If we need it for hosting, we can manually install cPanel on an AWS Lightsail machine. Bobcares, as a part of our cPanel & WHM Support Services offers solutions to every query that comes our way.

Overview

1. An Introduction to cPanel & AWS Lightsail
2. Setup Steps for AWS Lightsail cPanel
   • Step 1
   • Step 2
   • Step 3
   • Step 4
   • Step 5
   • Step 6
   • Step 7
   • Step 8
   • Step 9
   • Step 10
3. Benefits of AWS Lightsail cPanel
4. Conclusion

An Introduction to cPanel & AWS Lightsail

A popular web-based control panel for web hosting services is called cPanel. Users may easily handle a range of components of their hosting environment using its user-friendly interface, including domain administration, email accounts, databases, files for websites, and more. Because of its extensive feature set and ease of use, website owners and hosting companies like it.

Amazon Lightsail is a cloud platform that is ideal for small to medium-sized websites and applications since it is easy to use and reasonably priced. We can manually install cPanel on an AWS Lightsail instance to take advantage of its features, even if it doesn’t support it natively as some other hosting companies do.

Setup Steps for AWS Lightsail cPanel

Setting up cPanel on AWS Lightsail offers a robust hosting solution with the convenience of cPanel’s management features. By following the steps outlined below, we can create a reliable hosting environment for the websites and applications.

Step 1

1. Go to the instance management page and select “Connect” > “Connect using SSH.”

2. Once connected, type the command sudo passwd.

3. Enter a strong password when prompted and confirm it by typing it again.

4. Remember this password as we’ll need it to sign in to the WHM console later.

Step 2

The public IP address in Lightsail may vary each time we start and stop the instance. We can attach a static IP address to the instance and prevent this from happening. This maintains the instance’s IP address even when we stop and restart it. It is useful because:

Consistent Domain Use: We won’t have to change the domain’s settings every time we start or stop the instance if we’re using a domain name.

Backup Restoration: We can quickly reassign the static IP to the new instance when we need to restore it from a backup.

We must include the Lightsail instance’s public IP address when purchasing a cPanel & WHM license. That IP address is connected to this license. We must request a transfer from cPanel if we intend to migrate the WHM and cPanel license at a later time to a different IP address.

The steps to set up a static IP are as follows:

1. Go to the instance management page in Lightsail.

2. Under the Networking tab, select “Create static IP” and follow the steps provided.

Step 3

In order to sign in to the WHM console for the first time, we must run the below steps:

1. Open a web browser and go to https://:2087, replacing it with the static IP address of the instance. Make sure to include https:// in the address bar.

2. Enter “root” in the Username box.

3. Enter the root user password we set earlier.

4. Click on “Log in”.

5. Read and agree to the cPanel & WHM terms if we want to proceed.

6. On the “Get started with a Free cPanel Trial” page, click “Log in”.

7. Enter the email address or username and the password for the cPanel store account. If we don’t have a cPanel store account, click “Create Account” and follow the prompts to create one.

8. Click “Sign in”.

9. After signing in, the cPanel & WHM instance will get a 15-day trial license associated with the cPanel store account.

10. Click “Server Setup” to continue.

11. Choose “Skip” on the email address and name servers page. We can set it up later.

Now, we’re in the WHM console where we can manage cPanel settings and features.

Step 4

Now, we need to change the hostname and IP address of the cPanel & WHM instance as follows:

1. Click the navigation menu icon in the upper-left area of the WHM console after opening it.

2. Search for “Change hostname” in the field provided, then pick the choice from the list of results.

3. Click “Change” after entering the new hostname we wish to use in the “New hostname” box.

4. Select “Basic WebHost Manager Setup” from the navigation menu once again.

5. Enter the instance’s new static IP address in the “IPv4 address” field after swiping down to the “Basic Config” section.

6. After swiping to the bottom, select “Save Changes”.

Wait a few minutes and try again if we see an “Invalid License file” issue. The IP address and hostname of the instance have now been updated. The next step is to add an address (A) record to the domain’s DNS settings so that the domain name can be mapped to the cPanel & WHM instance. The hostname of the instance is resolved to its static IP address using this record. The following portion of the article will teach us how to do this.

Step 5

Here, we’ve to map the domain name to the cPanel & WHM instance:

1. Go to the website of the registrar where we registered the domain.

2. Look for the DNS management or settings area.

3. Create an “A” record pointing to the instance’s static IP address using the subdomain of the choice.

4. Verify that the hostname we previously specified for the cPanel & WHM instance corresponds to the subdomain.

5. After adding the A record, use the following address to visit the WHM console:

Enter the hostname of the instance in place of InstanceHostName.

Although the domain registrar is typically in charge of managing DNS records, Lightsail offers more convenient control.

6. Go to the Domains & DNS tab after logging into the Lightsail console.

7. In order to add the domain name to Lightsail, select “Create DNS zone” and follow the directions.

And that’s it! Instead of using the static IP address, we can now use the domain name to access the cPanel & WHM instance.

Step 6

In order to modify the instance’s firewall, we need to open certain ports other than the default opened ones. Depending on the services and applications we plan to use on the instance (like email or calendar services), we may need to open specific ports. For example, ports 25, 143, 465, 587, 993, 995, and 2096 for email, and ports 2080, and 2091 for calendars.

The steps to open ports in Lightsail include:

1. Visit the Lightsail instance management page.

2. Go to the Networking tab and scroll to the Firewall section.

3. Select “Add rule.”

4. Select the port or range that has to be opened, along with the application and protocol.

5. When we are finished, click “Create”.

Step 7

By default, Lightsail blocks outbound traffic on port 25 to prevent spam. If we need to send outbound traffic on port 25 (SMTP), we’ll need to request this restriction to be removed. If we’re using SMTP on ports 25, 465, or 587, we must also open these ports in the firewall of the Lightsail instance. This ensures that the SMTP traffic can pass through. After the removal of the port 25 restriction and opened the necessary ports in the firewall, we’ll be able to send outbound SMTP traffic from the Lightsail instance.

Step 8

The official website is a wonderful resource for learning how to use WHM and cPanel for managing websites. It’s a useful tool for learning about its capabilities and features. We can also obtain insights on maximizing the use of cPanel & WHM and efficiently troubleshoot difficulties through the use of the Support Forum, Subreddit, or Discord Channel.

Step 9

A 15-day trial license is included with the cPanel & WHM instance when we set it up. Following the trial period, we will have to buy a license from cPanel. We will need to provide the cPanel & WHM instance’s public IP address when making a purchase. That IP address will be connected to this license.

Make sure the cPanel & WHM instance is connected to a static IP address. As long as we use cPanel & WHM with the Lightsail instance, this static IP is required for the cPanel licensing and should not change. We can ask cPanel for this if we ever need to move the license to a different IP address. We may guarantee continuous usage of WHM and cPanel on the Lightsail instance by adhering to these guidelines.

Step 10

In this step, we’ll create a snapshot of the cPanel & WHM instance. We can make a snapshot manually anytime we want, or set up automatic snapshots to happen daily. To manually create a snapshot:

1. Go to the instance’s management page and click on the Snapshot tab.

2. Enter a name for the snapshot and click “Create Snapshot”.

To enable automatic Snapshots:

1. Scroll to the Automatic Snapshots section on the same page and toggle the switch to enable them.

It is not possible to export cPanel and WHM instance snapshots to Amazon EC2. It may take longer for an instance to start up completely if it is created from a snapshot. Thus, before logging into WHM, take the time.

And that’s it! Using snapshots to create new instances with the same settings or back to the current one is a useful feature.

Benefits of AWS Lightsail cPanel

AWS Lightsail with cPanel offers several benefits for website hosting and management:

1. Creating virtual private servers (VPS) is made easier with Lightsail, which also offers an easy-to-use interface for resource management. Because of its user-friendly control panel, cPanel further simplifies the operation of websites, domains, databases, and emails.

2. With Lightsail, scaling the resources to match the growth of the website traffic is simple. To meet growing demand, we may easily expand the instance’s size, add more storage, or boost bandwidth.

3. Lightsail provides monthly billing at a fixed cost with predictable pricing. It’s now simple to budget for the hosting costs thanks to this. Furthermore, cPanel’s effective management features optimize resource consumption and cut down on wasteful spending.

4. Thanks to Lightsail’s seamless integration with a number of AWS services, we can take advantage of extra features like DNS management, load balancing, and content delivery via services like Amazon CloudFront and Route 53.

5. The infrastructure of AWS guarantees excellent security and dependability. AWS’s strong data centres, redundant network infrastructure, and cutting-edge security features are advantageous to Lightsail instances. With tools like firewall configuration and SSL/TLS certificate management, cPanel offers an additional degree of protection.

6. In the event of data loss or system failure, Lightsail’s automated snapshot backups make it simple to return the instance to a previous state. cPanel’s backup configuration options help to improve backup management even more.

7. Lightsail gives developers the freedom to select the environment that best meets their needs by supporting a wide range of operating systems and development stacks. Furthermore, cPanel gives developers the tools they need to effectively handle databases, server configurations, and website files.

8. Being a member of the AWS ecosystem and benefiting from cPanel’s large user base gives us access to a sizable user population as well as resources for troubleshooting, best practices, and hosting environment optimization advice.

[Need to know more? Get in touch with us if you have any further inquiries.]

Conclusion

Setting up cPanel on AWS Lightsail involves manual steps, but it’s worth it for the strong hosting it provides with cPanel’s easy management. By following the steps from our Tech team in this guide, we’ll build a dependable hosting setup for our websites and apps. Plus, with AWS, we can easily integrate with other services for even more power and flexibility.