TODOs before updating WHM from 60.0 to 76.0.12 version

[Lard]

Hello everybody,

We have a problem with the email spoofing and spam emails, so, as a partial solution, we decided to update WHM from the current version 60.0)to the latest available version 76.0.12. There are a lot of security patches and fixes between our current WHM version and the latest one, the same situation with the Exim SMTP software. That's why I believe that such update can be useful in fighting with the email spoofing and spam emails.

Our server hosts a lot of websites, accounts and mailboxes and, of course, we don't want to face any troubles or data loss because this update. So my question is: are there any known pitfalls for such update of the WHM? Is there anything I can do before the update to make the entire process quicker and safer for the data? Of course, I plan to create and secure the daily backup of the user accounts and the existing DBs made by cPanel.

Our current setup:

• PHP 7.1.7
• 10.0.31-MariaDB MariaDB Server
• Exim version 4.87
• Dovecot 2.2.26.0
• REDHAT Enterprise 7.4 x86_64
• WHM 60.0

Also, we're using nginx/1.10.2 as our main web server with the manually installed letsencrypt as the provider of the SSL certificates.

Thank you for help.

 

[sparek-3]

cPanel 60 is quite old.

I don't know what problems you will face... but I can't imagine this update going smoothly.

The update will go sequentially, 60 to 62, 62 to 64, 64 to 66 ... actually, I'm not even sure if cPanel 62 is still on the update servers.

It's really best if you keep cPanel at least reasonably up to date. The more versions behind you get... the more difficult future updates are going to be.

 

[Lard]

the more difficult future updates are going to be.

I appreciate your feedback and I completely agree with you, but currently it is what it is.

Can you tell me please how and where I can check what the cPanel versions are located on the "update servers"

 

[GOT]

The updates will still be available. You should for the most part be fine. We've updated older systems than that before.

 

[Lard]

@GOT, thank you for your reply.

I have an additional question: does cPanel provide cumulative updates? @sparek-3 states that it doesn't. It's a little bit confusing which version I should select the first in my "Update preferences" WHM section, even if I've read this documentation article. I can choose RELEASE 11.76.0.12 or LTS 62 and I believe that the first one refers to the latest available WHM version 76.0.12, even if it contains "11" in place of the major version.

Thanks.

 

[GOT]

I may not be understanding your question, but if you go to update preferences, you can set an LTS target you want to yupgrade to and then no further. So, you are on 60 no, so if you set that to 66, then run upcp, you'll first upgrade to 62, then 64 and then 66 and then it should stop.

In each case, you would get the latest dot release for that major version. You cannot, AFAIK, specify 66.2 if 66.4 is the latest 66 release.

 

[sparek-3]

I think its showing 62 as an LTS release because you are so out of date.

62 was the next LTS after 60. But 62 has since gone end of life

cPanel & WHM LTS Version 62 EOL June, 2018 | cPanel Newsroom

The current LTS is cPanel 70. It will go end of life... sometime in 2019 (I think?).

Regarding the update process, and perhaps someone from cPanel can chime in and confirm this, but to the best of my knowledge, if you run cPanel update now:

You'll first update to cPanel 60.0.48

Then you'll update to cPanel 62.0.48

Then 64.0.42

66.0.35, 68.0.39, 70.0.62, 72.0.12, 74.0.12, 76.0.12

So as you can see, there are a lot of versions to update from. Each one of those is going to present a possible configuration error.

Say there is something misconfigured on your server that cPanel 64.0.42 doesn't know how to correct... well it's just going to continue updating to cPanel 66.0.35 and 68.0.39 and then that earlier issue is picked up again creating another issue for the 68.0.39 to 70.0.62 update.

And finally when all of this finishes (which will take a while, because there are so many versions to upgrade from) you may or may not have a working system, so now you have to go back through the logs, find that an issue happened in the 64.0.42 to 66.0.35 upgrade that you have to correct and then piece together the subsequent updates.

That's why it's so much easier to keep things relatively up to date.

Personally, I'm still running cPanel 74, but I plan to update to cPanel 76 soon. At worst, I skipped one major release (66? Maybe that's just a Palpatine reference) and went from 64 to 68. That's not really ideal, but not a huge ordeal either as long as you are aware of what you are doing.

 

[Lard]

Thank you for this clarification.

I don't understand what's the "11.76.0.12" version in the "Update preferences" WHM section. Current this section looks like this:



So I don't understand if I need to choose "LTS" option and update 60 to 62, then 62 to 70 or I need to choose "RELEASE" option and see what version the cPanel script "upcp" will install next.

Confusing thing here for me is the "11.76.0.12" version. What's that? Is it "WHM 76.0.12" version? If yes, why there is "11" in place of major version.

----

@sparek-3, I understand your point. You're right about the EOL of the WHM 70, it's March 2019 as it stated here.

 

[sparek-3]

cPanel decided a long time ago to join in the fun of "bigger is better". Just like FireFox and Chrome. Since we're now in the age of FireFox version 87342.23 (as opposed to just saying version 3.87.34.223). (Yes... this is an exaggeration... but it underscores why I think it's foolish to use big numbers just because they are big)

cPanel dropped the 11 quite some time ago. (11.48? some where around in there) and just started calling them cPanel 48, cPanel 50, etc. But the 11 continues to stick to some things (more creedance to this being a well thought out strategy).

cPanel 11.76.0.12 refers to cPanel 76.0.12

 

[Lard]

@sparek-3, as an experienced (former) Firefox user, I know what are you talking about. Thank you for this explanation regarding the cPanel versioning notation.

So even if my choice is "RELEASE 11.76.0.12" version, upcp will still update my WHM version by version.

 

[cPanelLauren]

@sparek-3, as an experienced (former) Firefox user, I know what are you talking about. Thank you for this explanation regarding the cPanel versioning notation.

So even if my choice is "RELEASE 11.76.0.12" version, upcp will still update my WHM version by version.

That's correct, now it will do all of the updates automatically one after another if you set the target version to v76 but it could take some time. If you want help updating or if you run into any issues we'd be more than happy to assist you - I can't tell you specifically what if any problems you'll face but you are always welcome to open a ticket with us so we can look further into the issues. You can do this using the link in my signature and if you do open a ticket and post your ticket ID here I'll update this thread with the outcome for you.

Thanks!

 

[Lard]

@cPanelLauren, thank you for this information.