Couple of basic questions

[fRAiLtY-]

Hi guys,

My first post

I'm about to embark on administering my own server, dishing out hosting. It's not reselling as such as the clients never get access to the hosting space, it's what we as an admin team put on the hosting space they get access to, if that makes sense?

Anyway, I've administered a dedicated before but it would bought before I came along and wasn't overly involved. I know how to assign packages etc, create accounts and that sort of thing. What I'd like to know is, when I setup an account via WHM, I understand it sets up hosting with quota and mail accounts etc, but does it setup cPanel on that hosting, obviously not the WHM version but the user version? I've looked in the products page and I couldn't see how to buy any other version other than WHM, so I guess the user version comes as part of the WHM and is auto-installed on new hosting packages?

If that's not clear, if I setup hosting for account called "Test" via WHM. Could I then go into http://www.test.com/cpanel and administer my databases and emails like that? Or is that not how it works.

Also, We have a domain already to be attached to our new server, is that the hostname for the mail settings our "clients" will use? For instance our domain might be "frailtysolutions.com", therefore when the client sets up their emails will they be using mail.frailtysolutions.com etc as the pop server?

I know a bit and am unsure on others. I've done some research but found little information about WHM it's more about the user version, so that's why I'm guessing it's part of the WHM package?

One last thing, if our client doesn't yet have a domain name registered, can accounts be setup on a holding url, for instance client1.frailtysolutions.com until their domain is setup then it would become that.

I've had a look through the search but I can't accurately think of a way of describing my questions to get the best results, and ended up with a lot of unrelated threads!

Thanks guys.

fRAiLtY-

[Spiral]

I setup an account via WHM, I understand it sets up hosting with quota and mail accounts etc, but does it setup cPanel on that hosting, obviously not the WHM version but the user version?

Same program! The server admin interface is called WHM while the end user login to manage their web hosting account is called "Cpanel" but most often just referred to as "Cpanel" in general.

To your question --- YES, it sets up a Cpanel login for them.

Also, We have a domain already to be attached to our new server, is that the hostname for the mail settings our "clients" will use? For instance our domain might be "frailtysolutions.com", therefore when the client sets up their emails will they be using mail.frailtysolutions.com etc as the pop server?

Clients will use their own domain (though technically you could use the server's main hostname --- that would work too as long as the login names are used correctly)

I know a bit and am unsure on others. I've done some research but found little information about WHM it's more about the user version, so that's why I'm guessing it's part of the WHM package?

See previous answer --- SAME PROGRAM

One last thing, if our client doesn't yet have a domain name registered, can accounts be setup on a holding url, for instance client1.frailtysolutions.com until their domain is setup then it would become that.

Yes though if you plan to "add their domain to the account", I would recommend that you first setup the account using their domain name and add the "subdomain" address as a "parked domain" instead of the other way around as it will make things easier for you later.

You didn't ask this but per your comments, I am getting a strong impression that you might want to get someone to do a good thorough security review of your server before putting it into production status.

[fRAiLtY-]

Hi mate,

Thanks for your in-depth reply, that's answered all my questions!

Our server will be managed from an updates and security point of view by an external company. As it was, this company was doing everything and we were on different hosting plans which made it difficult for us to fulfill our needs.

A dedicated server was the answer to our problems, and we're reasonably au fait with administering it, but the real tech stuff is handled!

Thanks very much for your help.

[fRAiLtY-]

Hi again, been reading paaages of documentation and my eyes are going funny

In response to the answers I had they were great, but just a couple of clarification points. My question was if a client doesn't yet have a registered domain but we still wish to work on the site, we'd like it setup to a subdomain first, i.e. client1.my-server.com which will eventually be replaced as client1.com. You said I could do this via a parked domain aslong as I setup the account originally with client1.com then parked the subdomain with it.

So, DNS Functions -> Park a Domain -> Click Clients domain from the list (client1.com) and enter the subdomain we wish to park (client1.my-server.com) -> Do It!.

This procedure will park client1.my-server.com over client1.com I'm right in thinking, so then even if client1.com isn't populated yet or even registered just yet, I can still work on the site and importantly direct the client to view an example of their site on client1.my-server.com until their domain has populated or been registered? Then once this has happened I simply unpark the subdomain and away we go. Can anyone just confirm this is correct.

Also, we spoke briefly about mail servers. I'd like to use our central server domain as the mail server with a mail. subdomain, for instance mail.my-server.com and then each user will login with their username and password. I've never setup a server from scratch only used one with pre-existing details and wondered how I'd go about setting up this mail. "subdomain" if that's what it's called in the realms of email servers.

Please can anyone confirm how this is done.

One last thing, Any new domains registered for use on our server by a client have to be pointing to my nameservers regardless correct? So if it's client1, client2 or client435 they all have to point to ns1.my-server.com and ns2.my-server.com.

If anyone could confirm these details that would be great.

Thanks.

[cPanelDavidG]

Hi again, been reading paaages of documentation and my eyes are going funny

In response to the answers I had they were great, but just a couple of clarification points. My question was if a client doesn't yet have a registered domain but we still wish to work on the site, we'd like it setup to a subdomain first, i.e. client1.my-server.com which will eventually be replaced as client1.com. You said I could do this via a parked domain aslong as I setup the account originally with client1.com then parked the subdomain with it.

So, DNS Functions -> Park a Domain -> Click Clients domain from the list (client1.com) and enter the subdomain we wish to park (client1.my-server.com) -> Do It!.

This procedure will park client1.my-server.com over client1.com I'm right in thinking, so then even if client1.com isn't populated yet or even registered just yet, I can still work on the site and importantly direct the client to view an example of their site on client1.my-server.com until their domain has populated or been registered? Then once this has happened I simply unpark the subdomain and away we go. Can anyone just confirm this is correct.

In this situation, I usually just create an account with the "domain" client1.mydomain.com and once client1 has a domain, I change the domain to whatever it is (e.g. example.com). Saves the hassle of parking, unparking etc.

Also, we spoke briefly about mail servers. I'd like to use our central server domain as the mail server with a mail. subdomain, for instance mail.my-server.com and then each user will login with their username and password. I've never setup a server from scratch only used one with pre-existing details and wondered how I'd go about setting up this mail. "subdomain" if that's what it's called in the realms of email servers.

Please can anyone confirm how this is done.

For IMAP, POP3 and SMTP, mail.Any-Domain-On-Your-Server should work by default.

One last thing, Any new domains registered for use on our server by a client have to be pointing to my nameservers regardless correct? So if it's client1, client2 or client435 they all have to point to ns1.my-server.com and ns2.my-server.com.

If anyone could confirm these details that would be great.

Thanks.

The simple answer is: yes.

The more complicated answer is that reseller accounts on your server can be granted the ability to have nameserver aliases (e.g. ns1.their-domain.com). This can be useful functionality if you intend to run multiple corporate brands from a single server (e.g. one brand for web hosting, another for web design + web hosting etc.).

[fRAiLtY-]

Ok David,

Just got my server and am having issues with what we discussed. The client has no domain name registered yet, so for now it will be called client1.my-server.com.

When I add the account I call the "domain" client1.my-server.com and go through the process and get a correctly setup account. However when I try to go to client1.my-server.com (obviously using correct details) it doesn't work. I assumed by what you'd said it would create a subdomain automatically?

The only way I can get to it is via the IP address /~client1 which isn't what I want. We also intend to have several "inactive" accounts that won't have domains for developing so will need to make further use of subdomains but can't work it how it sets these up? For instance if I wanted a "dev" account to be dev.my-server.com obviously this isn't a valid domain as it's a subdomain, but where do I set that up? Usually I set subdomains up in cPanel User Interface but WHM doesn't seem to have this feature?

I'm thinking there might be a problem here?!

[cPanelDavidG]

Ok David,

Just got my server and am having issues with what we discussed. The client has no domain name registered yet, so for now it will be called client1.my-server.com.

When I add the account I call the "domain" client1.my-server.com and go through the process and get a correctly setup account. However when I try to go to client1.my-server.com (obviously using correct details) it doesn't work. I assumed by what you'd said it would create a subdomain automatically?

The only way I can get to it is via the IP address /~client1 which isn't what I want. We also intend to have several "inactive" accounts that won't have domains for developing so will need to make further use of subdomains but can't work it how it sets these up? For instance if I wanted a "dev" account to be dev.my-server.com obviously this isn't a valid domain as it's a subdomain, but where do I set that up? Usually I set subdomains up in cPanel User Interface but WHM doesn't seem to have this feature?

I'm thinking there might be a problem here?!

First, is my-server.com part of your server's hostname?

Second, is my-server.com hosted on that server?

[fRAiLtY-]

David: I only have 1 domain and that's the server domain which is: http://server.my-domain.com (I'm happy to tell you the real domain if it helps with diagnosis via PM as it's a sensitive project).

charchilp: You seem to have copied what I put mate?

Cheers

[cPanelDavidG]

David: I only have 1 domain and that's the server domain which is: http://server.my-domain.com (I'm happy to tell you the real domain if it helps with diagnosis via PM as it's a sensitive project).

charchilp: You seem to have copied what I put mate?

Cheers

Correct, the subdomain will be automatically created.

However, there are special circumstances where this will not work, such as if my-domain.com is not hosted on your server and if my-domain.com is part of your hostname and specific settings are in effect.

[fRAiLtY-]

I think I'm getting it. server.my-server.com is my hostname in the Basic WHM Settings link (again using example data). So if I want a subdomain to be auto created it won't because of this?

What are these "settings" you're referring to?

Cheers.

[cPanelDavidG]

I think I'm getting it. server.my-server.com is my hostname in the Basic WHM Settings link (again using example data). So if I want a subdomain to be auto created it won't because of this?

What are these "settings" you're referring to?

Cheers.

These settings are in tweak settings. The most relevant setting to this particular scenario would be:

Allow resellers to create accounts with subdomains of the server's hostname main domain.

Keep in mind that in WHM, the root user is considered a reseller user.

If that is checked and this is still not working, feel welcome to have a technical analyst take a look at that for you.