Step 5: Configure Your Operating System

Details for:

• cPanel & WHM 11.32
• cPanel DNSONLY

Introduction

You will be asked to configure a number of features when installing your operating system.

Configuring CloudLinux

Recommended partitions

Configuring Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®

Recommended file system

When installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, we recommend using an ext filesystem (ext2, ext3, or ext4).

Warning: If you are using Red Hat 5.x with the ext4 filesystem, you will need to download and install the package mentioned in the Red Hat documentation.

Recommended partitions

For some servers, having additional partitions is beneficial (especially servers with high email volume). The number of files that the operating system can access per partition is limited.

Note: Advanced partitioning information is available in our Advanced Options: Pre-Installation documentation.

Configuring Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.6

Before installing cPanel & WHM on a Red Hat Enterprise Linux v.6 server, you must subscribe the server to the Server Optional channel at http://rhn.redhat.com. If you do not subscribe the server to this channel, which installs the rhel-optional repository, then the cPanel & WHM installation will fail.

Disabling subscription-manager

Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 5.7 and 6.1 introduced a new method for managing RHEL subscriptions called subscription-manager. Currently, this method of managing YUM repositories is not compatible with the cPanel & WHM installer. If you wish to use subscription-manager, you should install and configure cPanel & WHM before enabling subscription-manager.

Note: You may need to subscribe to additional channels when using subscription-manager in order to maintain all of the packages cPanel & WHM requires.

Configuring CentOS

Recommended file system

When installing CentOS, we recommend using an ext filesystem (ext2, ext3, or ext4).

Warning: If you are using CentOS 5.x with the ext4 filesystem, you will need to download and install the package mentioned in the Red Hat documentation.

Recommended partitions

For some servers, having additional partitions is beneficial (especially servers with high email volume). The number of files that the operating system can access per partition is limited.

Note: Advanced partitioning information is available in our Advanced Options: Pre-Installation documentation.

Configuring network connections

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, and CloudLinux operating systems, you can run the command setup to configure your server's network connections.

If you did not set up a static IP address for your server during installation, use the setup utility to define the IP address, subnet address, and default gateway IP. Your data center will be able to provide you with this information.

Remember: When configuring your network settings, do not use NAT. Your server should have its own public IP address.

For instructions on obtaining IP addresses, visit:

• http://www.arin.net — for the US, Canada and parts of the Caribbean
• http://www.lacnic.net — for Mexico, Caribbean Islands and South America
• http://www.afrinic.net — for Africa
• http://www.ripe.net — for Europe, Middle East and Central Asia
• http://www.apnic.net — for Asia and the Pacific Region

Removing YUM groups

To obtain a list of yum groups, run the command:

yum grouplist

You should make sure these yum groups are not installed:

• FTP Server
• GNOME Desktop Environment
• KDE (K Desktop Environment)
• Mail Server
• Mono
• Web Server
• X Window System

To remove a yum group, run the command yum groupremove. For example, if you wish to remove Mono and Mail Server, enter:

yum groupremove "Mono" "Mail Server"

Note: You can specify more than one group per command line. Simply place quotation marks ("") around each group you wish to remove.

Disabling SELinux security features

You should disable SELinux after installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, or CloudLinux. To disable SELinux, you can either:

• Use the graphical interface while configuring your operating system, or
• Edit /etc/selinux/config from the command line and set the SELINUX parameter to disabled using a text editor, such as nano or vi.

If you disable SELinux from the command line, the contents of /etc/selinux/config should resemble:

# This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
# SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
# enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
# permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
# disabled - No SELinux policy is loaded.
SELINUX=disabled
# SELINUXTYPE= can take one of these two values:
# targeted - Only targeted network daemons are protected.
# strict - Full SELinux protection.
SELINUXTYPE=targeted

Important: For cPanel & WHM to run on your server, SELinux must remain disabled. You should make sure that the pound sign (#) does not precede SELINUX=disabled. If # precedes this configuration option, the line will be ignored.

Warning: Do not transfer the SELinux configuration file between computers. Doing so may destroy the file's integrity.

Deactivating default firewall and checking for updates

If you are installing a CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CloudLinux operating system, you should deactivate the default firewall and check for updates.

To deactivate the firewall, run the commands:

chkconfig iptables off
service iptables stop

To check for updates, run the command:

yum update

• Previous — Step 4: Install your operating system.
• Next — Step 6: Install cPanel & WHM (or cPanel DNSONLY).