntu's DNS restriction, and from version 9 the installer does not need to change the network service. Pick Ubuntu 24.04 if your team already works on Ubuntu, and accept PowerDNS as the DNS server.

One surprise to avoid: if your server's IP address already carries a CloudLinux licence, the installer converts AlmaLinux to CloudLinux. Add --skip-cloudlinux to the install command if you do not want that.

Step 1: prepare a fresh server

Start from a clean OS image. cPanel's installation guide says to install only on a freshly installed operating system, and not to install services such as a web server, mail server or database before or during the install. The installer adds them itself, and anything you add first can cause compatibility problems. If the VPS has been used, reinstall it rather than trying to clean it up.

Set a proper hostname. The hostname must be a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) on a domain you have registered, such as server.example.com. It must not match any domain you will host on the server, so use a subdomain rather than example.com itself. It can be at most 60 characters and must resolve to the server's IP, so add an A record (or AAAA for IPv6) in your DNS before you start. If there is no resolvable FQDN, cPanel issues one automatically, which works but is less tidy.

hostnamectl set-hostname server.example.com
hostname -f

Disable the OS firewall. cPanel's requirements say to turn off the operating system's firewall before installing and add a firewall such as CSF or APF afterwards. On AlmaLinux that is usually firewalld; on Ubuntu, UFW, where cPanel's Ubuntu page has you save the current rules first.

# AlmaLinux / CloudLinux
systemctl stop firewalld
systemctl disable firewalld

# Ubuntu 24.04
iptables-save > ~/firewall.rules
systemctl stop ufw.service
systemctl disable ufw.service

Disable SELinux on AlmaLinux or CloudLinux. Set SELINUX=disabled in /etc/selinux/config and reboot, then check with sestatus that SELinux is disabled (cPanel says enforcing mode does not work; permissive can work but is not recommended). Ubuntu uses AppArmor instead, which can stay on.

Leave networking to the installer. The IP must be static, not assigned by DHCP. On AlmaLinux 8 the installer disables NetworkManager for you; on version 9 and later that is not needed. Perl must be present, but the installer tries to add it if it is missing.

Step 2: run the cPanel installation command

Log in over SSH as root (not a sudo user) and run the official command from cPanel's installation guide:

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

This downloads the latest installer to /home and runs it. To stop a CloudLinux conversion, run the last part as sh latest --skip-cloudlinux instead.

The installer checks the server first, then downloads and configures the web server, mail, DNS, databases and cPanel itself. It prints a lot of output; let it finish. cPanel's DigitalOcean guide puts the whole job at about 10–15 minutes, but that is for a ready-made marketplace image, and cPanel gives no official time for a plain VPS. So that a dropped SSH connection does not cut the installer off, it is worth running the command inside screen or tmux if your image has one of them.

If it stops early, read the last lines of the output and check them against the requirements above: too little RAM, an unsupported OS version and services installed beforehand are the ones cPanel's documentation warns about.

Step 3: log in to WHM and finish the setup

Open https://<your-server-IP>:2087 in a browser. Then follow cPanel's own walkthrough:

1. Log in as root with the server's root password.
2. Read the legal agreements, tick the box to accept them and click Continue.
3. Activate a licence. A new install can get a free 15-day trial, which needs a cPanel Store account with a verified email address.
4. Complete Server Setup: a contact email address for server alerts, and the nameservers the server will use.
5. You land on WHM Home. From here you create cPanel accounts for each website.

With WHM working, add the firewall you skipped earlier (CSF or APF), then point your domains' DNS at the server and create the first cPanel account. If you are new to the split between the two panels, our guide on what WHM is and how it differs from cPanel explains who uses which.

cPanel licence: the trial and what comes after

The trial gives you 15 days to set up and test. After that, each server needs a paid cPanel & WHM licence. Only the server's main public IPv4 address has to be licensed, and the tier depends on how many accounts you host: Solo covers 1 account, Admin up to 5, Pro up to 30 and Premier up to 100, with extra accounts available on Premier for a fee. Accounts you create for resellers in WHM count towards the total.

We have left the prices out on purpose. cPanel's pricing page says licence prices change on 16 December 2026 for new orders and renewals, so check the current figures there before you budget. Whatever the tier, the licence is a recurring cost on top of the server itself.

Common cPanel install errors and how to avoid them

Installing cPanel on a Bigdomainhost VPS

Every KVM VPS we offer meets cPanel's minimum, and the Starter plan's 4 GB of RAM and 40 GB of NVMe match cPanel's recommended spec. Each VPS has a dedicated IPv4 address and root access, and the OS images include AlmaLinux 8, 9 and 10 and Ubuntu 24.04, all of which cPanel supports. A Linux VPS is usually ready in under 60 seconds in Mumbai or Delhi NCR, and the out-of-band console in the control panel lets you get back in if a firewall change locks you out.

You can run the steps above yourself, or ask for cPanel and WHM to be pre-installed at order time or added later; the licence is billed at the vendor price with no markup. Plans start at ₹674 (US$7.66)/mo, billed in 30-day periods paid in advance from your rupee wallet, and prices exclude 18% GST.

If you want cPanel without running a server at all, Web & cPanel hosting includes the licence, and reseller hosting gives you white-label WHM for client sites while we look after the server.

Bigdomainhost is not affiliated with cPanel, L.L.C. Requirements and commands are taken from cPanel's documentation as of 15 November 2026; check it for changes before you install.

Sources (checked 15 November 2026)

• cPanel: Installation Guide - Installation
• cPanel: Installation Guide - System Requirements
• cPanel: Installation Guide - AlmaLinux OS Requirements
• cPanel: Installation Guide - Ubuntu Requirements
• cPanel: Installation Guide - CloudLinux Requirements
• cPanel: How to Install cPanel & WHM on DigitalOcean
• cPanel: cPanel Pricing