Upgrade Blockers

For cPanel & WHM version 68

Overview

When you upgrade to a newer version of cPanel & WHM or install cPanel & WHM on a new server, cPanel & WHM checks your system for compatibility with the version of cPanel & WHM that you wish to install.

What is a blocker?

Blockers are conditions that do not allow the cPanel & WHM update process (upcp) to install a particular version.

Upgrades that include multiple major versions

If you run an update that includes multiple major version upgrades of cPanel & WHM, the cPanel & WHM update process (upcp) will upgrade your server to each intermediate version. The update process performs compatibility checks for each intermediate version prior to the upgrade to that version.

For example, after a system administrator runs an update on a server that runs cPanel & WHM version 11.50, and the target version is cPanel & WHM version 56, the cPanel & WHM update process (upcp) performs the following actions:

1. The update process detects that the system must first upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 11.52.
2. The update process performs compatibility checks for the upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 11.52.
   • If the system is compatible, the update process upgrades cPanel & WHM to version 11.52.
   • If the system is not compatible, the update process sends a list of the compatibility issues to the system administrator, and the server remains on cPanel & WHM version 11.50.
3. After the upgrade to version 11.52 is complete, the update process performs compatibility checks for the upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 54. 
   • If the system is compatible, the update process upgrades cPanel & WHM to version 54.
   • If the system is not compatible, the update process sends a list of the compatibility issues to the system administrator, and the server remains on cPanel & WHM version 11.52.
4. After the upgrade to version 54 is complete, the update process performs compatibility checks for the upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 56. 
   • If the system is compatible, the update process upgrades cPanel & WHM to version 56.
   • If the system is not compatible, the update process sends a list of the compatibility issues to the system administrator, and the server remains on cPanel & WHM version 54.

System and software checks

The cPanel & WHM update and installation process performs two types of checks:

• Standard — Standard checks apply to all installations and upgrades.
• Version-specific — Version-specific checks are requirements that are specific to the version of cPanel & WHM to which you begin an installation or upgrade.

If cPanel & WHM encounters a compatibility issue that blocks the installation or upgrade process, the following events happen:

1. If you started an upgrade, the system remains at the last known compatible version. If you started a new installation of cPanel & WHM, the system remains in its pre-installation status.
2. cPanel & WHM sends a list of the blockers to the system administrator.
3. The installation or upgrade process exits.

Standard checks for all upgrades

When you run an upgrade of cPanel & WHM to any version, the update process performs the following standard checks:

License files

You cannot upgrade cPanel & WHM if any of the following conditions are true:

• The cPanel & WHM update process cannot find a valid cPanel & WHM license file. Without the license file, cPanel & WHM cannot function properly and will block all updates. You must purchase a valid license in order to upgrade, downgrade, or use cPanel & WHM.
• The cPanel & WHM update process cannot read your cPanel & WHM license file. To fix this issue, run the /usr/local/cpanel/cpkeyclt script. If the problem persists, contact our support staff.

• Your server's license is no longer eligible for updates.

If you experience difficulties with your license, contact our customer service department.

Read-only file systems

To ensure that the system can write files to critical directories, the cPanel & WHM update process will fail if the following directories file systems exist in a read-only state:

/etc
/var
/var/lib/rpm
/var/cpanel
/usr/local
/usr/local/cpanel
/usr/local/bin
/usr/bin
/tmp
/var/tmp

RPM database integrity

As of cPanel & WHM version 11.36, the update process verifies the integrity of the RPM database. To verify the integrity of the RPM database, the update process installs and uninstalls a test RPM. The update process attempts to repair the problem, but if it cannot repair the RPM database, the upgrade attempt fails.

cPanel & WHM version-specific installation requirements and upgrade blockers

The following table includes the installation requirements and upgrade blockers for each version of cPanel & WHM:

Additional blocker information

cPanel & WHM version 11.32

sysinfo.config

cPanel & WHM automatically attempts to run the/usr/local/cpanel/scripts/gensysinfo script to generate this file during the upgrade procedure. If you encounter this error, perform the following steps:

• 1. Run the /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/gensysinfo script.
  2. Examine the /var/cpanel/sysinfo.config file.

  3. Correct any file permission problems or similar issues that prevent the root user's write privileges.

     Note:

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cPanel & WHM version 11.36

Disk space on all cPanel version changes and new installs

As of cPanel & WHM version 11.36, to ensure that a partial upgrade does not break your current installation, the cPanel & WHM update process downloads new files to a staging directory inside the /usr/local/cpanel/ directory.

To ensure that there is enough disk space available for the new files, the cPanel update process checks for a minimum of 1.6GB of available disk space in the /usr/local/cpanel/ directory before an upgrade, update, or new installation can begin. After the cPanel & WHM update process downloads the files and completes the compatibility checks, the update process replaces the prior version of each file with the new version.

cPanel package updates set to Automatic or Inherit

To update to cPanel & WHM version 11.36, the following cPanel package updates must be set to Automatic or Inherit:

• MySQL
• Courier
• Dovecot
• FTP
• NSD
• MYDNS

• Exim

• bandmin
• Python™

Exim configuration

You cannot upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 11.36 if you set the EXIMUP key's value to never in the /etc/cpupdate.conf file.

To upgrade from cPanel & WHM version 11.34 and earlier, perform the following steps:

1. Run the touch /var/cpanel/exim.unmanaged command.
2. Run the cPanel & WHM update process.

To upgrade from a cPanel & WHM version 11.36 release prior to 11.36.07, perform the following steps:

1. Run the following command:

   /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/update_local_rpm_versions --edit target_settings.exim unmanaged

2. Run the cPanel & WHM update process.

If you set the EXIMUP key's value to inherit in the /etc/cpupdate.conf file, you may receive an error that informs you that the EXIMUP key's value is set to never. To resolve this issue, perform the following steps:

1. Set the CPANEL key's value to 11.36 in the /etc/cpupdate.conf file.
2. Run the cPanel & WHM update process.

3. Set the CPANEL key's value to your desired support tier (for example, RELEASE) in the /etc/cpupdate.conf file.

   Note:

   For more information about support tiers, read our Product Versions and the Release Process documentation.

4. Run the cPanel & WHM update process again.

cPanel & WHM version 11.44

Nobody must own the transfer database

If a user owns the whmxfer database, you must delete the database.

cPanel & WHM version 11.46

Microsoft FrontPage Extensions

You must remove the Microsoft FrontPage Extensions RPM entirely from your system. In cPanel & WHM version 11.44, you can remove FrontPage in WHM's Uninstall FrontPage Extensions interface (Home >> Front Page >> Uninstall FrontPage Extensions).

The cpanel-php53 RPM target

If you have set the cpanel-php53 RPM target to installed in the rpm.versions system, the system will block an upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 11.46. 

To uninstall the cpanel-php53 target, run the following commands:

/scripts/update_local_rpm_versions --del target_settings.cpanel-php53 uninstalled
/scripts/check_cpanel_rpms --fix 

cPanel & WHM version 11.50

New installations on CentOS 7 servers

New installations on CentOS 7 servers require a minimum of 1 GB of RAM, and are only available for 64-bit systems.

cPanel & WHM version 11.52

New installations on CloudLinux and RHEL 7, and Amazon Linux servers

• New installations on CloudLinux and RHEL 7 servers require a minimum of 1 GB of RAM, and are only available for 64-bit systems.
• New installations on Amazon Linux are only available for 64-bit systems.

cPanel & WHM version 58

64-bit systems only

cPanel & WHM version 58 is only available for 64-bit systems. You cannot install or upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 58 on a 32-bit system.

CentOS, RHEL, and CloudLinux systems require version 6 or later

If your server runs the CentOS, RHEL, or CloudLinux operating systems, it must run version 6 or later. You cannot install or upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 58 on a server that runs CentOS 5, RHEL 5, or CloudLinux version 5.

The perl514 RPM target is set to installed or unmanaged

If the perl514 RPM target's state is installed or unmanaged in any .versions file in the /var/cpanel/rpm.versions.d/ directory, the upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 58 will fail.

• To fix this issue in the /var/cpanel/rpm.versions.d/local.versions file, use the /scripts/update_local_rpm_versions script.
• To fix this issue in a third-party provided *.versions file, update the file in your preferred text editor, and then run the /usr/local/cpanel/scripts/check_cpanel_rpms script.

cPanel & WHM version 60

SNI Required

cPanel & WHM version 62

MySQL upgrade required

cPanel & WHM version 66

After the upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 66 finishes, WHM users in an active session must refresh their browser windows. Until they do, they may see additional frames within the WHM interface on each page load.

cPanel & WHM version 68

LiteSpeed

If LiteSpeed exists on your server, you must upgrade to LiteSpeed version 5.2.1 build 2 or later before you upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 68. Otherwise, websites will not provide the entire certificate chain and browsers may display an SSL error. For more information about how to upgrade LiteSpeed, read LiteSpeed's cPanel Plugin documentation. View the /usr/local/lsws/autoupdate/build file to verify your LiteSpeed version information.

Additional documentation