root access via WHM denied

[posterity]

I just setup a new CPanel WHM server within the last 24 hours. everything was working fine until I shutdown the server and transferred it into the Server rack. After powering it everything works except I can't log in to WHM with root account. I am very sure of the password because the same credentials is able to give me ssh access over the same IP. The server sits behind a firewall so it is configured with a private IP address which is NAT to an assigned public IP address.

I followed some past threads and disabled cphulk but still did not get access. Before shutting down however, I created two hosting accounts. I am able to log in to the accounts with the account usernames and passwords but can't get access with the root account.

How do I resolve this in time as this is suppose to be a proof of concept to get my office to invest in licensing our new servers and I am very sure I have only 15 days before the license the expires.

 

[cPanelMichael]

Hello

Please review the following log file:

/usr/local/cpanel/logs/login_log

Do you notice any specific errors related to your failed login attempts into WHM?

Thank you.

 

[posterity]

Hi,

Do you notice any specific errors related to your failed login attempts into WHM?

I observed each failed login attempt has the corresponding log "FAILED LOGIN cpaneld: invalid cpanel user root"

 

[cPanelMichael]

Please ensure you use port 2086 or 2087 when accessing Web Host Manager. You can also use "/whm" in the URL. It's a separate URL than what you use to access cPanel.

Thank you.

 

[posterity]

Thank you so much. How did I not see this!! I was all along accessing WHM through the wrong port.