If you’re running cPanel servers that process, store, or transmit credit card data, or even connect to systems that do, PCI DSS compliance isn’t optional. It’s a requirement that carries real financial and legal teeth. With PCI DSS v4.0.1 now fully enforced (the March 31, 2025 deadline for all “best practice” requirements has passed), every […]
PCI DSS Compliance Cookbook for cPanel Servers Read Post »
For over a decade, ConfigServer Security & Firewall (CSF) was the undisputed firewall solution for cPanel/WHM servers. If you ran a shared hosting environment, a reseller setup, or even a standalone VPS with cPanel, CSF was almost certainly part of your security stack. Its WHM integration, Login Failure Daemon (LFD), and straightforward configuration made
CSF Post-Shutdown Survival Guide: Migration & Configuration Read Post »
If you’ve been running a shared hosting environment for any length of time, you’ve probably had that conversation with a customer: “My WordPress site is slow.” You’ve optimized MySQL, tuned Apache, enabled OPcache—and yet the database queries keep piling up. Enter Redis. Redis is an in-memory data structure store that can dramatically reduce database load
Redis Integration Complete Guide for Multi-Tenant cPanel Read Post »
Large Account Migration: When Transfer Tool Fails (rsync Hybrid Method) Every cPanel administrator eventually encounters it: the account that simply refuses to migrate. Whether it’s timing out at 80%, throwing cryptic errors, or hanging indefinitely, large account migrations can turn a routine server consolidation into a multi-day headache. Here’s the hybrid rsync approach I’ve refined
Large cPanel Account Migration: When Transfer Tool Fails Read Post »
When new accounts are created in cPanel/WHM, the system automatically copies a set of default files from the skeleton directory into the user’s home directory. This mechanism is often overlooked, but with some creativity, it can become a powerful way to automate onboarding, enforce standards, and pre-deploy useful files. Where Is the Skeleton Directory?
Custom Skeleton Directory Tricks for cPanel Read Post »
The cPanel control panel’s extensibility through custom plugins is one of its most powerful features for web hosting providers and system administrators. Whether you need to integrate third-party services, automate specific tasks, or provide custom functionality to your users, building cPanel plugins using the official API framework gives you the flexibility to extend cPanel’s capabilities
Building Custom cPanel Plugins Using the cPanel API Framework Read Post »
If you’re on a cPanel server, you’ve probably noticed a sizable folder called ‘virtfs’ sitting in /home, which would appear at first to be using a ton of space. Your first inclination might be to delete it, but don’t! Most likely, the files in that folder are actually just hard links or bind mounts and
Safely Removing virtfs on a cPanel Server Read Post »
Note: This is an update from our 2011 post. If you’ve taken a peek at your PCI scan results lately, you may have noticed that your scan provider is now requiring OpenSSH 6.6 or higher due to CVE-2014-2532 – a version that is not currently available in the CentOS 5 or 6 repositories. A Yum update isn’t going
Upgrading OpenSSH on CentOS and AlmaLinux Read Post »
UPDATE 6/18: Shortly after this was posted and one of the major hosting companies I’m affiliated with removed BetterLinux from their servers due to stability problems, BetterLinux announced that they are shutting down, effective July 1st. Customers ask us all the time whether they should use CloudLinux or BetterLinux on their servers, and what differences exist
CloudLinux or BetterLinux? Read Post »
