Restoring your cPanel Account — A guide for new system administrators

For cPanel *For cPanel *For cPanel & WHM version 11.36 WHM version 11.38* WHM version 11.38*

Introduction

This document is intended for cPanel users who have recently become system administrators. It contains information about how to restore your website in WHM.

The cPanel & WHM product package contains 2 distinct interfaces. Each interface controls a different aspect of web hosting. The 2 interfaces differ in aim and design. Understanding the difference between the 2 interfaces is important:

• WHM (WebHost Manager) — WHM lets you manage your server and the websites on it. It also lets you manage your server's settings and configuration. WHM is often considered the 'backend' of our product package.
• cPanel — cPanel lets website owners manage their sites. Website owners can use cPanel to create their websites' email addresses, FTP accounts, web applications, databases, and more. Essentially, cPanel is the 'frontend' of our product package.

Important: If you plan to restore your cPanel account, do not create the account in WHM before attempting to restore it.

How do I log into WHM?

You can access WHM through a web browser. Log into WHM using the following URL:

• https://192.168.0.1:2087 — In this example, 192.168.0.1 is meant to stand for your IP address. This URL allows you to access WHM over an encrypted connection. You should log into WHM over an encrypted connection, especially if you log in as the root user.

Simply enter the URL above into your web browser, replacing 192.168.0.1 with your actual IP address, and request the page. The WHM login screen will appear after a few seconds.

Once you have accessed the WHM login screen:

1. Type root in the Username field.
2. Type the root password in the Password field.
3. Click the Login button.

The WHM Login Screen

Note: As of cPanel & WHM 11.32, you can select a temporary locale from the login screen for viewing WHM. This change will only apply to the specific browser session and it will not change the WHM account's saved locale setting. See the Accessing WHM document for more information.

What is the root user?

The root user is the highest-level system user. As this user, you are free to access and make changes to anything on the system. This is why it is very important that you do not share or expose your root password.

When connecting to your server as the root user, it is important to use an encrypted connection (https://). This will prevent your password from being sent in plain text over the Internet.

How do I restore my old cPanel account?

To restore your cPanel account, you will need a backup archive or a cpmove file of the old account. You may have generated the backup archive using cPanel's Backups feature, or received a cpmove archive from your hosting provider.

Important notes:

• Do not create the cPanel account you plan to restore. WHM's Restore a Full Backup/cpmove file feature will create the cPanel account for you.
• Do not change the name of your cPanel backup archive or cpmove file.

To begin, you will need to place your backup archive or cpmove file in the /home directory. Use an SFTP client to transfer the file to your server. If you do not already have an SFTP client, you can download FileZilla for free.

Once you have installed FileZilla (or the SFTP client of your choice), open an SFTP connection to your server using your root login information.

If you are using FileZilla:

1. Open the Site Manager by clicking File and selecting Site Manager.
2. Click the New Site button and enter your server's name in the resulting field.
3. Enter your server's IP address in the Host field.
4. Select SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol from the Server Type pull-down menu.
5. Enter root in the User field.
6. Enter the root user's password in the Password field.
7. Click the Connect button to open an SFTP connection to your server.

Setting up SFTP with FileZilla

Once you have opened an SFTP connection to your server, you need to transfer the backup archive or cpmove file to the server's /home directory. By default, will start in the /root directory. You can navigate FileZilla by typing in the Local site and Remote site fields, or by double clicking the folders in the windows below.

If you are using FileZilla:

1. Type /home in the Remote site field.
2. Use the interface below the Local site field to navigate to the directory that contains the archive or cpmove file.
3. Drag and drop the backup archive or cpmove file to the /home directory, on the right-hand side of the interface.

Your file will begin to transfer to the server's /home directory. It may take awhile to transfer the file, depending on its size and your connection speed.

Now that your backup archive or cpmove file is in the correct location, you will need to access WHM's Restore a Full Backup/cpmove file feature. Then, enter your old cPanel username in the available field and click the Restore button. WHM will begin restoring your cPanel account.

The Restore Accounts Interface

How do I access my cPanel account?

Once WHM has restored your old cPanel account, you can access it the same way you did before, using your web browser.

• https://192.168.0.1:2083 — This URL allows you to access cPanel over an encrypted connection using your IP address. In this example, 192.168.0.1 is meant to stand for your IP address.
• https://example.com:2083 — This URL allows you to access cPanel over an encrypted connection using your domain name. In this example, example.com is meant to stand for your domain name. If your website's IP address has changed, you may not be able to access cPanel with your domain name immediately. In this case, you are only able to access cPanel via your domain name after the new DNS information has propagated. This may take a few days.

Both of the examples above allow you to access cPanel over an encrypted HTTPS connection. We strongly recommend accessing cPanel over an encrypted connection, because this provides greater security for your password.

Additional resources

Learn more by reading the following:

• Creating new cPanel accounts — You can use WHM's Create Account feature to create cPanel accounts. You can access this feature in WHM at Home >> Account Functions >> Create a New Account.

• Accessing cPanel & WHM services — If you need to know how to access cPanel, WHM, or your webmail, please review our Accessing cPanel & WHM services documentation.

• Basic Settings — If this is your first time accessing WHM, you should configure your basic settings.

• WHM Documentation — If you are new to WHM, you can find many explanations and instructions in our WHM documentation.