WHM – Basics – Cozaq Help Center

This article will go over some of the basic functions for logging into, and navigating through, your WHM panel.

What is WHM?

WHM stands for WebHost Manager. It is the graphical user interface for your entire Linux server. Cozaq provides you with the root version of WHM also known as rWHM. It is a powerful utility that allows administrative access to the server and to each cPanel account sitting on the server. As an administrative interface, WHM uses root level “super users” on the server and therefore access to WHM should be closely guarded. Site administrators and your customers should be given cPanel access only and the WHM credentials should be reserved for the servers owner.

WHM gives you the ability to:

Create, delete, and suspend your cPanel accounts.
Manage and monitor your sites.
Access all hosted domains' DNS zones.
Configure your own customers' support requests through cPanel.
Permission to check the server information and status.
Customize your hosting and control panel (skeleton directory, branding).
Change your client domain names and/or usernames.
Change your client user passwords.
Change your primary cPanel username.
Install SSL certificates.
Start, restart, or stop services (http, mail, sql, ssh).
Assign or change IP addresses.
Access and change automated backup scheduling.
Access the cPanel reseller center (used for managing resellers).
Access and/or change passwords for any and all areas of a client’s cPanel account, including ftp, files, databases, and mail.

Accessing the WHM Login Page

WHM Location

WHM is a browser-based utility, and so you will access WHM through your prefered web browser on your local computer (or remote VM/VPN, according to your needs). There are 3 general “addresses” you can use to access the WHM control panel:

The Server IP
Logging into WHM with the servers IP will require you to enter the following into a browser's address bar to get to the WHM login screen. https://[Server IP Address]:2087
The Server Hostname
Logging into WHM with the servers hostname will require you to enter the following into a browser's address bar to get to the WHM login screen. https://[Server Hostname]:2087 (You selected the server's hostname when initially setting up the server. Please reach out ot Support if you need assistance with obtaining it.)
The Top Level Domain associated with the servers hostname
Logging into WHM with the servers TLD associated with the server’s hostname will require you to enter the following into a browser's address bar to get to the WHM login screen. https://[TLD]:2087 (You selected the server's hostname when initially setting up the server. Please reach out ot Support if you need assistance with obtaining it.)

Once you confirm that the URL in your browser looks similar to this, go ahead and press the Enter key on your keyboard to submit this address and load the WHM Login page in your browser.

What To Do If You See A Self-Signed Security Warning

Depending on your browser and the SSL installed on your server’s hostname, the next screen may give you a warning page about what’s to come next. It will look like the image below:

Don’t be alarmed by this. SSL certificates are not issued for IP addresses so if you visit a service using the IP address directly, that warning will pop up since the IP address does not match the certificate's domain. In order to avoid this message, you can, and should, use your server's hostname rather than it's IP address when accessing your cPanel services, and install a recognized SSL from either Cozaq, Let’s Encrypt, or another reputable SSL Issuer. To do that though, you will need to temporarily ignore this warning and proceed with logging into WHM.

The exact steps to ignore this warning (again, only temporarily; we do not advocate ignoring security warnings unless you are 100% certain it is okay to do so) are different for each browser and are subject to change over time due to browser updates. For your convenience, here are the steps for the most common browsers as of the time of this article’s writing:

Google Chrome
(the example shown above)
1. Click on the Advanced button in the lower left hand corner of the on screen warning.
2. Click on the Proceed to <website address> (unsafe) link that now appears below the button you just clicked
Mozilla Firefox
1. Click on the Advanced button
2. Click on the Add Exception... button that now appears at the bottom of the warning screen
3. Uncheck the Permanently store this exception option, and then click Confirm Security Exception in the popup window that appears
Microsoft Edge
1. Click on the Details link appearing in the warning screen
2. Click on the Go on to the webpage link that now appears below the link you just clicked, and below the additional details provided:
  
  Note: Microsoft has announced plans to either rebuild or replace the Edge browser in the near future, so it is possible the above instructions could change with this adaptation.
Microsoft Internet Explorer

We include this browser in our list to be thorough, but as Internet Explorer has been discontinued since January 12, 2016, and no longer received security updates. Therefore it is highly recommended to use another browser.

Logging into WHM

When this next screen loads, you’ll be on the actual WHM Login page which looks like this:

Enter your username and password and either hit Enter on your keyboard, or click the Log in button to login and access the WHM Home Page.

Understanding the WHM Home Page

WHM / cPanel recently introduced a new option allowing user to choose two different views of the home page. By default the new Default version appears at login but it can be changed to the Classic view that most users are familiar with. You can toggle between Default and Classic in the upper right hand corner of the Home Page.

Default

Seasoned users of WHM / cPanel may find the new default view a bit alarming at first glance as it has less than a third of the icons of the original Classic view. However, WHM / cPanel has streamlined the home screen with this new view. The 9 most used commonly used utilities have been moved out of their sub-folders to the front page giving the user one-click access to them without the need to search or dig deeper to find them:

Classic

The Classic view remains unchanged from the last release of the product and has the majority of regularly used functions and utilities in a single page:

Search Function

The search functionality of WHM / cPanel remains unchanged in the latest release and is typically the easiest way for you to find what you're looking for based off of a partial or full “search term”. Simply begin typing what you are looking for in the “Search” window in the upper right hand corner and the server will actively filter the options displayed to only show those matching the partial word or term entered. In the below example we are using DNS as the term and all of the functions having to do with DNS are offered:

WHM – Basics