cPanel #

This page is for hosting companies that run cPanel servers and want to offer Exponential on them. It answers what the Exponential sources say about cPanel, what that means in practice, and how to test it before you sell it. The project has not watched Exponential run on cPanel; this page is therefore careful to separate what the sources state from general advice.

Contents #

1. What the sources say
2. What it means in practice
3. Setting up an account (generic)
4. Composer on cPanel
5. Velocity on cPanel
6. A test plan
7. Checklist

What the sources say #

That is everything the sources say about cPanel specifically.

What it means in practice #

Exponential's needs do not depend on the panel. A cPanel account that offers the following runs Exponential, by the same reasoning that puts cPanel in tier 3:

• PHP 8.0 or later (PHP 7.4 usable without support) for the account, with the required extensions: dom, libxml, simplexml, xsl, mbstring, iconv, intl, pcre, json, session, zlib, one database extension, gd or ImageMagick (2.3 PHP extensions). xsl and intl are critical tests of the setup wizard, and are the ones most often missing from a default PHP build.
• The php.ini values the wizard checks (2.5).
• Apache (or LiteSpeed) reading .htaccess, with mod_rewrite.
• A database: 1. SQLite 3 needs none; otherwise one of the servers in the official order, 2. PostgreSQL · 3. MongoDB · 4. MariaDB · 5. Oracle · 6. MySQL (Microsoft SQL Server is known to be possible with additional work at this time). On a typical cPanel server this is the MariaDB or MySQL server the panel manages.
• A cron job for runcronjobs.php.

Setting up an account (generic) #

The following is general advice derived from the Exponential requirements, not from cPanel documentation:

1. Choose PHP 8.x for the account in the panel's PHP selector, and enable the required extensions in the panel's extension settings. Use the same version for the command line if the account has a shell.
2. Point the domain's document root at the installation root (the directory with index.php).
3. Copy the rewrite rules: cp .htaccess_root .htaccess (or upload .htaccess_root as .htaccess) (8.5.1). With cPanel's Terminal (or SSH) the console does it for you, as the account's user: php bin/php/console exp:setup:htaccess --apply, and php bin/php/console exp:setup:config --apply for config.php. Without a shell, copy the files in the File Manager (it hides dot files until you switch on "Show Hidden Files") (Setting up .htaccess and config.php from the console).
4. Create the database and its user in the panel, if not SQLite. For MariaDB or MySQL use utf8mb4 (9.3). Since 6.0.15 the wizard needs privileges on that database only (A clean installation that fits shared hosting).
5. Upload the code with vendor/, or run Composer in a shell if there is one (next section).
6. Open the setup wizard in the browser and follow its system check (Chapter 5).
7. Add the cron line in the panel's cron page, with the account's PHP (Cron and shell access).
8. Install the certificate with the panel's certificate management and redirect HTTP to HTTPS (TLS certificates in panels).

Composer on cPanel #

• With a shell: run composer install with the account's PHP version, so Composer resolves packages for the PHP that will run them (Command line and web PHP).
• In the administration: the ezupdate extension searches /opt/cpanel/composer/bin/ among its default Composer locations, and can download a SHA-256 verified composer.phar into var/ezupdate/ with Get Composer. Updating and installing from the browser are off until [UpdateSettings] AllowUpdate and AllowInstall are enabled (ezupdate).
• Without either: build the tree with composer install elsewhere, on the same PHP version, and upload it.

Velocity on cPanel #

Velocity is a long-running process. On shared cPanel accounts it "may not be allowed"; the sources' answer is Apache or LiteSpeed with .htaccess. On a cPanel server where you, the host, control the machine, Velocity could run beside the panel's Apache as on the project's Plesk server, but that combination is not described in the sources. If you try it, read Velocity beside Apache or nginx and keep the one-user rule for var/ (8.7.2).

A test plan #

Turn tier 3 into evidence on your own platform before customers depend on it:

If it all passes, the project wants to hear about it: "If you run Exponential on a tier 3 system, please tell the project ... and the row moves up" (The four tiers).

Checklist #

• To do: PHP 8.x with xsl, intl and the other required extensions for the account.
• To do: Document root at the installation root; .htaccess from .htaccess_root.
• To do: Database (or SQLite) ready; UTF-8.
• To do: vendor/ present; Composer route decided.
• To do: Cron line with the account's PHP.
• To do: Certificate and HTTPS redirect.
• To do: The test plan passed on your platform.

A public demo on cPanel. Set EXP_DEMO_MODE=1 for the demo's account only: SetEnv EXP_DEMO_MODE 1 in the site's .htaccess (Apache or LiteSpeed), and EXP_DEMO_MODE=1 on its own line at the top of the account's cron jobs. Demo mode for hosts, Demo mode examples.

The LiteSpeed page cache on cPanel. With LiteSpeed as the web server, its page cache answers anonymous visitors and crawlers without PHP. Switch it on per site with the commented block of .htaccess_root in the account's .htaccess, or as an include file below /etc/apache2/conf.d/userdata/ssl/2_4/<user>/<domain>/ (litespeed-page-cache.conf). Step by step: Page caching with LiteSpeed and OpenLiteSpeed.

Related pages #

• Control panels: overview, DirectAdmin
• Shared hosting
• Setup wizard on shared hosting
• Setting up .htaccess and config.php from the console
• Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.