What Is cPanel? An Overview
At VPS.NET, we offer a wide range of options for operating systems to set up your VPS. Some packages include cPanel for an additional license cost. So, to help you make well-informed web hosting decisions and avoid unnecessary confusion, we’ll be covering what cPanel is and what it can do for you.
What can cPanel do?
Fundamentally, cPanel is a control panel designed to make managing your Linux server easier. There are many control panels on the market that are normally created to meet specific needs. cPanel is geared towards website and email hosting with a way to manage multiple domains on a single server. Its design makes it suitable for use in shared hosting environments where you resell web space on your server. Many people coming to a VPS from shared hosting may be familiar with using cPanel without even realizing it.
cPanel comes in two parts. The first part is the cPanel control panel, which is a web-based control panel that users log into to manage the services that belong to individual domain names. This involves tasks like DNS configuration, website configuration, email boxes, files and directories and databases. Users can also view the logs related to their services. The second part of cPanel is WHM (WebHost Manager), a similarly web-based control panel used by the system administrator. From here, system administrators can manage other users, software updates, cPanel add-ons, server resources and rebrand cPanel to match your branding.
Broaden your capabilities
Our list merely scratches the surface on what can be done with cPanel, especially when considering the possibilities with add-ons. These tools include one-click installers to add an account and domain to the server, or a single-click option to install website software such as WordPress, MediaWiki or Joomla. Easy access to your favorite applications simplifies the process of creating new websites. Note that while some add-ons may be free and open source, others are proprietary and may require an additional license fee to use.
cPanel for saving data
When it comes to taking backups, cPanel also makes keeping backups of your various domains resources a lot simpler. It also enables you to easily transfer the files and settings associated with a cPanel account from one server running cPanel to another, which can make life much easier if you are looking to move from server to another at any point.
cPanel keeps data secure
cPanel also has your security covered. Tools such as cPHulk brute force protection are designed to monitor your services for hackers making brute force attacks, and automatically block their IP addresses from connecting to the server after a number of failed connection attempts. There is also the Security Advisor option, which runs a security scan on your server and creates a list of the issues detected along with suggestions about how you should go about resolving the problems.
cPanel also offers a limited version of cPanel called cPanel DNSONLY. The limited version allows you to run a secondary name server on another server that links to your main cPanel server and duplicate the DNS configuration from it. Your cPanel server can then act as your DNS server, removing the need for you to obtain a secondary license to have more than one nameserver.
If you are new to web hosting or migrating from shared hosting, then cPanel can really make life a lot easier for you when you begin managing your own server. For those who already have some experience running a server then cPanel can help make many tasks much more straightforward.