11.38 Now in CURRENT Tier

[Infopro]

cPanel, Inc. announces the release of cPanel & WHM software version 11.38.

cPanel & WHM software release 11.38, which releases to the CURRENT tier today, offers significant improvements to SSL Management and Backups. It also provides enhancements to jail shell, email auto configuration, and more.

Improved SSL Management

The improved SSL management system offers a number of enhancements; support for UCC certificates, SNI (Server Name Indication), and enhanced support for Wildcard SSL certificates. This allows cPanel users to host multiple SSL websites on the same account. cPanel & WHM users will notice changes to the user interfaces that simplify installing, managing the various SSL certificates, keys, and signing requests associated with their domains.

System and Account Backups

cPanel introduces a new backup system with software release 11.38. Among the changes are the ability to store backups in multiple locations, reduction in the time needed to perform a full backup, and a complete set of functionality for automating backups.

Backup restoration is also enhanced. A new queuing system allows system administrators to perform other operations within cPanel & WHM while restorations occur.

Other notable changes include:

* Ability to configure the host used by email autodiscovery, and auto configuration
* Improved email tracking ability by ensuring the From header matches the mail sender
* Use of a single template system for customizing the Apache configuration
* Changes to jail shell, mod_ruid2, and more

Detailed information on all 11.38 features can be found here: cPanel Documentation.
For an overview of the latest features available in 11.38, visit: cPanel Releases.

 

[simonas]

Hello,

I could now find what was changed to mod_ruid2, could you be more specific please?

 

[Infopro]

Hello,

I could now find what was changed to mod_ruid2, could you be more specific please?

A search of the docs for ruid2 at that link provided, send me here:
Jail Apache Virtual Hosts Via mod_ruid2 and cPanel Jailshell

 

[simonas]

Ahh, so only shell was updated. Was hoping for compatibility with mod_security.

Any news on when we could use mod_ruid2 with mod_security?

Thanks!

 

[Infopro]

Is there a Feature Request or news about this somewhere you can link me to?

 

[MaraBlue]

I know this is a very open-ended and difficult question (but you know me, I'm going to ask it anyway). How "safe" is it to upgrade to CURRENT? I've almost always staying with STABLE or RELEASE (on RELEASE now, have been for the past few years), but I'm having so many random issues with 11.36.1.6, I'm wondering how much worse CURRENT could be.

One thing that both bothers and confuses me is that CURRENT and EDGE are the same exact version. And it's stated just about everywhere to never run EDGE in a production environment. If that's true, then why would it be OK to run CURRENT in a production environment, since they are the same version?

I know, that was more than one question. Add it to my tab.

 

[cPanelNick]

I know this is a very open-ended and difficult question (but you know me, I'm going to ask it anyway). How "safe" is it to upgrade to CURRENT? I've almost always staying with STABLE or RELEASE (on RELEASE now, have been for the past few years), but I'm having so many random issues with 11.36.1.6, I'm wondering how much worse CURRENT could be.

11.38 doesn't change the update system in any significant way like 11.36 did (RPMS) so it should be much safer update. Do you have tickets open on the random issues with 11.36.1.6?

One thing that both bothers and confuses me is that CURRENT and EDGE are the same exact version. And it's stated just about everywhere to never run EDGE in a production environment. If that's true, then why would it be OK to run CURRENT in a production environment, since they are the same version?

Versions are only promoted to CURRENT when they have been shown to pass the testing and feedback requirements needed to get there. For example, if there are no issues discovered in QA testing, issues reported internally or external reports that would block 11.38.0.13 from being promoted to RELEASE it very well may be the first 11.38 build that reaches the RELEASE tier.

 

[MaraBlue]

11.38 doesn't change the update system in any significant way like 11.36 did (RPMS) so it should be much safer update.

That's good to know. I may just close my eyes and jump.

Do you have tickets open on the random issues with 11.36.1.6?

Yes, mostly.
#4164255 from today, a minor issue (comparatively). When downloading the SSL access log from cPanel as a user, the file extension is truncated. They can't reproduce it, some it's got to be something with my system.

#3976987 (forked to #3977259 - ignore the subject line, stunnel wasn't the problem) WHM UI is blank. This has happened a few times. Another reoccurring issue I haven't opened a ticket for is an error in WHM "Corrupted storable file" that's happened probably 4-5 times in the last 2 months (?) since I upgraded to 11.36.

With each time (for both issues) the only thing that clears it up is restarting cPanel about 4-5 times. Browser cache isn't an issue, I've tested it every which way, different browsers, etc. In ticket #3977259 it was found there was some missing Perl modules and problem with the symlink to Perl (I hadn't made any changes, all I did was upgrade).

I still have questions about how cPanel is handling Perl now, because in cPanel the Perl version is listed as 5.10.1. In WHM -> Server Status -> Apache Status it's listed as Perl/v5.8.8. I had understood that cPanel now used it's own version of Perl, 5.14.3.

The blank WHM UI turned out to be (*crosses fingers*) the memory setting in Tweak Settings ("Max cPanel process memory"). The last time it happened I opened a ticket with my data center (rather than directly with cPanel), because in the logs I was seeing an out of memory error. The thing is they confirmed the server was using no where near it's allotment. They opened a ticket with cPanel, and that tech set the memory from the default of 256MB to unlimited.

That seems to have fixed it...but I'm having a hard time believing that WHM was using more than 256MB of memory, and if it is, it shouldn't be. cPanel for users was fine, everything but WHM.

Versions are only promoted to CURRENT when they have been shown to pass the testing and feedback requirements needed to get there. For example, if there are no issues discovered in QA testing, issues reported internally or external reports that would block 11.38.0.13 from being promoted to RELEASE it very well may be the first 11.38 build that reaches the RELEASE tier.

Do you understand my confusion though? CURRENT and EDGE are the same exact versions/version numbers. I guess I could look at it as that there just isn't a newer EDGE version that's been brought in.

At the risk of belaboring my point, I've sometimes gone a year (or more !) without needing to submit a ticket to cPanel support. The 11.36 upgrade has been an especially annoying one.

 

[cPanelNick]

That's good to know. I may just close my eyes and jump.

They opened a ticket with cPanel, and that tech set the memory from the default of 256MB to unlimited.

That seems to have fixed it...but I'm having a hard time believing that WHM was using more than 256MB of memory, and if it is, it shouldn't be. cPanel for users was fine, everything but WHM.

It seems like a reasonable assumption that it wasn't able to write the storable caches because it was running of ram while writing them and leaving corrupt ones behind. Unfortunately the way the memory limit works on linux is a not strait-forward. the limit is actually the virtual size limit (VSZ) so its quite possible (ie practically guaranteed) that you have significantly less loaded in physical memory before the limit is reached and process will be killed. I opened up case 69253 to change this value as the current default value of 256 was chosen before 64-bit systems were common (past time to change this).

Do you understand my confusion though? CURRENT and EDGE are the same exact versions/version numbers. I guess I could look at it as that there just isn't a newer EDGE version that's been brought in.

EDGE and CURRENT will almost always match right before RELEASE as we want to make sure the build has been out there for at least 7 or so days to shake out any unexpected incompatibilities with third party systems. For more details, please see this document: cPanel & WHM Versions and the Release Process

 

[MaraBlue]

It seems like a reasonable assumption that it wasn't able to write the storable caches because it was running of ram while writing them and leaving corrupt ones behind. Unfortunately the way the memory limit works on linux is a not strait-forward. the limit is actually the virtual size limit (VSZ) so its quite possible (ie practically guaranteed) that you have significantly less loaded in physical memory before the limit is reached and process will be killed. I opened up case 69253 to change this value as the current default value of 256 was chosen before 64-bit systems were common (past time to change this).

It's still happening intermittently (in fact it happened yesterday), the "Corrupted storable file" issue in WHM, even after the "Max cPanel process memory" was set to 0 and the server has plenty of memory. This time it only took one time of restarting cPanel.

 

[cPanelNick]

It's still happening intermittently (in fact it happened yesterday), the "Corrupted storable file" issue in WHM

Thanks for letting me know. I reopened 3976987 and escalated it.

 

[MaraBlue]

Thanks for letting me know. I reopened 3976987 and escalated it.

So THAT'S why that ticket got reopened....

I do appreciate your efforts, but ticket #3976987 had to do with the WHM UI being blank, not the "Corrupt storage file" error. I had assumed they weren't related and the later would need a separate ticket opened.

The last response in ticket #3976987 shows that the ticket was being forked into a different ticket and escalated, so it wasn't that I had an open ticket that wasn't being addressed. I add this because I got an email (form email?) saying I had a ticket open for a extended time, and that wasn't the case. The tech who worked on that ticket was very diligent.

 

[cPanelNick]

11.38.0 should go to RELEASE today.

 

[MaraBlue]

w00t! Thanks for the heads up.

 

[cPanelNick]

Official thread here:

cPanel & WHM release 11.38 now in the RELEASE tier

Known issues here:

cPanel & WHM version 11.38 known issues