Installing cPanel & WHM and System Requirements on CloudLinux, Rocky Linux, and Ubuntu

1. Introduction

Installing cPanel & WHM on a Linux server requires meeting several hardware, software, and networking prerequisites. Official documentation emphasizes that installation must occur on a freshly installed operating system and that the server must have a public, static IP address.

The documentation states: “You must log in to the server as the root user in order to install cPanel & WHM.”

2. Licensing Requirements

Each server requires its own cPanel license, and licenses cannot be shared or transferred between servers.

The documentation states: “You cannot transfer a single cPanel & WHM license across multiple servers.”

Additionally, cPanel cannot run on IPv6-only servers; at least one IPv4 address is required.

3. Networking Requirements

3.1 Hostname Requirements

• Must be a registered, fully-qualified domain name (FQDN).
• Must not exceed 60 characters.
• Must resolve to a valid IP address.

The documentation states: “Your hostname must… resolve to a valid IPv4 or IPv6 address.”

3.2 IP Address Requirements

• Must be a valid IP address.
• On NAT networks, 1:1 NAT and NAT loopback must be configured.

3.3 Network Interface

The server must use a static IP address.

The documentation states: “You cannot use an IP address that a DHCP service dynamically assigns to your server.”

4. Firewall and Network Manager

CloudLinux

• CloudLinux 7 requires disabling Network Manager.
• CloudLinux 8, 9, and 10 do not require disabling it.

Rocky Linux

• Rocky 8 automatically disables Network Manager during installation.
• Rocky 9 does not require disabling it.

Ubuntu

UFW must be disabled before installation.

systemctl stop ufw.service

5. Hardware Requirements

• CloudLinux 7–10: 1.1GHz CPU, minimum 2GB RAM, minimum 20GB disk, 64-bit
• Rocky Linux 8–9: 1.1GHz CPU, minimum 2GB RAM, minimum 20GB disk, 64-bit
• Ubuntu 24.04: minimum 1.1GHz CPU, minimum 2GB RAM, minimum 20GB disk, 64-bit

The documentation states: “We strongly recommend that you install at least 3 GB of RAM if you want to install ClamAV.”

6. SELinux and AppArmor

• SELinux must be disabled on CloudLinux and Rocky Linux.
• SELinux must not be installed on Ubuntu.

The Ubuntu documentation states: “Do not install SELinux on your server. SELinux is not compatible with cPanel & WHM.”

AppArmor on Ubuntu is fully compatible.

7. Filesystem and Partitioning

• Recommended filesystems: XFS or ext4
• Minimum 20GB for the / partition
• Minimum 1,000,000 inodes

The documentation states: “The base cPanel & WHM installation requires at least 1,000,000 inodes.”

8. Supported Virtualization Environments

• KVM
• VMware
• Xen
• VirtualBox
• QEMU

CloudLinux and Rocky Linux have limitations with OpenVZ and Virtuozzo.

9. Perl Installation

Perl must be installed before running the cPanel installer.

The documentation states: “Perl must exist on your server before the installation script…”

10. cPanel & WHM Installation Command

The installation command is identical across all three operating systems:

cd /home && curl -o latest -L https://securedownloads.cpanel.net/latest && sh latest

The documentation states: “This command… downloads the latest version of cPanel & WHM, and runs the installation script.”

11. Important Pre‑Installation Notes

• Installation must occur on a freshly installed OS.
• cPanel does not provide an uninstaller.
• A public, static IP is required.
• Installing additional services beforehand may break the installation.

The documentation states: “We do not provide an uninstaller. If you wish to remove our software, you must reformat the server.”

12. Conclusion

Official cPanel documentation makes it clear that a successful installation of cPanel & WHM depends on meeting strict requirements related to networking, hardware, filesystems, SELinux, and virtualization. While CloudLinux, Rocky Linux, and Ubuntu differ in certain details, the core principles remain the same:

• Fresh operating system
• Static IP address
• SELinux disabled
• Firewall disabled during installation
• Minimum 2GB RAM and 20GB disk space