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How to Create a cPanel & WHM Instance on Linode

Last modified: April 13, 2023

Overview

The following document provides the steps to build a production hosting environment on Linode®.

Warning:
  • This document assumes that you have already created an account at Linode.
  • We only support the official cPanel Marketplace listing for Linode.
  • We recommend that you host interconnected servers at Linode within the same region. This will allow the servers to intercommunicate quickly on the local network.
Note:
  • cPanel & WHM requires a valid license. If this is a new installation, you can activate a free 15-day trial license.
  • To activate a new license, you must have a cPanel Store account with a verified email address.

Log in to Linode

To log in to Linode, perform the following steps:

  1. Navigate to the Linode Login interface.

  2. Enter your username and password and click Log In. The Dashboard interface will appear.

Create the Linode instance

To create a cPanel & WHM Linode instance, perform the following steps:

  1. Click Create and then click Linode. The Linodes / Create interface will appear.

  2. Click Marketplace. A list of available applications will appear.

  3. Click cPanel.

  4. In the Select an Image section, choose your desired operating system.

  5. In the Region section, select an appropriate region in which to create the instance.

  6. In the Linode Plan section, select a plan that meets your hosting needs.

  7. Enter a label for the instance in the Linode Label text box.

  8. If you wish, enter tags in the Add Tags text box to assist you in categorizing your instances.

  9. Enter a secure password in the Root Password text box.

    Note:

    Even if you plan to only access your instance via SSH keys, you must enter a root password.

  10. In the SSH Keys section, select the users whose SSH keys you wish to add to your Linode instance and click Add An SSH Key. The Add SSH Key menu will open.

  11. Enter a label for the SSH key in the Label text box (for example, id_rsa).

  12. On your local computer, open a command line session.

  13. Run the cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub command.

  14. If the id_rsa.pub file does not exist, perform the following steps:

    1. Run the cd ~/.ssh/ command to navigate to your .ssh directory.
    2. Run the ssh-keygen command.
    3. Confirm id_rsa as the new filename.
    4. Enter a passphrase, and then confirm it.
    5. Run the cat ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub command again.

  15. Copy the results and paste them into the SSH Public Key text box.

  16. If you wish to attach a Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) to your Linode instance, select or create the VLAN in the Attach a VLAN menu.

  17. In the Addons menu, ensure that the Backups and Private IP services are not selected. You can configure these settings later.

  18. Click Create Linode. The instance’s profile interface will appear.

Important:

For more information about creating a cPanel instance on Linode, read Linode’s Deploy cPanel Through the Linode Marketplace documentation.

Log in to WHM

To log in to WHM, perform the following steps:

  1. In your preferred browser, navigate to the cPanel & WHM login URL. A new interface will appear.

  2. Agree to the software license. The Get started with a Free cPanel Trial! interface will appear.

  3. You will need to log in to or create a cPanel Store account. For information how to do this, read our How to Sign Up for a Trial License documentation.

  4. After you log in to the cPanel Store and obtain a trial license, the Contact Information interface will appear.

  5. Enter your contact information and nameserver information. The WHM Home interface will appear.

Note:

After you configure the root user’s password, you can log in to WHM at the following URL, where IPADDRESS represents your server’s IP address: https://IPADDRESS:2087

Set the hostname

Note:
If your server does not use a resolvable fully-qualified domain name as the hostname, it will automatically receive one from cPanel, L.L.C. For more information, read our Automatically-Issued Hostnames documentation.

To configure the hostname of the instance, navigate to WHM’s Change Hostname interface (WHM » Home » Networking Setup » Change Hostname).

Configure WHM

For more information about how to configure cPanel & WHM, read our WebHost Manager documentation.

For more information about how to quickly publish a website on a new cPanel & WHM server, read our From WHM to Website documentation.

Remember:

cPanel & WHM requires a valid license. If this is a new installation, you can activate a free 15-day trial license.

Additional Documentation