Installation Questions & Issues

[newboy2010]

I am new to CPanel and i trying to setup cpanel server.

The issue i am facing is that i have setup the server behind NAT (or on private network). I do have 3 additional Public IP addresses from my ISP.

I have the following questions:


1. Will the server work properly behind NAT? I am happy to open the needed ports.

2. Which installation will run better, to keep the server behind NAT or to run the server with a public IP and the NAT disabled?

3. Can we use the public IP addresses only for the name servers? or does the server has to have a public IP as well?

4. If i decide to run the server on a public IP, does that mean that i'll need 3 public IP addresses to run the server? 1 for server and 2 for name servers?



I tried to do a lot of research but could not find any guide for cpanel installation which covers all these issues.

[cPanelJared]

cPanel is currently not developed with NAT in mind. While it is possible to run it successfully in a NAT environment, please be aware that we do not support NAT configurations, and because cPanel is not intended to work with NAT, it will be significantly more complicated than running it on a server with public IP addresses.

1. It will work, but certain items will need to be configured manually. Sites will need to be assigned the internal private IP address, but their DNS zones will need to contain the external public IP address. Also, you will receive warnings about the hostname not resolving to the proper IP address, because cPanel is not aware of the public/private IP address distinction.

2. Everything will work much more smoothly overall, especially if you are not already familiar with cPanel, if you do not use NAT and use only public IP addresses.

3. I am not sure I completely understand your question on this point. NAT translates the external IP addresses to internal. As long as the translation is working correctly (and it needs to be one-to-one translation), there would be no need to add public IP addresses to the server. Each public IP address would be translated to an internal IP address, and the server would see connections coming on the internal IP address.

4. You can run two nameservers with as few as two (2) IP addresses total on the server. This is true whether or not you use NAT. The server's main IP address can be used as a nameserver IP address without a problem, and this is a very common configuration.

Since you are new to using cPanel, I would recommend against using NAT, at least at first, if at all possible. cPanel is not designed with NAT in mind, and NAT introduces some considerations that can be very confusing, especially when you are new to the software. Also, our scope of support in NAT environments is significantly limited.

[newboy2010]

Hello Jarod,

Thanks for your response. What is the minimum connection (Internet Speed) recommended for seting up a CPanel Server?

[cPanelDon]

Hello Jarod,

Thanks for your response. What is the minimum connection (Internet Speed) recommended for seting up a CPanel Server?

A minimum speed of network connection is not defined in the cPanel and WHM system requirements. Any dedicated Internet connection may be used where the server(s) will have statically-assigned, dedicated IP addresses available. Any Internet Service Provider (ISP) should suffice; however, I recommend avoiding and not using residential-grade services as they may not offer the best reliability for live systems in a production environment. In my professional opinion I would seek out a minimum of business-class Internet access where the ISP offers a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and or consider server co-location, rental or lease options from a reliable data center facility that offers an SLA.

[Net Pro]

Hi Thanks for the above as it helped with NAT I still have a few questions though, Im not a newbie to cpanel and love it hence which is why I have used it for a home project. I have setup a Hp Raq Server and installed centos and the OS 4 now I installed cpanel with some errors but managed to get sorted. My Questions are:

1. What is the proper configuration when setting up nameservers I have configured my domain with GoDaddy and added a host which I called
Ns1.example.com
and another with
Ns2.example.com these domains are registered to my external IP address to my server which I have configured behind a router.Now does these domains act as nameservers and will these nameservers be used for all accounts on my server?

2. Do I need more than one external IP For each account setup with cpanel or can they share this?

3. My server domain is server.example.com I have configured it with nameservers as stated above but these are not resolving to an account called example.com cpanel so the domain times out what exactly Im I missing is there more to configure in the whm?

Please help Im banging my head against the wall lol

[cPanelDon]

Hi Thanks for the above as it helped with NAT I still have a few questions though, Im not a newbie to cpanel and love it hence which is why I have used it for a home project. I have setup a Hp Raq Server and installed centos and the OS 4 now I installed cpanel with some errors but managed to get sorted. My Questions are:

1. What is the proper configuration when setting up nameservers I have configured my domain with GoDaddy and added a host which I called
Ns1.example.com
and another with
Ns2.example.com these domains are registered to my external IP address to my server which I have configured behind a router.Now does these domains act as nameservers and will these nameservers be used for all accounts on my server?

2. Do I need more than one external IP For each account setup with cpanel or can they share this?

3. My server domain is server.example.com I have configured it with nameservers as stated above but these are not resolving to an account called example.com cpanel so the domain times out what exactly Im I missing is there more to configure in the whm?

Please help Im banging my head against the wall lol

1. Please carefully review the following documentation: Registering Private Nameservers
2. By default, cPanel accounts will use your configured shared IP address unless the account/site is assigned a unique, dedicated IP address. The following area in WebHost Manager allows you to set the default shared IP address: WHM: Main >> Server Configuration >> Basic cPanel/WHM Setup >> Basic Config
3. Please verify that your DNS/name servers are properly registered at the domain registrar, that DNS zone "A" records exist for each name server sub-domain, and that each hosted domain name is set at the respective domain registrar to use your custom DNS/name servers. Performing a WHOIS lookup either via SSH using the command "whois" or via your domain registrar's web site will help determine which DNS servers are being used. I recommend using the following areas in WHM to help ensure your DNS/name servers are configured: WHM: Main >> Server Configuration >> Basic cPanel/WHM Setup >> Nameservers

After thoroughly inspecting your DNS configurations and performing any corrective measures, to get an idea if there might be any remaining issues, I would consider using a free third-party utility that attempts to check your publicly-accessible DNS information and display a basic report of what it sees; however, please be aware there are numerous similar utilities that may exaggerate non-issues or contain a potentially misleading diagnosis. To properly investigate and diagnose issues I recommend consulting with an experienced server administrator or contacting your upstream server hosting provider for assistance.

Here are a few example queries using IntoDNS:

• intoDNS: cpanel.net - check DNS server and mail server health
• intoDNS: google.com - check DNS server and mail server health
• intoDNS: verisign.com - check DNS server and mail server health

[newboy2010]

Thanks for all th help so far guys.

I have assigned an external IP address to my cpanel server. I have also registered the name servers in the domain tools and have asked the ISP to register the revers dns for the name servers.

Once the ISP confirms the reverse dns configuration i'll check it and then complete the configuration for the server.

Moderator Edit; Relocated Security Questions into New Thread: Installation Issues & Questions: Security - cPanel Forums

Once again, hank you all for all the help and support.

[cPanelDon]

Thanks for all th help so far guys.

I have assigned an external IP address to my cpanel server. I have also registered the name servers in the domain tools and have asked the ISP to register the revers dns for the name servers.

Once the ISP confirms the reverse dns configuration i'll check it and then complete the configuration for the server.

The main thing i am concerned about now is the security of my server.

1. What services do you think i should block on the server? Like i have noticed that most cpanel servers doe not allow SSH access. How do we block this.

2. Do i need to block any other services as well?

Once again, hank you all for all the help and support.

I have copied your post into a new thread within a more appropriate forums area pertaining to security: Installation Issues & Questions: Security - cPanel Forums

Please continue security discussion and questions using the new thread. Thank you.