Basic WebHost Manager Setup is the page in WHM that holds the server's core defaults: who gets alerts, which IP new accounts share, which nameservers they use and where home directories live. The initial setup screen fills in some of it, but not all. This guide goes through each tab and explains which values to set before you create accounts.
Before you start
- cPanel & WHM installed on a Linux VPS, with root access to WHM.
- An email address hosted somewhere other than this server, for alerts.
- Your nameserver names, if you will run your own, such as
ns1.example.comandns2.example.com.
Open the page
Log in to WHM and go to Home » Server Configuration » Basic WebHost Manager Setup.
The page is split into sections: Contact Information, Basic Config and Nameservers. Changes only take effect when you click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.
Contact Information
These addresses receive server notifications: disk space warnings, failed backups, licence notices and security alerts.
- Contact email address: use an external mailbox, so alerts still arrive if mail on this server is broken. You can enter several addresses separated by commas.
- Notification sender name and reply-to address: the defaults are fine. Change them if alerts should look like they come from your company.
- Other channels: pager email addresses, Pushbullet, Slack webhooks and POST URLs are optional extras.
Tip: After saving, open Home » Server Contacts » Contact Manager to choose which events send a notice and at what level. The defaults are fairly noisy.
Basic Config
The key settings in this section:
- Shared IPv4 address: the IP that new accounts share. On a VPS with one IP, leave it as the server IP, for example
203.0.113.10. There is a matching field for a shared IPv6 address. - Ethernet device for new IP addresses: detected during install. Leave it alone unless you know the interface name changed.
- Home directory location and the additional home directory prefix: the defaults (
/homeandhome) suit almost every VPS. Do not change them once accounts exist. - TTL for new nameserver entries: the time-to-live given to NS records in new zones. The default is fine. There is also a separate TTL for host name lookup caching.
- Webmail default theme and Apache log style: leave the defaults unless you have a reason.
Read each option's help text, shown next to it, before you change anything.
Nameservers
Enter up to four nameservers. New accounts get these in their DNS zone.
- If you run your own DNS on this server, use your private nameservers. See set up private nameservers with cPanel & WHM.
- If DNS is hosted elsewhere, such as a DNS provider or registrar, enter that provider's nameservers.
The Configure Address Records button next to each nameserver adds the A records for it, which helps when you host the nameserver domain on this server.
Warning: Changing nameservers here only affects new accounts. Existing zones keep their old NS records until you update them.
Settings that live elsewhere
New admins often look for these here, but they are on other pages:
- What happens to mail for unknown addresses: in Home » Server Configuration » Tweak Settings, on the Mail tab.
- Which IP is used for outbound mail: in Home » Service Configuration » Exim Configuration Manager.
- Who gets which notifications: in Home » Server Contacts » Contact Manager.
Check it works
- Click Save Changes and look for the green success message.
- Create a test account (see create a cPanel account in WHM).
- Open Home » DNS Functions » Zone Editor for the test domain and check the NS records match your nameservers.
- Check the account's IP in Home » Account Information » List Accounts matches the main shared IP.
From SSH you can also confirm the values saved:
grep -E '^(CONTACTEMAIL|ADDR|NS|NS2|HOMEDIR)\b' /etc/wwwacct.confTroubleshooting
- No alert emails arrive: the contact address is on this server, or outbound port 25 is blocked. Use an external address and check mail delivery reports.
- New accounts get the wrong IP: the shared IP setting points at a different address. Correct it, then use Change a Site's IP Address for the affected accounts.
- New zones have the wrong NS records: the nameservers were changed after the accounts were made. Edit those zones or update them in bulk.
- Settings did not save: you left the page without clicking Save Changes.
Next steps
- Tune the rest of the server: WHM Tweak Settings explained.
- Prepare account limits: create hosting packages in WHM.
- Questions about your VPS? Ask MdmHost AI.