Upgrade Blockers
Last modified: September 24, 2024
Overview
When you upgrade to a newer version of cPanel & WHM or install cPanel & WHM on a new server, the system checks for compatibility with the version of cPanel & WHM that you wish to install. Blockers are conditions that don’t allow the cPanel & WHM update process (upcp
) to install or upgrade to a particular version.
Before you upgrade the cPanel & WHM version on a server, we strongly recommend that you restore cPanel & WHM’s management of all FTP targets on your server. If the FTP package’s target is set to unmanaged
on a server that you wish to upgrade, you may encounter problems in the cPanel interface. For more information, read our How to Set or Unset Package Management documentation.
Before you begin a new installation, read our Installation Guide documentation. The cPanel & WHM installation and upgrade processes require at least 5 GB of disk space in the /usr/local/cpanel
directory.
Upgrades across multiple major versions
- After you upgrade to a new major version of cPanel & WHM, you cannot downgrade to a previous major version.
- If you are upgrading from a very old version of cPanel & WHM, you may experience problems.
- To resolve this issue, manually upgrade to an intermediate version using the /etc/cpupdate.conf file. Then, you can proceed to the final target version.
- If you need assistance, contact cPanel Technical Support.
If you run an update that includes multiple cPanel & WHM major version upgrades, 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 each upgrade.
Example
For example, after a system administrator runs an update on a server that runs cPanel & WHM version 80, and the target version is cPanel & WHM version 86, the cPanel & WHM update process (upcp
) performs the following actions:
- The update process detects that the system must first upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 82.
- The update process performs compatibility checks for the upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 82.
- If the system is compatible, the update process upgrades cPanel & WHM to version 82.
- 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 80.
- After the upgrade to version 82 is complete, the update process performs compatibility checks for the upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 84.
- If the system is compatible, the update process upgrades cPanel & WHM to version 84.
- 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 82.
- After the upgrade to version 84 is complete, the update process performs compatibility checks for the upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 86.
- If the system is compatible, the update process upgrades cPanel & WHM to version 86.
- 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 84.
System and software checks
The cPanel & WHM update and installation processes perform two types of check:
- Standard — Standard checks apply to all installations and upgrades.
- Version-specific — Version-specific checks are specific requirements for the version of cPanel & WHM that you’re installing or upgrading.
If cPanel & WHM encounters a compatibility issue that blocks the installation or upgrade process, the following events happen:
- 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 state.
- cPanel & WHM sends a list of the blockers to the system administrator.
- The installation or upgrade process exits.
Standard upgrade checks
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.
- To fix this issue, run the
- 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:
|
|
RPM database integrity
The update process on servers not running the Ubuntu® operating system 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.
Version requirements and blockers
If a blocker for the version of cPanel & WHM to which you wish to upgrade is present on your system when you start the cPanel & WHM update process, the update process will fail.
Select a version of cPanel & WHM below to view the installation requirements and upgrade blockers:
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
If your server runs Ubuntu version 20.04 LTS, you must upgrade it to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to install or upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 120.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
CentOS 7, CloudLinux 6 and 7, and RHEL 7
This version includes the following installation requirements and upgrade blockers:
You cannot install or upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 112 if your server runs CentOS 7, CloudLinux 6 or 7, or Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® (RHEL) 7. For more information, read our cPanel Deprecation Plan documentation.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
Rocky Linux 8
In cPanel & WHM version 106, you can install cPanel & WHM on the Rocky Linux™ 8 operating system. This installation is experimental and will not be supported until cPanel & WHM version 108.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
This version includes the following installation requirements and upgrade blockers:
CentOS 8
- You cannot install or upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 102 if your server runs CentOS 8, which has reached its end of life.
CloudLinux 6.5 and earlier
- If your server runs CloudLinux 6.5 or earlier, you must upgrade it to CloudLinux version 6.6 or later to install or upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 102.
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
WebPros International, LLC only supports installations of cPanel & WHM version 102 and later on the Ubuntu 20.04 operating system. We no longer support cPanel & WHM version 98 and 100 on Ubuntu 20.04 and we block installation of those versions on the Ubuntu operating system.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
This version includes the following installation requirements and upgrade blockers:
Amazon Linux 1
Existing cPanel & WHM servers that use the Amazon Linux 1 operating system cannot upgrade from cPanel & WHM version 86 to 88.
CentOS 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6
Existing cPanel & WHM servers that use CentOS 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 operating system cannot upgrade from cPanel & WHM version 86 to 88. For more information about our deprecation of CentOS 6, read our CentOS 6, CloudLinux 6 OS, and you! blog post.
MySQL 5.5
- If you wish to upgrade a server with MySQL 5.5 on cPanel & WHM version 86, you must skip cPanel & WHM versions 88 and 90 and upgrade to version 92.
- Upgrade your MySQL version in WHM’s MySQL/MariaDB Upgrade interface (WHM » Home » SQL Services » MariaDB/MySQL Upgrade).
This version includes the following installation requirements and upgrade blockers:
Amazon Linux 1
Servers that use the Amazon Linux 1 operating system cannot install cPanel & WHM.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
This version includes the following installation requirements and upgrade blockers:
Installation requirements
- MySQL® 5.6 and later, or any version of MariaDB®.
- At least 360,000 inodes available on the target filesystem.
Upgrade blockers
-
MySQL 5.5.
- You must upgrade to MySQL version 5.6 or higher, or any version of MariaDB, before you can upgrade your cPanel & WHM server.
- Upgrade your MySQL version in WHM’s MySQL/MariaDB Upgrade interface (WHM » Home » SQL Services » MariaDB/MySQL Upgrade).
-
Remote MySQL 5.6 or later.
- You must upgrade any remote database servers to MySQL version 5.6 or higher, or any version of MariaDB, before you can upgrade your cPanel & WHM server.
- Check your remote database MySQL profiles in WHM’s Manage MySQL® Profiles interface (WHM » Home » SQL Services » Manage MySQL® Profiles).
-
Less than 360,000 available inodes.
This version includes the following installation requirements and upgrade blockers:
Installation requirements
- EasyApache 4.
- LiteSpeed version 5.3.6 or later.
Upgrade blockers
- EasyApache 3
- You must migrate to EasyApache 4 before you upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 78.
- Migrate to EasyApache 4 from WHM’s EasyApache 4 interface (WHM » Home » Software » EasyApache 4).
- LiteSpeed version 5.3.5 and earlier.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
This version includes the following installation requirements and upgrade blockers:
Installation requirements
- The
ea-apache24-config-runtime
package version 1.0-113 or later. - LiteSpeed version 5.2.1 build 2 or later.
Upgrade blockers
- The
ea-apache24-config-runtimepackage
version 1.0-112 and earlier. - LiteSpeed version 5.2.1 build 1 and earlier.
- 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.
- View the
/usr/local/lsws/autoupdate/build
file to verify your LiteSpeed version information. - For more information about how to upgrade LiteSpeed, read LiteSpeed’s cPanel Plugin documentation.
/usr/local/lsws/ directory
, LiteSpeed likely does not exist on your server.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.
This version includes the following installation requirements and upgrade blockers:
Installation requirements
- MySQL® version 5.5 and later.
Upgrade blockers
- MySQL version 5.1 and earlier.
- You must upgrade to at least MySQL version 5.5 before you can upgrade your cPanel & WHM server.
- Upgrade your MySQL version in WHM’s MySQL/MariaDB Upgrade interface (WHM » Home » SQL Services » MariaDB/MySQL Upgrade).
This version includes the following installation requirements and upgrade blockers:
Installation requirements
- SNI support.
- Your server must support SNI (for example, Apache (httpd) 2.2.12, Litetspeed 4.1, or Openlitespeed 1.4.12 or greater).
- Use WHM’s EasyApache 4 interface (WHM » Home » Software » EasyApache) to upgrade your web server.
Upgrade blockers
- Apache (httpd) 2.2.11 or older.
This version includes the following installation requirements and upgrade blockers:
Installation requirements
- A 64-bit system.
Upgrade blockers
- CentOS 5, RHEL 5, and CloudLinux 5.
- If your server runs the CentOS or RHEL operating systems, it must run version 6 or later.
- If your server runs CloudLinux operating system, it must run version 6 or later. We recommend using CloudLinux version 6.6 or higher.
- You cannot install or upgrade to cPanel & WHM version 58 on a server that runs CentOS 5, RHEL 5, or CloudLinux version 5.
- 32-bit systems.
- The
perl514
RPM target has aninstalled
orunmanaged
value.- 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/usr/local/cpanel/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_pkgs
script.
- To fix this issue in the
- If the
No version-specific installation requirements or upgrade blockers exist for this version.